The most significant recognition Miami has to offer faculty was awarded to Tammy Kernodle last Wednesday, making her the first African American woman to receive the award.
The Benjamin Harrison Medallion Award is granted annually to those who make an "outstanding contribution to the education of the nation" in teaching, research and service.
Past awardees include Oxford Mayor Kate Rousmaniere in the Department of Educational Leadership and John Bailer, recipient of this year's Knox Distinguished Teaching Award, in the Department of Statistics.
Kernodle teaches musicology and is an affiliate faculty member of American Studies, black world studies and women, gender and sexuality studies. She is an author, performer, pianist, vocalist and lecturer. She has been teaching at Miami for 20 years.
Few of her students were aware of her award initially.
One student, sophomore Jamie Chahino, shared that when such a "humble woman" as Kernodle announced the news in class, it only made them more proud to have her as a professor.
"She honestly is one of the most intelligent teachers I've ever had," Chahino said. "She wants the best for her students. I was very happy for her because I knew how much she did for the Miami students and community."
Kernodle said her division and department inspire and allow her to think outside of the box. She also thanked the College of Creative Arts Dean, Elizabeth Mullenix, for her support.
Other awardees at the April 18 event were accredited with working inside and outside of the classroom in a variety of ways, with Kernodle an exemplar of such proclivities.
"I can think of less than a handful of academics who can match the accomplishments, and at such a young age and cross-disciplinary prestige of Dr. Tammy Kernodle," said Provost Phyllis Callahan, quoting Professor Robert Darden of Baylor University.
The Benjamin Harrison Medallion is not the first university-wide award for the musicology professor. In 2014, she was recognized with the Effective Educator Award.
She has innovated the music and American Studies curriculums by creating new courses such as "Enter the Diva: American Women in Music 1900 to Present" and "Roots of Black Music: Blues, Gospel and Early R&B."
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As a scholar, she has an extensive body of work that contributes to the literature of African American music history.
She has published more than 20 scholarly works, edited the three volume "Encyclopedia of African American Music," authored the biography "Soul on Soul: The Life and Music of Mary Lou Williams" and contributed to programs on the BBC and NPR.
"The most rewarding part is being able to write people into histories that have been excluded," Kernodle said. "And to expand what was written about in terms of not just music, but American history as a whole. That part for me is so centric. And I do that in everything I do from performing to teaching to writing."
The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., the world's largest museum, education and research complex, has likewise been touched by Kernodle's work.
She has served as a consultant for the recently opened National Museum of African American History & Culture's music division and worked on its "Musical Crossroads" exhibit, which has been up since September 2016. Her upcoming work focuses on the Anthology of Hip Hop and Rap.
Upon receiving this most recent accolade, Kernodle shared her desire to invoke the name of Marian Musgrave, the first black woman faculty member hired at Miami in 1969, which was also the year Kernodle was born.
"As the first black woman to receive this award, I honor [Musgrave's] legacy here and I honor the legacy of faculty of color who have come here to serve," Kernodle said.
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