UA Little Rock College of Business, Health, and Human Services Announces Faculty Excellence Winners
The UA Little Rock College of Business, Health, and Human Services has named Amar Kanekar, Connie Barber, Lindsay Ruhr, and Morgan Leyenberger as the college-level winners of the 2025 Faculty Excellence Awards.
The college recipients will be recognized at the UA Little Rock Faculty Excellence Awards on Thursday, April 3. The university-level Faculty Excellence winners will be announced at the ceremony that begins at 5:30 p.m. in the Schueck, McCarty, Lexicon Inc. Auditorium in the Engineering and Information Technology Building.
Faculty Excellence Award for Teaching
Dr. Amar Kanekar, professor and graduate coordinator of the Health Education and Health Promotion program, has received the Faculty Excellence Award for Teaching. Kanekar is a 13-year veteran of UA Little Rock and serves as “a powerful reminder of the lasting influence of his teaching.”
“Students write passionately about how he has inspired them to pursue their academic and professional goals, while colleagues acknowledge Dr. Kanekar’s unwavering dedication to the academic mission and mentorship of others in the department,” The CBHHS Awards Committee wrote of Kanekar. “Amar Kanekar is the embodiment of what the Award for Excellence in Teaching represents. He not only demonstrates expertise and excellence in the discipline but also fosters an inclusive, challenging, and supportive environment where students thrive.”
The Faculty Excellence Award for Teaching is given to exemplars of the teacher/mentor model who maintain high expectations of their students. His 18 years of teaching experience involves more than 30 courses in the areas of public health, health education, and health promotion in face-to-face, hybrid, and online asynchronous formats. He has published more than 90 publications, and his research areas of interest focus on adolescent health, measurement in health education, global health, online and hybrid pedagogy, and health behavior interventions.
“I am thrilled to be selected for the Faculty Excellence Award in Teaching for my college and thank all those who provided letters in support of my application, from the bottom of my heart,” Kanekar said.
Faculty Excellence Award for Public Service
Dr. Lindsay Ruhr, associate professor of social work and a licensed certified social worker in Arkansas, has been selected as the winner of the Faculty Excellence Award for Public Service. The recipient of this award applies their skills to their disciplines in service to the community, state, or nation in areas of public interest.
In the local community, Ruhr has volunteered more than 400 hours at UAMS’ 12th Street Health and Wellness Center, providing free social work services and mentoring students as a preceptor. Since her election to the Dunbar Garden Board of Directors in February 2020, she has successfully secured more than $32,000 in funding through five grant proposals. In December 2024, she was elected to the Executive Committee of Dunbar Garden and is currently serving a two-year term as secretary.
On campus, she has served as the faculty advisor for Phi Alpha Honor Society since 2018. She has also been a faculty senator and Title IX investigator since 2019. In September 2024, she was elected as the Faculty Senate representative to the Faculty Governance Committee.
Nationally, Ruhr is a scientific reviewer for several journals, including BMC Health Services Research and SAGE Open Medicine. She also regularly reviews abstracts for the Society for Social Work and Research’s annual conference.
“I am honored to receive the CBHHS Faculty Excellence Award in Public Service,” Ruhr said. “I am dedicated to serving the local community and our campus in ways that benefit both, while living my values as a social worker.”
Faculty Excellence Award for Social Justice
Professor Morgan Leyenberger, instructor of social work, has received the Faculty Excellence Award for Social Justice, which is given to a UA Little Rock faculty member whose advocacy spans across teaching, service, and research.
Leyenberger joined UA Little Rock in 2020 after serving as executive director of a prison outreach organization, where she worked with incarcerated individuals serving long sentences. As chair of the Societal and Organizational Impact Concentration in the School of Social Work, she bridges academia and community engagement, connecting students with real-world projects that make a difference.
Morgan co-founded DecARcerate in 2015. She continues to advocate for prison reform, food security initiatives, and sustainable housing solutions. Her long-term goals include launching an Inside-Out prison course for social work students and advancing legislative efforts to eliminate unpaid prison labor.
In addition to her academic and advocacy work, Morgan serves as faculty sponsor of Phi Alpha Social Work Honors Society and is a community advisor for UAMS Women’s Justice-Involved Health Alliance Research. She has been recognized for her leadership with a UA Little Rock Sustainability Grant and remains committed to fostering student involvement in social justice initiatives.
“It is an honor to be nominated for the Faculty Excellence Award for Social Justice,” Leyenberger said. “I was drawn to the social work profession for its commitment to social justice, and it is a privilege to foster social work students’ passions for serving marginalized communities.”
Faculty Excellence Award for Rising Faculty
Dr. Connie Barber, an assistant professor of business analytics and information systems, has received the Faculty Excellence Award for Rising Faculty. This award is given to faculty members in their first five years at UA Little Rock who display exceptional promise in teaching, research or creative endeavors, or public service.
“Dr. Barber stands out as a truly dynamic and dedicated scholar whose achievements mark her as a deserving recipient of the Rising Star Faculty Excellence Award,” Dr. Yue Zhao, chair of the Department of Management, Marketing, and Technology, wrote in a recommendation letter. “Her commitment to academic excellence, innovative research, and community service exemplifies the qualities this award seeks to honor.”
Barber teaches courses in Big Data Analytics Tools, Project Management, and Information Technology for Decision Making. Her research addresses LEGO Serious Play in education, the skills developed during online video game play that are transferable to the workplace, and the unintended consequences of information systems.
Her work has been published in the European Journal of Information Systems, Management Information Systems Quarterly Executive, Information & Management, Communications of the Association for Information Systems, and the Journal of Information Systems Education.
“I am honored to be awarded with the Rising Faculty Award for the College of Business, Health, and Human Services,” Barber said. “Teaching, researching, and connecting with business professionals in the Little Rock area is a privilege and being recognized for those efforts expresses the value that my colleagues see in my efforts.”