2026 Outstanding University Service Award, Service Initiative Awards announced

The Outstanding University Service Award and the Service Initiative Awards were presented at the Founding Celebration on February 19, 2026.

Outstanding University Service Award

The Outstanding University Service Award is presented to faculty members whose service to Illinois State is significant and meritorious. Service is a central component of Illinois State's mission and governance.

Dr. Li Zeng, School of Theatre, Dance, and Film

Li Zeng is a professor of cinema studies at the School of Theatre, Dance, and Film. She joined Illinois State University in 2008 after completing her doctoral degree in radio/television/film at Northwestern University. She teaches Asian cinema, film history, film theory and criticism, and genre studies. She received the University Outstanding Teaching Initiative Award in 2013.

Her research interests include the representation of history and trauma in visual culture, aesthetics, and the social impact of the fantastic genres, and cinematic arts beyond the Western canon. She is particularly interested in films and TV shows exploring race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality in creative and unconventional ways. She has published book chapters and articles in peer-reviewed journals, including Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, Jump Cut, Journal of Chinese Cinemas, Asian Cinema, Visual Anthropology, Critical Arts, Adaptation, and MAI: Feminism & Visual Culture.

Service Initiative Awards

Service Initiative Awards are presented to early-career faculty members who have shown considerable promise.

Brendan Leahy, School of Theatre, Dance, and Film

Brendan Leahy is an artist, educator, and filmmaker. He earned his MFA in visual studies from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and his B.A. in film and video from Columbia College Chicago, with a concentration in alternative forms of filmmaking. While film and video remain central to his practice, Leahy works fluidly across photography, installation, sculpture, and sound-based media.

In addition to spearheading the film production program at Illinois State University, Leahy has held leadership roles as faculty at Lindenwood University and within the Film & Media Studies program at Washington University in St. Louis. As an educator, Leahy brings a philosophy grounded in intention, process, and iteration. He fosters an environment where risk-taking, experimentation, and critical reflection are essential to artistic growth. In addition to teaching, Leahy has worked in professional media production and communications, including videography for the Missouri Botanical Garden and the University of Minnesota. He is the founder of various film screening events and advises student film organizations and festivals, helping students engage professional audiences and industry networks.

Leahy's creative work explores non-linear narrative structures and the elasticity of time, drawing from traditional cinematic language while challenging conventions of linear storytelling. His projects examine intersections of gender, race, class, citizenship, and identity, emphasizing lived experience and the emotional present. His work has been exhibited throughout the Midwest and nationally, including at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation, the St. Louis International Film Festival, and the Tweed Museum of Art. Recent projects include documentary and short-form collaborations addressing gun violence, trauma, and community empowerment.

Caitlin Stewart, Milner Library

Caitlin Stewart is an assistant professor, where she serves as the liaison librarian to the School of Teaching and Learning within the College of Education as well as the University's laboratory schools. She is the head of the Teaching Materials Center, a collection of children and young adult literature, curriculum materials, teaching resources, and hands-on learning objects. Through this work, she cultivates a forward-thinking collection of educational materials for use with children from preschool through grade 12 that are readily available for inspection, evaluation, and use; supports the coursework within the School of Teaching and Learning and other departments to prepare students to meet the requirements of education degrees and credentials; provides users with practical materials relating to the teaching profession, for personal use and professional development; stewards resources that reveal significant cultural change and history across the field of education and juvenile literature for research, review, and critique; and fosters innovative, critical, culturally responsive, and purposive resource selection and evaluation practices in users.

Stewart is the founder and convener of Education Library Workers of Illinois with strong connections to the Education and Behavioral Sciences Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries. As part of the latter, she is a nationally elected member of the Executive Board, and vice chair of the Instruction for Educators committee. She has previously served as chair of the Curriculum Materials Committee and on the EDI Committee and Scholarly Communications Committee. Prior to joining Illinois State University in 2020, Stewart worked as a research and learning services specialist at the University of Washington's Suzzallo and Allen Library where she also received her Master of Library and Information Science.

Her research is focused on the national status and role of curriculum materials centers as well as critical visual literacy skills as they relate to picture books. In January, her most recent article, "The State of Funding for Curriculum Materials Centers and Collections" was published in College & Research Libraries.