The Jessica Melton Perry Award for Distinguished Teaching in Disciplinary & Professional Writing was established in 2009 by Edward S. Sadar, M.D. (ADL ’64, SOM ’68), & Melinda Sadar (FSM ’66).

This award honors Melinda’s mother, Jessica Melton Perry, who worked in the Center for Documentation and Communication Research at Western Reserve University from the late 1950s into the late 1960s. It gives us the opportunity to recognize writing instruction in fields beyond general education and English. The award honors instructors who are dedicated to developing their advanced undergraduate and graduate students as researchers, thinkers, and writers.

This year, we are pleased to honor Ralph Harvey with the Jessica Melton Perry Award for Distinguished Teaching in Disciplinary and Professional Writing. In addition to being an outstanding scientist and teacher, Professor Harvey is the Principle Investigator for the Antarctic Search for Meteorites program, with active research funding from NASA’s Cosmochemistry and Mars Fundamental Research program and the NSF’s Office of Polar Programs. Professor Harvey was nominated by several of his current and former students, all of whom spoke warmly of his care and attention to their growth as researchers and as writers. One nominator describes a semester-long project for Professor Harvey’s Planetary Materials course, which asks students to integrate scientific observation with historical research, resulting in a project that is “rewarding and substantial - the students complete the course with a solid understanding of lab techniques, new knowledge about meteorites, and versatile experience writing research papers.”

The Writing Program is especially pleased to recognize the ways in which Professor Harvey supports writers in developing their own ideas and attends to their specific needs and writing practices. His nominators share their gratitude for his time and attention to their writing processes, saying: “Not only will he give you feedback on your first draft, he will happily give you feedback on draft after draft until the writing reaches its highest potential.” In addition, they say, Professor Harvey “does not ‘write the papers’ for students by giving them feedback that narrows their ideas; his feedback helps students actually learn how to improve their writing for the long term.”

Other nominators share that Professor Harvey “is sensitive to the needs of specific students….and alters his approach to providing feedback to find the best way to address and improve the various writing styles of each student.” Perhaps most significantly, Professor Harvey’s former graduate students write that they “still look forward to his suggestions on [their] writing today.”

In an exceptionally strong field of nominees, Professor Harvey has impressed us by providing writing instruction that attends to the iterative writing process, that respects and nurtures students’ autonomy as writers, and that clearly helps students recognize the interconnections between writing and research. We are so pleased to recognize Professor Harvey with this award.

Previous Winners of the Jessica Melton Perry Award

2020 – Sharona Joffman

2019 – Frank Ernst & Jonathan Sadowsky

2018 – Wanda Strychalski

2017 – Vanessa Hildebrand

2016 – Georgia Cowart

2015 – Ricardo Apostol

2014 – Helen Salz

2013 – Eileen Anderson-Fye

2012 – Jeffrey Capadona

2010 – Renee Sentilles

2009 – Elizabeth Damato