Mount Holyoke professors have won Guggenheim awards, NASA grants and Carnegie Fellowships.
They receive millions in funding from national foundations, leading to unique research opportunities for students.
They’re intense, passionate, innovative, determined and demanding. Explore their accomplishments here, read recent faculty news articles or search the faculty directory.
Becky Wai-Ling Packard received a subaward from the National Science Foundation (NSF) via Michigan State University for Assessing Institutional Assets, Vulnerabilities, and Synergies using a STEM Mentoring Ecosystem Framework: A Multi-Institutional, Interdisciplinary Workshop. The grant runs for 15.5 months.
Audrey St. John, Heather Pon-Barry and Becky Wai-Ling Packard received a Microsoft Corporation grant for the project "Development of Core Modules as Curricular Assets for Tech Mentorship Initiative." The project is for 2.5 months. Combined award to Audrey St. John (Computer Science), Heather Pon-Barry (Computer Science) and Becky Packard (Psychology and Education).
Pon-Barry, H., St. John, A., Packard, B. W., & Stephenson, C. (2017). Addressing the CS capacity challenge by improving undergraduate peer mentoring. ACM Inroads, 8(3), 43–47.
Pon-Barry, H., Packard, B. W., & St. John, A. (2017). Expanding capacity and promoting inclusion in introductory computer science: A focus on near-peer mentor preparation and code review. Computer Science Education, 27(1), 54–77.
Heather Pon-Barry, Audrey St. John, Becky Packard, Barbara Rotundo. Megas and Gigas Educate (MaGE): A Curricular Peer Mentoring Program. Poster in Proc. of 47th ACM Technical Symposium on Computing Science Education (SIGCSE 2016), Memphis, TN, 2016.
Packard, B. W., Marciano, V., Payne, J.M., Bledzki, L. A., Woodard, C.T. (2014). Negotiating Peer Mentoring Roles in Undergraduate Research Lab Settings. Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning. doi: 10.1080/13611267.2014.983327
Soprano Sherezade Panthaki was the winner in two categories at the 2024-25 San Francisco Classical Voice Audience Choice Awards for musical performances across the Bay Area. She was awarded "Favorite Opera Singer," and "Favorite Vocal Recital" for her work with the celebrated early music ensemble, Voices of Music.
Sherezade Panthaki played a featured role in multiple performances of the Boston Early Music Festival's fully-staged centerpiece opera, "Octavia", by German Baroque composer Reinhard Keiser . The biennial festival is the largest of its kind in the United States, showcasing the finest international talent in early music and historical performance. Ms. Panthaki's singing and stage presence received outstanding reviews in multiple press outlets, including the Boston Globe, and Opera Wire. (June 2025)
Sherezade Panthaki is the featured soprano soloist with the Washington Bach Consort on a World Premiere recording released this month. Entitled "A New Song", this is a brand new multi-movement work for 3 soloists, choir and orchestra by award-winning African-American composer Trevor Weston, and one of three World Premieres that have been specifically written for Ms. Panthaki this season.
Sherezade Panthaki sang as the soprano soloist in Haydn's "Creation" on tour in Austria and Germany in Summer 2022, with the internationally renowned Vienna-based orchestra, Orchester Wiener Akademie.