The University of Mary Washington presented its top honors during commencement Saturday, May 9.
Christine Linman Exley of Norfolk, Va., received the Colgate W. Darden Jr. Award, which is presented annually to the student with the highest grade-point average (GPA) in the four-year undergraduate program. She finished with a 3.99 GPA.
Jean Ann Dabb, associate professor and chair in the Department of Art and Art History, was presented both the Grellet C. Simpson Award and the Mary W. Pinschmidt Award. The Grellet C. Simpson Award is given each year as the institution’s most prestigious award for excellence in undergraduate teaching. The recipient is usually a senior member of the faculty. The Pinschmidt Award is selected by the graduating class as the faculty member “whom they will most likely remember as the one who had the greatest impact on their lives.”
Shawn Humphrey, assistant professor of economics, received the UMW Alumni Association Outstanding Young Faculty Member Award, which is presented annually to an exceptional member of the faculty who has served the institution for at least two years, but no more than five years.
Kimberley L. Kinsley, assistant professor of leadership and management, received the College of Graduate and Professional Studies Outstanding Faculty Member Award, which is presented annually to recognize an exceptional full-time faculty member who demonstrates excellence in teaching and professional leadership, and who has taught at the Stafford campus for at least two years.
Christine Linman Exley
Christine Exley is an economics and mathematics double major and summa cum laude graduate. At the university’s senior convocation, she received the UMW Alumni Award given for demonstrating an outstanding combination of academic excellence, leadership and service to the university. In addition, she received the Adam Smith Award for Graduate Study in Economics and Departmental Honors in Economics and Mathematics.
Exley has been named to the Dean’s List and President’s List (all A’s) and to the National Society of Collegiate Scholars that recognizes academic achievement among first- and second-year college students. She also is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, a national honor society devoted to excellence in the pursuit of liberal education, and has been recognized in “Who’s Who Among American Universities and Colleges” for scholarship, leadership, community activities, citizenship and service.
Jean Ann Dabb
Jean Ann Dabb, who has taught at Mary Washington since 1992, specializes in the Romanesque period, Medieval France, iconography, and Greek and Roman art. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Weber State College, a master’s degree from the University of Massachusetts and a doctorate from the University of Michigan.
Dabb is proficient in French, German and Latin and has traveled extensively throughout Europe. While living in France, she gave numerous interviews to the French press on the 20th century church of Saint-Nicholas at Civray, the topic of her doctoral dissertation. She has published many articles on the subject of mosaics.
She is a member of the Medieval Academy of America, the College Art Association, the International Center of Medieval Art and the Society of American Mosaic Artists, for which she has served on the board of directors since 2001. In addition to art history, Dabb’s interests lie in the history of Paris, the art and history of mosaics, and film history, especially the work of Alfred Hitchcock. She teaches classes on Western art, ancient art and medieval art.
W. Shawn Humphrey
Shawn Humphrey has taught at UMW since 2005. He received a bachelor’s degree in economics from Earlham College, and master’s degrees from Virginia Commonwealth University and Washington University, where he also received a doctorate in economics.
An expert on historical and political perspectives of the economy, Humphrey has provided his students with experiential learning that stretches beyond the classroom. For a week each spring, he issues a Two Dollar Challenge, where he and students sleep in makeshift shelters on UMW’s Ball Circle, go without showers and exist on $2 a day to experience how almost half of the world lives. The Two Dollar Challenge now has partners in 16 universities across the country.
Humphrey and his students also have made numerous trips to Honduras to provide aid to villagers whose homes were devastated by a hurricane more than a decade ago. In 2008, they distributed cook stoves to combat indoor air pollution, one of the leading causes of death in developing countries. In 2009, they created a student-run microfinance institution, which makes low-interest loans available to poor women in the village to start small businesses. Also, this year, Humphrey organized the inaugural Poverty Action Conference, which attracted more than 300 students and experts to UMW from throughout the country to share ideas for reducing global poverty.
A member of the American Economic Association and the International Society of New Institutional Economics, Humphrey has been a presenter at several economics conferences and has been interviewed on the “With Good Reason” public radio show.
Kimberley L. Kinsley
Kimberley L. Kinsley, a full-time member of the university faculty since 2007, holds a bachelor of science in business management from the University of Maryland, a master of arts in international politics and economics from the University of Detroit, and a juris doctor from the University of Detroit Law School.
Kinsley is praised by students as an enthusiastic instructor with strong teaching skills, knowledge of the material, and dedication to student success. Faculty and students credit her with developing and teaching several online courses described as enriching and engaging experiences.
As a faculty member involved in university leadership, Kinsley has served on various campus and university groups, chairing and co-chairing the Faculty Organization and Welfare Committee, co-chairing the Faculty Governance Study Group and serving as a member of the Provost Search Committee, among others.
Prior to joining the faculty at Mary Washington, Kinsley worked in a wide range of professional positions, including as in-house counsel for a major defense contractor, member of the U.S. Navy’s Judge Advocate General Corps, attorney in private practice, deputy public defender and vice president of a home building corporation.