Anne K. Heinz Staff Award for Excellence in Outreach and Engagement

The staff member’s outreach program will receive $5,000 to support program needs identified by the staff member and sponsoring department, as well as a plaque and campus wide recognition. The award recipient is also eligible to receive funding to attend the 2022 Engagement Scholarship Consortium national conference.

The award is administered by our office; recipients are selected by a committee from across campus.

The staff member, in a role distinct from tenure-track faculty, often works behind the scenes to facilitate and manage ongoing projects, programs, services, research and relationships with community partners. Nominees must be currently employed CU Boulder staff or nontenure-track faculty who manage the hands-on tasks involved with supporting and advancing an outreach program and community partnership. 

The CU Boulder staff member’s job responsibilities must be a part of a campus outreach and engagement program that is tied to the academic role and mission of the university. The outreach program must have a department/center affiliation and be aligned with the campus definition of outreach and engagement.

Tenure-track faculty, administrators, Office for Outreach and Engagement staff, CU Boulder students and past winners of the Anne Heinz award are not eligible.

The staff member should exhibit some or all of the following characteristics:

• Works to improve the quality of an outreach program. 
• Finds and develops new opportunities.
• Often goes above and beyond his/her expected job responsibilities.
• Establishes or supports collaborative relationships.   
• Takes initiative and uses creativity and innovation to work around obstacles or constraints. 
• Communicates effectively with a variety of stakeholders (faculty, staff, students, community members, etc.).
• Completes assignments thoroughly and thoughtfully.
• Uses scarce resources efficiently without compromising the outreach program's quality.

Nominations need to be submitted online by an outreach program faculty PI, department chair, program director or supervisor. Incomplete or late nominations will not be accepted. 

Nomination must include the following information:

• Nominee’s contact information.
• Brief description of the nominee’s position and primary responsibilities for the outreach program and community partnership. (250 words maximum)
• Provide a short description of the outreach program that the staff member manages that includes the following (250 words maximum):

  • audience served

  • impact to date

  • the problem(s) or issue(s) it seeks to address

  • the reciprocal nature of the program and how it is mutually beneficial to both the campus and community participants

  • how it is tied to the academic mission of the campus sponsoring unit

• A statement that describes the contributions of the nominee to the outreach program and speaks to how this person exhibits some or all of the characteristics listed under the selection criteria section. (500 words maximum)
• One letter of support from a community or external partner who can speak directly to the staff member’s involvement and contributions to the program. (Limit to one page – upload with online submission)
• Nominator’s contact information.

2021

• Anne K. Heinz Award: Nomita Chhabildas, director, Attention, Behavior, and Learning (ABL) Clinic, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Clinical Psychology

2020

• Anne K. Heinz Award: Charla Agnoletti, Public Achievement Program Director, CU Engage

2019

• Anne K. Heinz Award: Mike Bennett, director of educational outreach and research for Partnerships for Informal Science Education in the Community (PISEC) program within JILA
• Special Recognition Awards: Sarah Cowan, manager of the Leeds Scholars and Honors programs, and Nola Salisbury, manager of programs and events for the Office of Diversity, Equity & Community Engagement

2018

• Anne K. Heinz Award: Amanda Giguere, Outreach Director, Colorado Shakespeare Festival
• Special Recognition Awards: Stacey Forsyth, director of CU Science Discovery, and Michelle Gabrieloff-Parish, energy and climate justice program manager at the CU Environmental Center

2017

• Anne K. Heinz Award: Pilar Prostko, Program Coordinator and Facilitator, CU Dialogues Program

2016

• Anne K. Heinz Award: Sabrina Sideris, Program Director, INVST Community Studies
• Special Recognition Awards: James Hakala, Senior Educator, CU Boulder Museum of Natural History; Nicole Speer, Director of Operations, Intermountain Neuroimaging Consortium

2015

• Anne K. Heinz Award: Peg Posnick, Outreach Coordinator, Department of Theatre and Dance
• Special Recognition Award: Amanda Giguere, Outreach Director, Colorado Shakespeare Festival; Elaina Verveer, Program Advisor, Putska Scholars Program, CU Engage