Interim CHP & MSON Dean Baiardi honored with Mission Award
Interim Dean of the College of Health Professions (CHP) & McAuley School of Nursing (MSON) Janet Baiardi is an administrator who exemplifies servant leadership and she was recently awarded the 2021 Agere ex Mission Award for staff and administrators.
Baiardi continues to practice and support the Cabrini Clinic for underserved populations. She chairs Doctor of Nursing Practice projects that focus on vulnerable populations and supports her scholarship in the area of community initiatives for homeless people.
Baiardi assists faculty with connecting to those in the community whose work centers around social justice, human rights and diversity and looks for opportunities to connect the CHP & MSON to community endeavors such as the COVID vaccination clinic through Wayne Health.
Detroit Mercy’s Jesuit and Mercy traditions guide all of Baiardi’s work, and that is demonstrated by her supportive interactions with faculty and her work in the community, where she has built relationships with community partners through hard work and integrity.
Dean Baiardi is committed to ensuring all CHP & MSON programs are inspired by the Mercy values she learned as a student at Mercy College of Detroit. She is a strong advocate of attracting students from the neighborhoods surrounding Detroit Mercy’s campuses and finding ways to make a Mercy and Jesuit education affordable to them.
Grobis awarded faculty Agere ex Missione Award
There are few faculty members on campus who live the mission quite the way Associate Professor of Performing Arts and Department Chair Greg Grobis does. Grobis was recently awarded he 2021 Agere ex Missione Award for faculty.
Grobis is very deliberate and thoughtful in the productions presented by the Detroit Mercy Theatre Company, of which he is the managing director, because he understands the role theatre can play in educating people and building empathy. Grobis consistently offers productions that address the issues of our time, even though the works may be hundreds of years old. His program of talkbacks brings together academics in other disciplines to put the shows and their issues in historical context for spirited and informative discussions.
Grobis was a major advocate for the DMTC’s Unheard Voices project, which sought to bring voice to Detroit’s homeless community. He has been awarded grants that have supported marginalized members of the Detroit community by developing theatrical projects that tackle difficult issues in engaging ways.
His passion for education extends to the classroom and, beginning this fall, students will be able to explore the ways theatre can be a progressive source in Theatre for Social Change, a new course designed by Grobis.
He values and respects humanity in a way that makes others around him want to do better. He is a leader and contributor to many University-wide committees for which he volunteers and continually shows his care for others in his work at the University. This is especially evident in his work with the nonprofit Make-A-Wish Foundation, which stands up for those in need.