In January 2022, Lee A. Feinstein was awarded the Provost’s Medal for his outstanding distinguished service as the Founding Dean of the Hamilton Lugar School by Interim Provost and Executive Vice President John S. Applegate and President Pamela Whitten. The Provost’s Medal is the highest honor bestowed by the Office of the Provost. It recognizes select individuals for their outstanding contributions to the academic mission of Indiana University Bloomington. Recipients of this medal are faculty and administrators whose careers have transformed vital aspects of the Bloomington campus, greatly enhanced the student experience, and significantly advanced the frontiers of research in their fields. Honorees are chosen by the Provost.
Feinstein concludes his deanship in February 2022 to assume the presidency of Washington, D.C.-based McLarty Associates. Nick Cullather has been named interim dean of the Hamilton Lugar School.
In a written statement from President Whitten:
Dean Feinstein came to IU from the world of diplomacy and foreign affairs, where he had more than two decades of experience serving in high-level positions.
In his statement before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 2009, then-Ambassador-Designate Feinstein pledged, in his words, “to advocate our interests and our values, and to build personal and institutional ties that will advance our common vision.” He was, of course, speaking at that time of the interests and values of the United States and our common vision with the Republic of Poland.
But those words are also a reflection of what he has done in his time at Indiana University, as he has been a tireless advocate for the university’s interests and values and for the common vision of the Hamilton Lugar School, IU, and the Hoosier state more broadly.
His advocacy for IU’s interests and values begins with our students.
As the Hamilton Lugar School has grown and flourished under Dean Feinstein’s leadership, is has provided IU students the opportunity to gain the international literacy and experience they need to become principled and nonpartisan global leaders. Under his leadership, the school has consolidated IU’s unmatched strengths in foreign language instruction and area studies.
Undergraduate enrollment in the school has increased 90 percent since 2015. This tremendous growth reflects the confidence students have in the school’s ability to prepare them for the competencies of the 21st century.
The school had no small part in helping to make Bloomington the number one small city in the nation to launch an international career, according to LinkedIn.
And, as a recent article in the Indiana Daily Student underscored, the fact that Dean Feinstein held office hours to meet and interact with students is evidence of his strong personal commitment to helping students succeed.
More broadly, Dean Feinstein has advocated for the global interests and values of Indiana University. For over a century, IU has been a global institution. We have been committed to sending students abroad, where they have experiences that change their lives. We have welcomed talented students and scholars from around the world, who contribute to the richness of our communities. Our faculty work internationally, and we partner with leading universities around the globe to facilitate all of this. At a time when engagement with the broader world has been more important that ever, Dean Feinstein has helped to deepen and extend IU’s long tradition of global engagement through the personal and institutional ties he has built and in countless other ways.
All of us at IU are deeply grateful.
Lee, on behalf of Indiana University, I want to express my thanks to you for your service to Indiana University and for your outstanding leadership of the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies.