Deadline: Friday, October 27, 2023
About the Award
The Walter Barnard Hill Fellow Award for Distinguished Achievement in Public Service and Outreach (Hill Fellow Award) is UGA’s highest award in public service and outreach, and is comparable to a distinguished professorship. It recognizes sustained, distinguished, and superb achievements in university public service and outreach, and contributions to improving the quality of life in Georgia or elsewhere. The selection committee considers long-term achievements, special projects having extraordinary impact, and collaborative efforts. The creativity, impact, and superb nature of a Hill Fellow’s achievements are of a magnitude that greatly exceeds the normal accomplishments of a productive faculty member. Similar to the Hill Award recipients, the awardee receives a permanent salary increase beyond the raise provided through the normal allocation process, the awardee receives a supplementary fund for use in the advancement of his or her program of work, and also will receive a medallion and a framed certificate, to be presented at the Annual Public Service and Outreach Meeting and Awards Luncheon.
Like the Hill Award, the Hill Fellow Award is named in honor of Chancellor Walter Barnard Hill, who led the University of Georgia from 1899 until his death in 1905. His desire for more university involvement in the state of Georgia and his application of these goals and ideas helped pave the way for a modern public service oriented university.
Direct questions and submit nomination dossiers to:
Dr. L. Steven Dempsey
Associate Vice President
Office of the Vice President for Public Service and Outreach
University of Georgia
Treanor House
1234 S. Lumpkin Street
Athens, GA 30602-3692
706-542-6045
dempsey@uga.edu
Nomination Guidelines
Purpose
The Walter Barnard Hill Fellow Award for Distinguished Achievement in Public Service and Outreach recognizes significant extraordinary contributions to the public service and outreach (PSO) programs of the University of Georgia. The award is named in honor of Chancellor Walter Barnard Hill, who led the university from 1899 until 1905, and first articulated the university’s modern public service and outreach mission. Designation as a Walter Barnard Hill Distinguished Public Service Fellow is comparable to a distinguished professorship.
Award
One Hill Fellow Award is named each academic year. The Hill Fellow receives (1) a permanent salary increase beyond the raise provided through the normal allocation process at the unit level; (2) an annual discretionary fund for up to three years for use in the advancement of his or her program of work (upon approval of a work proposal to the Office of the Vice President for Public Service and Outreach); and (3) a medallion and a framed certificate to be presented at the Annual Public Service and Outreach Meeting and Awards Luncheon.
Funds for this award will come from the Office of the Vice President for Public Service and Outreach.
Eligibility
Only previous Walter Barnard Hill Award winners are eligible for consideration for the Walter Barnard Hill Fellow Award. Those faculty members in the schools, colleges, Cooperative Extension, PSO Units, or other institutional units whose assignments and workloads (budgeted EFT is 51% or more) have focused significantly on public service and outreach for the last five years.
Process
Each of the major Public Service and Outreach units may submit one nomination with the exception that Cooperative Extension, the Carl Vinson Institute of Government, the J. W. Fanning Institute for Leadership Development, and the Small Business Development Center, may submit up to two. The colleges, schools, and other institutional units may submit one nomination each. Any college or school wishing to submit more than one nomination should contact the Office of the Vice President for Public Service and Outreach to determine if an exception may be granted.
The dean or director of the respective unit, in consultation with unit faculty, will determine the mechanism by which unit faculty members are selected for nomination. The process for selection should be widely shared throughout the college, school, or unit.
The Office of the Vice President for Public Service and Outreach will form a selection committee and appoint a chair for the committee to review the nominations and select the awardee. The committee will recommend one winner to the Vice President for Public Service and Outreach.
Criteria
The Hill Fellow Award recognizes sustained, distinguished, and superb achievement in university public service and outreach and for contributions made to the improvement of the quality of life in Georgia or elsewhere. The selection committee considers long-term achievements, special projects having extraordinary impact, and collaborative efforts. The creativity, impact, and superb nature of a Hill Fellow’s achievements are of a magnitude that greatly exceeds the normal accomplishments of a productive faculty member.
Public service and outreach refers to the function of applying academic expertise to the direct benefit of external audiences in support of unit missions and the university mission. PSO scholarship can include applied research, service-based instruction and training, program and project management, consultation, and technical assistance. A program is regarded as public service and outreach if there is utilization of the faculty member’s academic and professional expertise; there is a direct application of knowledge to, and a substantive link with, significant human needs and societal problems, issues, or concerns; the ultimate purpose is for the public or common good; new knowledge is generated for the discipline and/or the audience or clientele; and, there is a clear link/relationship between the program/activities and an appropriate unit’s mission.
Dossier
The unit head (dean, unit director, or department head) prepares a nomination dossier that does not exceed 25 pages (that is, including all materials, exclusive of the cover page and transmittal letter). The dossier should focus on accomplishments since the time the candidate received the Hill Award. The dossier includes the following:
Section 1:
A cover page with the candidate’s Name, Current Title, Unit, and date of the Hill Award
Section 2:
A written statement signed by the dean, unit director, or department head. This written statement should include:
- A job description that outlines the nature and scope of the nominee’s roles and responsibilities.
- Reflective commentary on the nominee’s public service and outreach program since receiving the Hill Award (a program is a set of activities that share a common focus and depend upon a particular expertise). The commentary should describe and explain the scholarship involved in one or more public service and outreach programs that are considered to be the crowning achievements of the candidate’s efforts. Each program should include the following:
- Description: Provide a brief overview of the needs assessment, objectives, methods, and target audience. Describe selected activities and/or products that best illustrate the candidate’s contribution to this program. For collaborative efforts, the role of the candidate should be clearly stated.
- Mission: How was the program compatible with unit and university missions? How did the activities complement the teaching and research missions of the unit and/or university?
- Scholarship: Describe the role of the candidate’s professional expertise in the design and execution of the program. Did the activities demonstrate or test the applicability of the candidate’s discipline to societal/human problems, require integration with other disciplines, and/or generate new knowledge for the discipline and/or audience? Explain. How was this knowledge communicated to broader audiences? Has the program led to increased recognition of the candidate’s professional expertise by external audiences? Indicators would include requests for information, invitations to make presentations, service on review panels, receipt of contracts, grants, and professional awards, etc.
- Impact: Describe observed impacts and/or explain any unobserved impacts that are to be expected according to the discipline(s) applied. Identify the direct and indirect beneficiaries. What actions did the intended audience take as a result of this work? Evidence of impact can include both quantitative results (e.g., changes in test scores, increased production, or widespread adoption of a product or technique) and qualitative results (e.g., testimonials from clients, reviews by knowledgeable scholars/critics).
Section 3:
A condensed curriculum vitae summarizing biographical data and professional data in reverse chronological order. This document could include a select list of: publications (i.e., journal articles, books and book chapters, monographs, bulletins, invited papers, etc.); honors and awards; conference presentations, invited lectures and papers; exhibits and displays; prizes, grants, and contracts; consultantships; instructional activities; technical assistance; outreach products; copyrights, patents, and inventions; contracts, grants, and gifts; and any other information that reflects professional achievement.
Section 4:
Letters of external support (three to five letters). Letters should be on letterhead and include either original or electronic signatures.
The nomination dossier should be prepared in the following manner:
- The completed nomination dossier should not exceed 25 pages (including all materials, exclusive of the cover page and transmittal letter). Dossiers exceeding this length will not be considered.
- One-inch margins.
- A type size no smaller than 11-point font.
- Type face: Times New Roman (or similar)
- Nomination portfolios should not be placed in folders or binders. Each copy of the dossier should be stapled in the upper left-hand corner.
- One (1) original hard copy and an electronic copy of the dossier on a USB flash drive in a searchable PDF format should be submitted, under a transmittal letter, to Dr. L. Steven Dempsey, Associate Vice President for Public Service and Outreach.
Units submitting nominations should be prepared to provide additional documentation upon request of the selection committee.
Past Recipients
2023: Dr. Doris Miller
2022: Maritza Soto Keen
2021: Robert Kemerait Jr.
2020: Walt McBride
2019: Stanley Culpepper
2018: Kim Coder
2016: Karen Payne
2015: Eric Prostko
2014: Jeffrey R. Sanford
2013: Ronnie Barentine
2012: L. Ray “Rusty” Brooks
2011: L. Mark Risse
2010: Mark Foster
2009: Keith S. Delaplane
2008: Judy A. Harrison
2007: Deborah W. Purvis
2006: Mary E. Stakes
2005: Elizabeth L. Andress
2004: Stephen E. Condrey
2003: Donald W. Bower
2002: Dan Durning
2001: Douglas C. Bachtel
2000: Helen H. Mills
1999: Beverly L. Sparks
1998: Kathleen E. Wages
1997: Howard A. Schretter
1996: John M. Woodruff
1995: Mary A. Hepburn
1994: James E. Kundell
1993: Wanda J. Grogan
1992: Edward A. Brown II