11 December 2025 Peer-judged staff awards for 2025 announced

Lincoln University has announced its most prestigious peer-judged staff awards for 2025; honouring members of the staff whānau who have most outstandingly championed the University’s values, delivered a world-class student experience and made the most positive impact on the wider community.

At the end-of-year event for staff on Wednesday 10 December, Vice-Chancellor Professor Grant Edwards presented two Staff Excellence Awards and one Critic and Conscience of Society Award – judged by a panel of peers – and one Health and Safety Award.

Staff Excellence Awards

The annual Staff Excellence Awards recognise outstanding performance by individuals or teams who are nominated by their peers, managers, students or alumni as having demonstrated Lincoln University’s values, contributing to the University’s success and making it a great place to learn, discover and share. The winners receive a very significant cash prize of $3,500, plus a personalised trophy carved from New Zealand historic limestone by Ken Sowman.

This year, two individual members of the Lincoln University staff whānau were named as Staff Excellence Award winners: Elisabeth Comrie from the Student Experience team, and Mohini Vidwans – Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Agribusiness and Commerce.

Elisabeth (Lis) Comrie

Elisabeth exemplifies what it means to put students at the heart of everything we do at Lincoln University.

Her unwavering commitment to student success, her collaborative leadership and her relentless attention to detail shine among her many outstanding qualities.

Lis’s exceptional dedication underpinned the University’s Accommodation Phase 1 migration project, a technically challenging initiative involving 14 distinct work items across email systems, CRM workflows and payment processes. Working tirelessly, including after hours, Lis coordinated seamlessly between Accommodation, ITS and Student Experience teams to ensure zero disruption to students during the critical 2026 accommodation application period, while delivering $30,000 in ongoing annual cost savings and building lasting internal capability.

Throughout the Phase 1 migration, Lis’s outstanding analytical expertise, collegiality and communication skills – along with her renowned integrity and reliability – ensured the successful delivery of this multi-faceted project.

Until now, Lis has been an unsung hero of Lincoln University; consistently delivering excellence with technical precision, putting students first in every decision, caring deeply about quality, building capability and generally personifying the Lincoln University values.

This Staff Excellence Award brings richly deserved recognition for her many years of dedicated service.

Grant Edwards presents Lis Comrie with her Staff Excellence Award

Dr Mohini Vidwans

Mohini has demonstrated transformative and collaborative leadership in the AGCM Faculty, and the wider University community, through her roles as Chair of the Teaching Committee (from 2020-2022) and Associate Dean Academic (from 2023 – present).

She has consistently fostered best teaching practices, created an inclusive academic environment, ensured consistency and upheld the Lincoln University values of kaitiakitaka and tohatoha – recognised in 2024 with a LUSA Best Award for ‘an academic who has made a notable positive impact on student experience’.

Mohini actively participates in key committees and has initiated several academic hui and teaching retreats. She enthusiastically supports initiatives to improve faculty-wide teaching practices by promoting professional development, mentoring staff and fostering inclusive learning environments. Notably, she facilitated faculty consultation on aegrotat policy changes in 2023, compiling feedback that improved policy and procedure.

Her commitment to te reo Māori and te ao Māori are inspirational, and she actively supports karakia and culturally reflective practices in her classes and Faculty and Department meetings.

Mohini’s leadership and collaborative approach have strengthened faculty development, advanced bicultural goals and championed initiatives that support the success and wellbeing of our students. She epitomises the Lincoln University value: ‘students at our core’.

Mohini Vidwans receives her Staff Excellence Award

Critic and Conscience of Society Award

The Critic and Conscience of Society Award recognises the activities of a member of the academic staff who has most notably contributed to Lincoln University’s role as a critic and conscience of society. Nominated by staff and students, the award is only presented when a nominee is considered by the judging panel to have provided the public or government with an exceptional level of independent, expert commentary on national or global issues that affect societies and future generations. The winner receives a prize of $3,500 plus a Ken Lowman-carved limestone trophy to keep.

In 2025, the Critic and Conscience of Society Award has been presented to Professor Alan Renwick.

Professor Alan Renwick

Professor Alan Renwick is one of Lincoln University’s most acclaimed academics.

The Professor of Agriculture and Food Economics is also Chair of the Lincoln University Research Committee, Associate Dean of the Faculty of Agribusiness and Commerce and Co-Director of the Lincoln University Centre of Excellence in Transformative Agribusiness.

A key focus of Alan’s research and outreach work has been the environmental and economic challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand concerning current and future land use. In 2025 he was the lead author on The Future of Land and How to Fund it, a comprehensive research report sponsored by ASB to assist land-based sectors to explore the transformative impact of land optimisation.

The ASB report revealed the opportunities, challenges and trade-offs within New Zealand’s food and fibre sector, while also identifying the required changes in land use and funding mechanisms needed to achieve a more sustainable and resilient food and fibre system.

The report received significant media coverage, including TV, radio and print, and Alan was widely interviewed and quoted across many media networks and organisations. He accepted all invitations to present on the finding from the study to a broad range of audiences, including academic (The Robin Johnson Memorial Lecture at NZARES), policy (Government Economics Network Webinar), industry (NZPPI) and the general public (WAO Wānaka Summit 2025, Probus).

Alan has brought sound economic reasoning to key discussions in New Zealand around food price inflation, and he has regularly been interviewed across TV, radio and print to highlight the supply and demand factors that lead to price rises, while also identifying the strengths and weaknesses of popularly-cited mechanisms (eg cutting GST, dual pricing, breaking up the supermarket duopoly) for addressing high prices.

He also engaged fully with the debate around the sale of Fonterra brands to Lactalis, recognising the benefits but also noting the potential risks associated with the sale.

In 2025, Alan has continued to write for a wide audience, including two articles for The Conversation (non-tariff barriers, high butter prices), which together attracted almost 40,000 reads. He is the most published (9 articles) and read (over 166,000 reads) author from Lincoln University on The Conversation.

Alan has leveraged his role as Co-Director of the Centre of Excellence in Transformative Agribusiness to ensure the Centre fully engages with a wide range of stakeholders from central and local government, industry organisations and business. This year alone, the Centre will host 22 research, teaching and extension events, with around 1000 attendees from key stakeholder groups.

Alan Renwick receives his Critic and Conscience of Society Award from Grant Edwards

LU Health and Safety Award

The annual Health and Safety Award is presented to the staff member who has:

• Most proactively demonstrated their commitment to health and safety in e workplace, going beyond the requirements of their role
• Worked towards continuous improvement of health and safety in the workplace, for example activities/actions taken to prevent injuries or illnesses, prevention of unsafe conditions or practices
• Promoted a work and service environment that is respectful, collegial and supportive

In 2024 the LU Health and Safety Award was presented to Sarah Morgan.

Sarah Morgan – Farms Compliance and Training Officer

Sarah has shown great leadership and guidance throughout her career as our Farms Compliance and Training Officer. She is completely focused on safeguarding the health and safety of Lincoln University’s farm workers.

In particular, in 2025 her outstanding level of engagement and cooperation with a Health and Safety deep dive audit contributed hugely to the overall quality of the audit and its successful outcome.

Sarah Morgan was named Health and Safety Award winner for 2025