Kristen Monroe, political science Chancellor’s Professor and UCI Interdisciplinary Center for the Scientific Study of Ethics and Morality director, is UCI’s 2014 Outstanding Mentor. The honor, awarded by the UCI Emeriti Association, recognizes the political scientist for mentoring efforts above and beyond her regular faculty responsibilities.

Letters written in her support came from colleagues and former mentees around the world, says Mark Petracca, political science associate professor and social sciences undergraduate associate dean. A common theme among them highlighted her skills not only as a reliable and trustworthy advisor, but also as a compelling advocate for their success, he says.

“Professor Monroe understands the importance of networks as a vehicle for publication, grant funding, and other matters pertaining to professional development, and she helps connect others to those networks, never taking credit, only giving,” he says. “She has spent nearly her entire professional career helping others to successful, productive, and purposeful careers in the academy, and she is most deserving of this award.”

Monroe is the author of nearly 100 journal articles and book chapters and 15 single-authored books or edited volumes. Her work focuses on political psychology, political economy and normative political theory. She is noted particularly for her research on altruism and moral choice, or the treatment of others, work which has earned her a Pulitzer Prize nomination, a National Book Award nomination, two American Political Science Association Best Book Awards for both The Heart of Altruism (1996) and The Hand of Compassion (2004), and the 2010 Paul Silverman Award for Outstanding Scientific Work on Ethics. She is a past president of the International Society of Political Psychology and past vice president of the American Political Science Association, the latter of which awarded her both Frank J. Goodnow and Ithiel de Sola Pool honors in 2010 for professional and service contributions. She spent the 2012-13 academic year as a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University and in April 2013, she received the Nevitt Sanford Award from the International Society of Political Psychology for distinguished professional contributions to the field of political psychology.

Monroe was selected from among 15 competitive UCI nominees for the outstanding mentor honor and she will receive her award at the association’s June 2 meeting.