Laura Beth Nielsen receives Stanton Wheeler Mentorship Award
May 17, 2018
Laura Beth Nielsen has received a major award from the Law and Society Association: the Stanton Wheeler Mentorship Award. Below are excerpts from the award statement, which sums up why Laura Beth shines.
One nominator aptly described her as “a world class mentor and institution-builder” whose mentorship has especially benefited scholars from underrepresented groups. At Northwestern, Nielsen directs the vibrant Center for Legal Studies, where she involves both undergraduate and graduate students in research projects (including as co-authors), and provides mentorship and support that has propelled her students to prestigious PhD programs and teaching positions. Additionally, Laura Beth was a driving force behind the doctoral fellowship program jointly funded by LSA, the ABF, and the National Science Foundation. Through her visionary leadership, strategic management, and individualized mentoring, the program successfully nurtured 18 doctoral fellows – this, in addition to 15 supported by a separate ABF doctoral fellowship, also administered by Nielsen. Several nominators wrote eloquently about the deep personal concern that she exhibits towards her mentees. In the words of one colleague, “Laura Beth has been a person to whom [students] can turn in difficult times, doing the really critical but necessarily invisible emotional work of mentoring.” Nielsen’s nominators raved about her infectious enthusiasm for empirical research, her encouragement of independent thinking, and her ability to help students achieve both theoretical rigor and on-the-ground impact. One nominator summarized the many dimensions of Laura Beth’s mentorship as follows: “Laura Beth is big hearted, easily approachable, and very smart. She gives great advice. She treats me with trust and respect. She is kind. She engages my work in a way that is honest without being mean, that pushes me and inspires.”
Congratulations, Laura Beth!