Faculty and Department Awards

Dr. Sandra Hope, Dr. Riley Wilson, and Dr. Elliot Wise were chosen as this year’s outstanding nominees, and they were recognized at the Accessibility Center's Twenty-Fourth Annual Awards Ceremony on March 6th, 2024.

In addition to being honored at the banquet, Dr. Hope, Dr. Wilson, and Dr. Wise have also earned the Accessibility Center Good Samaritan Mentored Learning Award for their respective colleges. This award, established by our generous donors, Keith and Carol Jenkins, provides substantial funding to be used for mentored student learning within the colleges.

Dr. Sandra Hope

Dr. Sandra Hope studied at Utah State University to receive a bachelor of arts in German and a master’s degree in BioVeterinary Science, and the University of Kentucky for a Ph.D. in Veterinary Science. She did post-doctoral research in immunology at the University of Kentucky Chandler Medical School. Dr. Hope is known for developing a transgenic mouse model which is now used by researchers world-wide to study the immune system. She joined BYU in 2004 in the Microbiology and Molecular Biology Department (MMBio). She served as the director of the Research Instrumentation Core facility for the College of Life Sciences for 19 years. Dr. Hope co-established the MMBio Phage Hunters program in 2009 and is internationally known for the NanoInjection DNA delivery technique and for her research on American Foulbrood in honeybees. In her love for life-long learning, Dr. Hope completed the Executive MBA program at BYU’s Marriott School of Business in 2022. She was awarded an Outstanding Achievement in Technology Transfer in 2016 and a Karl G. Maeser Professional Faculty Excellence Award in 2022. Dr. Hope plays the piano and loves the outdoors. She has two daughters and a strong testimony of the Savior.

Dr. Riley Wilson

Dr. Riley Wilson is an Assistant Professor of Econmics. He has been at BYU for five and a half years and thoroughly enjoys interacting with the students on campus. They make this job worth it. Dr. Wilson’s research is at the intersection between public and labor economics, and explores topics such as households’ decisions to move to economic opportunity, responses to government market interventions and government policy, and economic determinants of marriage and fertility decisions. His work has been cited in the Washington Post, the Freakonomics Podcast, Marginal Revolution, and The Economist. Dr. Wilson received his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland in 2018 and earned a BA in Economics and Russian from Brigham Young University in 2013. He is a Research Affiliate at the CESifo and Institute of Labor Economics (IZA). In his spare time, Riley enjoys running, hiking, traveling, listening to audiobooks (especially while running), and spending time with his family.

Dr. Elliot Wise

Dr. Elliott Wise is an Associate Professor of Art History & Curatorial Studies here at BYU. Dr. Wise completed his BA and MA in Art History at BYU in 2007 and 2009, respectively. In 2016, he received a Ph.D. in Art History from Emory University, studying the Northern Renaissance as his major field and medieval art as his minor field. He spent a semester at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands and a year in New York City as a fellow at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. His dissertation explored the affinity between vernacular mystical literature in the Low Countries and panel paintings by Rogier van der Weyden (c. 1399-1464) and Robert Campin (c. 1375-1445). Dr. Wise is beloved by students across campus, inspiring many. One student said that he is “one of the kindest and most inspirational professors ever.” Another said, “I entered this class wanting to get this GE over with and I’m exiting as an art history minor”. It is clear that Dr. Wise is a caring and professional individual.