Cramer Family Faculty Fellowship supports faculty research
Jepson School of Leadership Studies faculty and staff gathered on Stern Plaza on Aug. 26 for a reception celebrating the launch of the Cramer Family Faculty Fellowship and its inaugural recipient, Dr. Christopher von Rueden. They were joined by four Cramer family members — parents David and Laura Cramer, son Alex Cramer, ’11, and daughter-in-law Melissa Collins Cramer, ’11 — whose generosity made the fellowship possible.
In her welcoming remarks, Dean Sandra Peart acknowledged the dedication of von Rueden and other Jepson faculty to their teaching and scholarship. She said Jepson professors were fortunate to have excellent students, supportive staff, an idyllic campus setting — and now — the Cramer Family Faculty Fellowship.
“Faculty fellowships allow us to recognize, celebrate, and reward excellence in teaching and scholarship by offering a course release for two years to a deserving faculty member,” she said. During his fellowship, von Rueden will teach four courses rather than the usual five per year, giving him more time to devote to his research.
“I’ve known Laura and David since Alex and Melissa were Jepson students,” Peart said. “A few years later, Alex’s sister, Molly, came to Jepson. All three were presidents of the Jepson Student Government Association! David has served on the school’s Executive Board of Advisors since its inception and, like all the family, he is extremely supportive of the Jepson School. Please join me in thanking the Cramer family!”
Von Rueden was quick to offer his thanks. He said the course release will enable him to double down on his research into status hierarchies in small-scale societies. An anthropologist by discipline, he has conducted ethnographic fieldwork with Tsimané forager-horticulturalists of Amazonian Bolivia and Himba pastoralists of northern Namibia and regularly publishes his research in scholarly journals.
Last month, von Rueden received the University’s Distinguished Scholarship Award, and in 2023, its Distinguished Educator Award. The Human Behavior and Evolution Society named him a fellow in 2024. In his free time, he serves as president of One Pencil Project, a nongovernmental organization that supports community development and educational programs among rural, Indigenous communities in Southern Africa and South America.
David Cramer congratulated von Rueden and then reflected on the value of a Jepson education. He recalled a time when his son debated whether to major in business or leadership studies: “Alex told me, ‘There always seems to be a right answer in business, but at Jepson, everything is grey.’”
David, a retired Visa executive who now heads an executive leadership consultancy, counseled Alex to pursue the leadership studies major with its focus on the grey, adding that he has lived in the grey throughout his years in business.