Leslie E. Wolf, director of the Center for Law, Health & Society and professor of law, received the inaugural Steven J. Kaminshine Award for Excellence in Service at the May faculty meeting.
“The College of Law has a tradition of substantial faculty involvement in service activities, and we wanted to begin recognizing service just as we recognize exceptional scholarship and teaching,” said Wendy Hensel, incoming interim dean and professor of law. “The title of the award was conceived by the Faculty Development Committee to recognize the exceptional service that Steve has provided to the college over the last 12 years.”
The award will be given each spring to a full-time faculty member who, within the previous two calendar years, has compiled a substantial and continuing record of outstanding service.
“There is no one more deserving of this award than Leslie. She is involved in virtually every major initiative at the college and selflessly devotes her time and energy to serve students, faculty, and the college of law,” Hensel said.
For Wolf, serving is central to her work. “I have been extremely fortunate to have had excellent mentors throughout my career from whom I learned the importance of service,” she said. “They generously dedicated time to my and others’ development and also served their various communities in a variety of ways. Following in their footsteps, I learned how essential, but also how rewarding, service can be.”
Within the College of Law, Wolf serves on the Dean’s Advisory Committee and on the Promotion & Tenure Committee. She also serves as the Georgia State representative for the Health Law Partnership (HeLP), its Advisory Council, and the HeLP Foundation Board.
In addition, she often plays a significant role in projects outside her day to day work as director of CLHS, including helping to develop the Fall 2016 Law Review Symposium, “Quinlan at 40 – Exploring the Right to Die in the U.S.” She was instrumental in bringing the national ASLME 40th Annual Health Law Professors Conference, which the center is co-sponsor, to the College of Law in June. This is the first time this event will be held in the Southeast. In addition to planning the multiday event, Wolf got commitments from law firms and a local hospital to sponsor the event.
Wolf also devotes many hours of service to the university. She is a member of the Senate Research Committee, where she has also served on the Board of the Georgia State University Research Foundation and was appointed as the educational liaison to the Human Research Protection Program. In 2015, she was asked to serve on the university’s Strategic Planning Update Committee and in 2016-17, she served on the Next Generation Proposal Review Committee, providing advice to the provost and the associate provost for strategic initiatives and innovation on submitted proposals.
“I am honored to be the inaugural recipient of the Steven J. Kaminshine Award for Excellence in Service. Having worked closely with Steve in recent years on several projects, including the development of new educational programs, and had his steadfast support since I arrived at Georgia State Law, it is particularly meaningful to me to receive this award,” Wolf said.
To many, Wolf is also an informal advisor and mentor. She advises colleagues seeking to introduce new centers and new certificate programs, and those who are interested in conducting empirical research. She works closely with students who have served as GRAs. “We seek to provide these students with meaningful experiences, while advancing the goals of the research,” she said.
During the past two years, Wolf led efforts to grow the health law program, including offering an online masters of jurisprudence (MJ) program, an LLM degree and a post-JD certificate in health law.
Wolf’s service extends beyond the college and university, as she has served on several national committees, including a National Institute of Health scientific review panel and a Department of Defense review panel. In December, she was appointed to the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Human Research Protections in the Department of Health and Human Services. She also is an ad hoc reviewer for a variety of peer-reviewed medical and ethics journals.