Herbel-Eisenmann Receives 2025-2026 Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award

The Graduate School recognizes the critical role that inclusive, high-quality mentoring plays in MSU’s research and educational missions.  

The MSU Graduate School’s annual Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award “recognizes faculty whose work with graduate students exemplifies the Foundational Values through ensuring that their students meet program expectations and milestones, and providing multiple enriched career and professional development opportunities (through, e.g., research experiences that go beyond the requirements of the dissertation, professional development and networking opportunities, community engagement experiences, enhanced teaching preparation, collaborative research/ scholarship/ creative activities).”  Those honored will receive $1500 from the Graduate School in 2026-27 to support mentoring activities. 

The selection committee included college graduate associate deans, graduate program directors, Graduate School associate deans, and representatives from the Council of Graduate Students, COGS. 

The committee evaluated the nominations and made a recommendation to the Dean, who announced Dr. Herbel-Eisenmann as one of the two mentors to win this award. One award is given to an assistant/early associate professor, and another is for advanced associate and full professors. 

From the Graduate School’s 2025-2026 Award Winners link: 

“Professor Beth Herbel-Eisenmann, from the Department of Teacher Education and Director of the Program in Mathematics Education (PRIME), exemplifies all of the foundational values of this award; namely a commitment to respect and care; professionalism, ethics and integrity; and the professional and personal growth and independence of the student.  

She has graduated 22 doctoral students as major advisor and served on an additional 20 dissertation guidance committees. Eleven current and past PRIME graduate students plus 8 faculty provided ample evidence of Beth’s outstanding mentoring in their nomination letters. She has a sustained commitment to cultivating independent scholars and supporting diverse career goals. Her students report they “consistently felt seen, valued and supported – not only as scholars, but as human beings navigating complex personal and professional journey.” 

She regularly hosts gatherings and meetings that are referred to as “family meetings”. Beth also mentors faculty by sharing her own advising practices, including developing an “Advisor Checklist” with practices advisors can use to support their own students. She led the development of PRIME’s Guiding Principles document that places students at the center of program decisions and supported the creation of the PRIME Student Advisory Council.” 

 

Here are a few words from some of Beth’s current and former students highlighting her mentorship: 

 “Beth did not simply advise me; she showed up for me with so much care and humanity.”  This former student also added that, even six years after graduating, Beth “remains steadfastly in my corner.”  

“Since the beginning of my interaction with Beth, I always felt seen and valued, not just as a person but as an educator and emerging scholar.”  

“Beth puts the person before the student.”  

“Beth’s engagement with my practicum paper really helped push my scholarly writing and engagement with theories to the next level which has given me so much confidence in building my scholarly identity as a mathematics education researcher.”  

 

There were too many faculty comments to include all of them here. Since Beth mainly mentors students in two different programs, a faculty member comment from each program is included below: 

“She has been a highly sought after advisor and committee member in the CITE program.” This faculty member described Beth’s advising as a “warm demander, she sets high expectations and offers a lot of support and opportunities for students to meet those expectations.”  

“We’ve discussed program milestones, how she thinks about expectations in her own advising, and how those ideas show up in my specific advising situations. She approaches these conversations with a humility that I really admire. I always leave feeling like I’ve gained concrete ideas for better supporting my students, while also feeling affirmed in the advising work I’m already doing.” 

Congratulations, Beth, on receiving the Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award! This award is well-deserved!