ADEI Lifetime Achievement Award recognition: Pamela Smoot, assistant professor of history, was recognized at the SIU Board of Trustees meeting today (April 11). With Smoot, from left, are SIU System President Dan Mahony, SIU Carbondale Chancellor Austin Lane and SIU Board of Trustees Chair J. Phil Gilbert. (Photo provided)
April 11, 2024
Pamela Smoot earns SIU System ADEI recognition
Pamela Smoot, an assistant professor of history in the School of History and Philosophy, received honorable mention recognition today (April 11) for the SIU System’s Dr. Wesley G. Robinson-McNeese ADEI Lifetime Achievement Award. The award recognizes staff and faculty members with generally 20 years or more of documented service of creating, sustaining and expanding antiracism, diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
In nominating Smoot, Renada Greer, SIU Carbondale’s Student Multicultural Resource Center and TriO program director, wrote that Smoot’s “extensive involvement across campus is unmatched.” From participating in task forces and committees, including the faculty senate and graduate council; mentoring students, faculty and staff, and spending “countless hours advocating for students from all backgrounds, domestic and international,” Smoot has “high expectations for our students because she is passionate about their success,” Greer wrote.
Smoot also serves as a mentor for the McNair Scholars program.
Smoot’s efforts centering on ADEI initiatives include her 2012 paper “Alexander Lane: From Slavery to Freedom,” commissioned by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute to highlight Lane, one of the first Black men to attend then-Southern Illinois Normal University in the 1870s. The paper was one of SIU’s first initiatives toward diversity. The work led to the establishment of the Alexander Lane Internship Program, which provides a paid internship for a minority SIU Carbondale student in the fields of public policy, public service or government in Springfield. Smoot is also active with the annual Women’s Civic Leadership Day, which is part of the institute. She is part of the selection committees for several Paul Simon Institute internships.
Smoot was recognized with the 2011 Women of Distinction Award and served as a co-adviser to the Black Women’s Club, and for the past two years, as co-president for the Black Faculty and Staff Constituency Group.
Smoot came to SIU Carbondale in 1999. She earned her doctorate in American history from Michigan State University and holds a Master of Science in European history and education and a Bachelor of Science in history and government/public affairs, both from Tennessee State University. She also earned a certificate in leadership and development in higher education to complete the prestigious HERS (Higher Education Resource Services) Summer Institute for Women in Higher Education at Bryn Mawr College.
Venessa Brown, associate athletics director for diversity, equity and inclusion and chief diversity officer for intercollegiate athletics, and Kathryn Bentley, associate professor of theater performance, both at SIU Edwardsville, each received the 2024 Dr. Wesley G. Robinson-McNeese ADEI Lifetime Achievement Award.