Dr. Ashlee Barnes-Lee honored with 2025 Outstanding Faculty Award
March 18, 2025 - Brandon Drain
On January 23, 2025, Michigan State University’s College of Social Science honored Dr. Ashlee Barnes-Lee, an assistant professor at MSU’s School of Social Work, as its recipient of the 2025 Outstanding Faculty Award.
This award is presented annually and recognizes a current faculty member in the college who takes pride in, and is committed to quality teaching, while demonstrating substantial involvement in undergraduate education. Barnes-Lee will also speak at the Spring 2025 College of Social Science Commencement on Saturday May 3, 2025.
Barnes-Lee is touted for her exceptional ability to mentor students, both in and out of the classroom, bringing enthusiasm, clarity, and passion, noted Anne Hughes, director of the MSU School of Social Work.
“She maintains rigor in the classroom while ensuring real-life connections to the materials for students,” Hughes continued. “She is organized and an excellent communicator, actively engages our learners, models professionalism and interdisciplinarity, and is a powerful and aspirational presence for our students of color.”
As a Black female scholar, Barnes-Lee is intimately aware of the challenges faced by minoritized students and strives to create a space of inclusion for her students to feel welcomed, heard, and seen. “One of the reasons I wanted to teach was so that underrepresented students could learn from someone who may have similar experiences,” said Barnes-Lee. “My primary goal is to create a learning community where students, regardless of their respective identities and backgrounds, can feel invited to engage in the learning process,” she said.
Barnes-Lee is a triple Spartan who loves MSU and values her ability to give back to the institution in her role as a professor, mentor, and role model.
“In my teaching, I aim to emphasize student mastery and performance, highlight real-world applications, and foster an active and welcoming learning environment,” said Barnes-Lee.
She teaches a variety of courses, including both Bachelors of Social Work (BASW) and Master of Social Work (MSW) programs, respectively. In addition, she has created and taught an interdisciplinary undergraduate elective called Contemporary Issues in Juvenile Justice—a course that examines key issues facing the modern American juvenile justice system including racial/ethnic, gender, and class disparities.
Barnes-Lee demonstrated superior classroom performance based on student feedback collected from the university via The Student Instructional Rating System (SIRS): a survey system that serves to provide student input toward assessing and improving course design and teaching performance. Her course evaluation averages range from 4.43 to 4.78 out of 5, which are well above the average in the School of Social Work, according to the data.
Students also praised Barnes-Lee’s impact on their learning.
When asked to reflect about what aspects of the course made the greatest, positive contribution to their learning experience, one student said: “Dr. Barnes-Lee was extremely supportive. She motivated me with her kindness and compassion to be a better student and to grow.”
Another student noted, “She brought some much-needed humanity to a program that can feel kind of mechanical and faceless during normal times—and this semester was anything but.”
Barnes-Lee’s philosophy of teaching is backed by the belief that “educating the whole student includes caring about what they learn and who they are,” she explained. “What makes an effective and impactful social work educator is being able to bring the social work core values in the classroom with you. Every time I step foot in a classroom, I choose to intentionally model competence, social justice, the importance of human relationships, integrity, service, and especially dignity and worth of person.”
Barnes-Lee is a Detroit native and interdisciplinary scholar. She earned a B.A. in both criminal justice and psychology, alongside a master’s and Ph.D. in Ecological-Community psychology from MSU. She is also a former Dean's Research Associate Program member—an initiative aimed at promoting an inclusive scholarly environment in which outstanding scholars in the social sciences support the advancement of Institutional Access in the academy. Barnes-Lee has a decade of practical experience working with youth in diversion programs, juvenile probation, detention centers, and in facilities serving youth diagnosed with mental health challenges.