5 TU faculty, staff members earn USM Board of Regents Awards
University System of Maryland’s highest honor recognizes faculty and staff for excellence
Each year, the University System of Maryland (USM) honors the best of the best among its faculty and staff with the Board of Regents Awards.
It is the highest honor presented by the board of regents to exemplary faculty and staff members from across the system’s 12 member institutions.
This year, Towson University had five honorees, with three faculty and two staff members being recognized for their tireless work to make TU great.
Faculty members Seth Gitter, Jeff Kukucka and Amanda Burnham were honored for mentoring, public service, creativity and their work helping TU students in and out of the classroom, respectively.
Staff members Tammie King-Kelly and Michael Franklin were honored for providing outstanding student service and improving effectiveness and efficiency across campus.
“Towson University’s reputation for excellence starts with our talented faculty and staff,” says President Mark R. Ginsberg. “This year’s Board of Regents Award recipients exemplify the exceptional teaching, research and student support that define TU. We are proud to celebrate their much-deserved recognition and the impact they have on our university community.”
Institutional faculty and staff nominating committees make recommendations to institutional presidents, who review nominations and supporting materials and forward them to the USM Chancellor, Jay A. Perman.
The Regents Faculty Review Committee makes the final recommendations and presents awards in five categories: mentoring, public service, creative activity, teaching and scholarship and research.
Board of Regents Staff Awards are given to the most outstanding employees in each of nine categories representing key focus areas for the system. This year, the staff awards were presented to just 10 employees out of more than 40,000 systemwide.
The board will recognize all awardees from throughout the USM system on April 26 during a celebration at Hidden Waters. Each honoree will receive a monetary prize from their institution and the USM Foundation.
Meet this year’s winners:
Faculty Award Winners
Excellence in Mentoring
Seth Gitter
College of Business & Economics
Seth Gitter is a professor of economics and assistant director of undergraduate research at TU. Gitter has created and led mentoring programs that reach thousands of students each year.
He developed CBE’s Supplemental Instruction (SI) program, a peer-networking initiative that supports about 3,000 students annually in high-failure-rate courses in economics and biology. Reviews of the program show that students who attend SI sessions consistently earn higher grades.
Excellence in Public Service
Jeff Kukucka
College of Liberal Arts
Jeff Kukucka is a professor in the psychology department recognized for his ongoing work with the Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME).
In an audit of death investigations with OCME, Kukucka helped identify 36 deaths that should have been classified as homicides and revealed patterns of pro-police racial bias that led to the misclassification of Black individuals’ deaths.
Over the years, Kukucka has worked with the Maryland Office of the Attorney General, the Maryland General Assembly, the American Psychology-Law Society, 17 U.S. states and various organizations in the United Kingdom.
Excellence in Creative Activity
Amanda Burnham
College of Fine Arts and Communications
Amanda Burnham is a professor in Towson University’s Department of Art + Design, Art History and Art Education. She is also a nationally celebrated visual artist who was recognized as the 2025 winner of the Janet and Walter Sondheim Art Prize, one of the Mid-Atlantic’s most prestigious honors for her field.
With her work praised as “vivid, chaotic compositions” and “three-dimensional collages that leap off the walls,” Burnham’s immersive installations and intricate drawings explore urban landscapes, memory and the built environment.
Staff Award Winners
Outstanding SErvice to STudents
Tammie King-Kelly
Director of Student Success Programs
As director of Student Success Programs, Tammie King-Kelly has supported nearly 20,000 Towson Tigers with personal, professional and academic development.
This includes leading TU’s SAGE (Students Achieve Goals Through Education) peer mentoring program, which connects incoming first-year students with peer mentors.
King-Kelly has also been instrumental in expanding resources for historically excluded students. She has supported the growth of outreach groups such as Gen One, which serves first-generation students, as well as Man 2 Man and H.E.R., programs that provide mentorship for male- and female-identifying students of color, respectively.
Effectiveness and Efficiency
Michael Franklin
Senior Technical Operations Manager for Event and Conference Services
Michael Franklin oversees nearly 3,000 technical work orders annually, managing a team of five full-time staff, a dozen contractors and more than 30 student employees.
He has rebuilt the student and part-time staff infrastructure, restoring 30 positions that were reduced due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Franklin has collaborated with campus partners to address technology challenges and ensure sustainable, scalable solutions. He also serves as an adjunct professor in TU’s College of Fine Arts and Communications, teaching classes such as “Live Sound Reinforcement” and “Special Topics in Electronic Media Production,” and lending his expertise to the next generation of Tigers.