Moore Receives MSU Graduate School Mentoring Award

June 16, 2021

Congratulations to Dr. Nathan Moore, associate professor and graduate program director in the Department of Geography, Environmental, and Spatial Sciences, for receiving The Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award for a senior faculty member. The Graduate School Mentoring Awards recognize graduate programs, faculty mentors, and doctoral students whose practice exemplifies the Foundational Values for Graduate Student and Faculty Mentoring Relationships and who make exceptional efforts to sustain the rights and fulfill the responsibilities outlined in the MSU Guidelines for Graduate Student Mentoring and Advising.

With a clear acknowledgment of the strength of this year’s nominees, the members of the awards committee independently ranked Dr. Moore at the top of this exceptional group. His nomination was put forward by many current and former graduate students, offering testimonials illustrating his strong support for them across a wide range of situations and issues. There is evidence of effectiveness, compassion, and empathy in Moore’s mentoring engagements, and the testimonials reveal the presence of an extraordinary and universal high level of trust from the students. His advisees speak to his commitment to their professional and personal development:  his “defining trait is fearless encouragement,” and he “cares about the whole student as an intellectual . . . and as a person.”  In his time as graduate program director for the Geography Department, students affirmed that “he has a history of leading by example and exemplifying how to live the foundational values” set out in the MSU Guidelines for Graduate Student Mentoring. His record shows a strong commitment to diversity across multiple dimensions; he has been a positive and important influence on many students during the challenges of the pandemic and national social unrest.  As one student put it, “unbeknownst to him, Dr. Moore has been responsible for retaining a considerable number of students within the program through his continuing support and encouragement.” His leadership throughout the last year has been critical; in the words of his chair, Dr. Alan Arbogast, “Nathan has been a rock for our students during this unsettling time.”