Middlebury Announces 2025 Virtue Award Winners
On April 13, President Ian Baucom announced the 2025 Virtue Family Exceptional Service Awards, recognizing the many ways faculty and staff support students across Middlebury.
Four recipients from Middlebury College were selected this year for their work supporting and connecting with students as professors, advisors, and mentors—in the classroom, the theater, and the lab—and through energy-saving initiatives that benefit the entire campus community.
The 2025 Virtue Family Exceptional Service Award recipients:
- Tanya Byker, Associate Professor of Economics
- Dean Ouellette, Energy and Technology Manager
- Jim Dougherty, Production Manager
- Hector Vila, Associate Professor of Writing and Rhetoric
“This year’s recipients reflect the diversity of ways that faculty and staff can have a powerful impact on the lives of our students,” said Baucom. “The dedication they bring to their profession is what makes Middlebury such a special place and one that alumni return to long after graduation.”
Established in 2017 by Ted ’82 and Dani Shaw Virtue ’82, P’10, ’15, the award recognizes individuals who have gone beyond their normal professional responsibilities to support and connect with students and build a more engaged and inclusive Middlebury. Each year, faculty, staff, and students of the College, Institute, Language Schools, Schools Abroad, Bread Loaf School of English, and Bread Loaf Writers’ Conferences are encouraged to submit nominations for this award.
Here is more information on this year’s recipients:
Tanya Byker, associate professor of economics, teaches courses on regression and the economics of gender and conducts research in labor and development economics, focusing on decisions people make about education, work, and parenthood. Her influence on student success begins even before their first semester through her summer Introduction to Data course. The course is designed for first-generation college students to build data skills, learn about the College, and develop networks essential to their success.
“Tanya designed every aspect of this course with an eye toward closing gaps in academic preparation for students arriving at Middlebury,” said one nominator, who called the course, which guides students through the research pipeline using a social justice lens, one of the most innovative at Middlebury. “She teaches students to ethically collect and analyze data for social good, working with those from a wide range of backgrounds.” In addition to the course, Byker picks students up from the airport, rents College vans to show them around town, takes them grocery shopping, and organizes outings such as apple picking and hiking. She also teaches a popular economics and gender course that typically has a waitlist of more than 50 students. Byker serves as a Posse Scholar mentor, working with STEM students from Los Angeles. “Many of us have expressed to her that we truly do not believe we could have made it through our first year at Middlebury College without her,” said a Posse Scholar. “During moments when we doubted ourselves, our abilities, or our passions, Tanya was always there to remind us of our worth and to encourage us to seek support in all areas of our lives.”
Dean Ouellette, energy and technology manager, has been recognized for reducing energy use and costs through efficiency initiatives, including in the Energy2028 Middway Report, which cited his “in-depth understanding and insights about Middlebury’s complex energy system and modifications he has made to significantly reduce usage and costs—$279,000 a year in electricity savings, to be specific.” He also works to ensure “we are being cost-effective in the projects we are involved in on campus,” said a nominator. “Whenever I’ve wrapped up a meeting with Dean, I leave with a sense that I should be looking for additional opportunities for reducing our energy use.” Ouellette supports research by students, faculty, and staff in McCardell Bicentennial Hall while identifying ways to reduce energy use in the process. For example, he has added interactive stickers to thermostats and lighting controls to help users better understand how the systems function and interact with their environment. “He has the patience and knowledge base to listen to the needs of users and is flexible in balancing the efforts of reducing waste with the realities of research and teaching undergraduate students,” said a nominator. Ouellette has also been working to bring technology to technicians in the facilities, mechanical, and electrical division. “Dean has made it a goal for all of us to better our understanding of the technology that interacts with our systems and the College community,” said a colleague. “He is consistently looking to improve the interaction between technology and innovation and our community, whether that means improving our lighting or our HVAC systems or getting early notifications when systems fail.”
Jim Dougherty, production manager, has spent more than 25 years teaching and working with students to design and build sets for theater productions. “I have witnessed his dedication to the Theatre Department and how much he cares about the artistic integrity of every production he supervises and builds,” said a nominator, who praised Dougherty for providing top-notch educational opportunities for students. “He constantly strives to make the spaces he works in engaging, educational, and safe.” Known for his attention to detail, Dougherty—who worked at Bread Loaf during summers as an undergraduate at Princeton in the 1990s—allocates resources to support four Theatre Department productions each year, managing labor, materials, and time. “Jim is very frugal when it comes to preserving set pieces and properties,” said a nominator, noting that he has “a great eye for reusing, repurposing, and rejuvenating stock items” to fit the aesthetic of each production. Student nominators praised Dougherty’s mentorship on productions, in the classroom, and after graduation. “He has personally supported me in my job search, writing letters of recommendation as well as helping me build my professional network,” said a nominator.
Dougherty helps teach a theater course titled Production Studio: Design, providing “challenging but approachable assignments,” and also serves as advisor to the Hepburn Zoo Theater, where students run the theater and produce shows. “Time and time again, Jim has supported students in their academic, professional, and personal pursuits,” said a colleague. “He interacts with students from a variety of different backgrounds and theater experience levels but meets them all where they’re at with patience and grace.”
Hector Vila, associate professor of writing and rhetoric, is well known for his expertise in experiential learning, student cohort-building, and academic inequality. He challenges students to engage with global issues while also encouraging them to identify and address their own barriers to success. “He has always helped me recognize the challenges that are holding me back,” said a student nominator. “Then he helps me find ways to tackle each challenge and find success. He works with each student based on their unique needs and situation. He has been one of the most influential professors I have ever seen.”
Vila’s mentorship extends to the football team, including 20–30 new players each summer, through advising sessions that help them understand academic demands and balance their schedules. “Hands down, Hector is Midd’s best academic advisor and mentor,” said a student nominator. For his dedication, students nominated him as the Most Valuable Educator (MVE)—an honor he received at Fenway Park this spring. Vila also mentors faculty through CTLR (Center for Teaching, Learning, and Research) professional development programming and as co-organizer of the annual Teaching and Writing Retreat—a forum for strengthening teaching across the institution. One colleague said that “innovation is synonymous with Hector,” citing his role in CTLR’s renewed focus on technology and teaching following its 2012 restructuring. More recently, Vila began teaching two first-year seminars on AI and Creativity, adding 30 new advisees. “No one but Hector would take that on,” said a colleague, adding that his retirement next year will leave a significant gap. Vila also carries a full teaching load including student favorites Writing to Heal, Rhetorics of Death, Writing & Experience: Exploring Self in Society, and Rhetorics of Sports. Students “line up outside his office for long conversations,” said a nominator, noting that he “listens deeply, knows when to push, and knows when to support.”