SPS Outstanding Chapter Advisor Award - 2021

Donna Hammer is the Director of Education for the Department of Physics at the University of Maryland. She has served as the UMD SPS Chapter and Sigma Pi Sigma Advisor since 2013, during which time the Chapter has consistently received Outstanding Chapter Award recognition. Hammer works closely with SPS members and is inspired by the students’ dedication to providing free tutoring, promoting undergraduate research experiences and diversity initiatives, and participation in community outreach. Hammer was elected to the National Council for Zone 4 from 2017-2020, and served on the Careers Pathways and Physics is Phun Committees. She will oversee UMD’s role as a local host for the 2022 Physics Congress.

In other roles, Hammer is responsible for the Office of Student and Education Services and the Lecture Demonstration Facility. Additionally, she is an instructor and leads the Department’s extensive STEM outreach programming. Her work is driven by an unwavering commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion. She is the co-founder of the UMD-NIST Conference for Undergraduate Underrepresented Minorities in Physics (CU2MiP) held in 2016, 2017, and 2021. She also co-organized the UMD Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics (CUWiP) in 2014 and 2020. Hammer has been recognized by several awards and was selected by the University System of Maryland to receive the 2020 Board of Regents Award in the category of Outstanding Service to Students in an Academic Environment. Hammer has an M.Ed from the University of Maryland, College Park and M.S. in communications from the University of Oregon.