Eisenhart Award for Outstanding Teaching: To encourage the professional growth and development of RIT faculty and to specifically recognize those members of the academic body who contribute most to enhance student learning.

Cara F. Calvelli, M.D., Associate Professor

School of Biological and Medical Sciences
College of Science

Dr. Cara Calvelli joined RIT in 2003 as the academic coordinator of the Physician Assistant program. She has nine years of clinical experience in residency (internal medicine/pediatrics and dermatology) and clinical practice (dermatology/pediatric dermatology). Named 2010 Program Teacher of the Year, RIT Physician Assistant Program, Dr. Calvelli is Co-PI on NIH R21 grant -Human-centered perceptual and conceptual classification of biomedical images . She also recently presented at a national conference and authored two publications. Dr. Calvelli is active within the RIT community, serving as a member of the GLBT Climate Study Task Force, Premedical Advisory Committee and the Student Affairs Committee. Her professional affiliations include Physician Assistant Education Association and the Buffalo-Rochester Dermatology Society.

Joseph R. Fornieri, Ph.D., Professor

Department of Political Science
College of Liberal Arts

Dr. Joseph Fornieri joined RIT in 2000. He is the author or co-author of six books, nine book chapters, thirteen journal, encyclopedia, or newspaper articles, and ten book reviews. He was awarded the Richard and Virginia Eisenhart Provost's Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2002. Dr. Fornieri's accomplishments include serving as 2009 Fulbright Lecturer at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic; member of the 2008-2010 advisory board and faculty of the Lehrman American Studies Summer Institute at Princeton University; jury member of the Lincoln Prize and academic advisor to the Lincoln Bicentennial Commission 1809-2009, and academic advisor to the Lincoln Forum of the United States between 2004 and 2010. He organized and directed three conferences: Lincoln's Statesmanship, 2004, Living in Tocqueville's America, 2006, and Confronting Ideology; Solzhenitsyn's Political Thought, 2008. He was coauthor of learning and teaching objectives for a proposed political science degree and coordinator of the 2008 Student Faculty Research Conference. Dr. Fornieri's current research is on Mazzini's political thought and its resonances with American political theory.