18 Jul 2016
Professor Colleen Medill is the 2015-16 Recipient of the Ray H. Bunger Memorial Award for Excellence. This Award is an annual award chosen on the basis of demonstrated excellence in teaching, research, academic promise, and achievement related to the fulfillment of the research and teaching mission of the University of Nebraska College of Law. The donor for this award gave this gift to commemorate the life of the donor’s father, Ray H. Bunger, who was a lifelong devoted supporter of the University of Nebraska. He sent his three sons to the University of Nebraska for varying periods and several of his grandchildren also received education at the University. He firmly believed that “a good education is something that can never be taken away from you.” He was President of the Franklin County School District #44 and Secretary of the Board of Upland COOP Credit Association.
This past year, Professor Medill placed two articles with highly respected journals, the Iowa Law Review and the peer-reviewed Employee Rights and Employment Policy Journal. She also gave a variety of presentations throughout the region and the country. She is nationally recognized in (at least) three different academic areas – ERISA, Property, and Legal Skills – because of the quality of her written work in each of these areas. And, she is fast developing a fourth – the Affordable Care Act – which will be wonderful for the Law College’s attempts to grow its health care curriculum. Moreover, by all accounts, Professor Medill excels at teaching. Not only is she one of the most popular professors at the law school, but also she is one of the most innovative. Professor Medill's nationally-recognized work to bring skills into doctrinal classes has paid dividends for her students as she relentlessly searches for ways to turn them into lawyers. Finally, Professor Medill has engaged the faculty in an important conversation about developing learning outcomes across our curriculum and she has helped put Nebraska Law at the forefront of this national effort.