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About the Award

The Public Service and Outreach Staff Award for Excellence is the most prestigious award for staff members and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated a strong work ethic, commitment to service, and exceptional job performance. The award honors outstanding effort, encourages workplace creativity and innovation, and celebrates the achievements of Public Service and Outreach staff members. This award’s inaugural year was 2006. A maximum of three awards are bestowed annually. Each award winner will receive (1) a monetary award; and (2) an engraved award and a framed certificate to be presented at the Public Service and Outreach Faculty and Staff Appreciation Event in the fall.

Nomination Cover Sheet »

Direct questions 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 Public Service and Outreach Staff Award for Excellence recognizes individuals who have demonstrated a strong work ethic, commitment to service, and exceptional job performance. The award honors outstanding efforts, encourages workplace creativity and innovation, and celebrates the achievements of Public Service and Outreach (PSO) staff. The Public Service and Outreach Staff Award for Excellence is the most prestigious award offered for staff members, similar to the Walter Barnard Hill Awards for Public Service faculty members.

Award

A maximum of three awards may be presented each year. In order to maintain the significance of the Staff Award for Excellence, the PSO selection committee will have discretion to determine how many, if any, awards will be presented in a given year. Each award winner will receive (1) a monetary award; and (2) an engraved award and a framed certificate to be presented at the the Public Service and Outreach Faculty and Staff Appreciation Event in the fall.

Funds for this award will come from the recipient’s unit.

Eligibility

Benefit-eligible staff members employed for a minimum of two continuous years in a major public service and outreach unit of the University that reports directly to the Vice President for Public Service and Outreach.

Process

Each of the major Public Service and Outreach units may submit one nomination with the exception that the Carl Vinson Institute of Government, the Small Business Development Center, and the Georgia Center for Continuing Education Hotel and Conference Center, may submit up to two.

The director of the respective unit, in consultation with unit faculty, will determine the mechanism by which unit staff members are selected for nomination. All faculty and staff members are encouraged to nominate staff members from PSO units.

A standard nomination form will be used. In addition to the standard nomination form, each nomination should include a letter of support from the respective unit director and a copy of the nominee’s job description. Units may have as many pre-nominees as they wish. The unit director of each unit will appoint a unit – level review committee to determine which nomination(s) will be forwarded to the Office of the Vice President for Public Service and Outreach. A standard rating sheet will be used by each unit-level review committee.

Selection Committee

The Office of the Vice President for Public Service and Outreach will form a selection committee of Public Service and Outreach faculty members and past award winner(s), chaired by a non-voting member of the Office of the Vice President for Public Service and Outreach. The selection committee will review the nominations, using a standard rating sheet, and recommend up to three award winners to the Vice President for Public Service and Outreach.

Timeline

A call for nominations will be issued in June of each year. Each unit should set their own internal nomination/review process. Unit nomination(s) will be forwarded to the Office of the Vice President for Public Service and Outreach for review by the selection committee.

Ceremony

The Public Service and Outreach Staff Award for Excellence will be presented during the Public Service and Outreach Faculty and Staff Appreciation Event in the fall.

Units submitting nominations should be prepared to provide additional documentation upon request of the selection committee.


Past Recipients

2025: Laurel Clark, Emily Schattler, Brian Wrenn

2024: Christina Allen-Wise, Scott Crabtree, Emily Newdow

2023: Jack Auckland, James Byars

2022: Pamela C. Bracken

2021: Lisa Gentit

2020: Cora Keber, Clark Stancil

2019: Genell Gibson

2018: James Marty Higgins

2017: Kate Smith

2016: Fei Zhang

2015: Sandy Christopher

2014: Karen Duncan, Melanie Hardman, Lindsey Parker

2013: Dan Evans, Tim Holcomb, Linda Rhodes

2012: Michelle Bailey, Emily Davis, Kathy Hart

2011: Stephanie Edgecombe, Lisa Lynn Kesler, Larry Welborn

2010: Annie Burgess, Melanie Lee

2009: Dianne Campbell, Marie Scoggins

2008: Anne Shenk, Kitty Shollenberger

2007: Debra Gates, James H. Gilstrap, Jann Moore

2006: Richard Hitchcock, James McCay, Tiffany Williams

© University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602
706‑542‑3000