Faculty Award for Enduring Scholarship in Community Engagement

This award recognizes KU Medical Center faculty for excellence in developing, implementing and sustaining regional engaged scholarship initiatives. Award recipients will receive $5,000.

Community engagement, according to the Carnegie Classification Project (McCormick & Zhao, 2005), "describes the collaboration between higher education institutions and their larger communities (local, regional/state, national, global) for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity." Piercy, Stoudt, Asselin and Tilley-Lubbs (2011) provide additional clarification regarding work that is worthy of this award in their white paper, noting that "Characteristics most associated with engaged scholarship include:

• A partnership between university and community groups;
• Which is reciprocal;
• Mutually beneficial;
• Respectful;
• Transparent;
• Replicable; and
• Publically accountable;
• Hierarchy is minimized;
• Teaching, research, and/or service takes place;
• Impact is assessed and documented; and
• Scholarship is an integral component."

Eligibility

All University of Kansas Medical Center faculty members with a full-time or part-time appointment at the Kansas City, Wichita or Salina campuses who have a demonstrated commitment to community engagement (i.e. multiple projects and/or multiple years) and  who have not previously received this award are eligible. Volunteer faculty are not eligible.

Nomination Process

Nominations by deans and department heads, faculty colleagues or self-nominations will be accepted. 

Nominations require the electronic submission of (1) an abbreviated CV (no more than 5 pages) emphasizing engaged scholarship activities and (2) a nomination letter. Letters should include specific examples of how the nominee's engaged scholarship work has improved the health of Kansans and/or Midwesterners and beyond. Letters should also include the following:

• Geographical location for project(s)/event(s). Remember, preference is given to rural and/or underserved Kansas communities, so be sure to highlight those.
• Number of community members impacted.
• How the work impacted student learning/academics.
• How the work impacted research.
• How the work impacted the health of communities.
• Unique/exemplary attributes of this work.
• *For those nominating others (self-nominees see finalists criteria, below): Enduring nature of the nominee's work (that is, multiple projects and/or multiple years) and the scholarly nature of that enduring work.  

The completed nomination must be submitted no later than 11:59 p.m. on March 1 to outreach@kumc.edu.

Nominees who are considered finalists for the award will be notified and asked to submit:

• Two (2) letters of support from the community summarizing
  • how the nominee worked with the community to identify a need,
  • how the nominee's work addressed that need, and
  • the enduring benefits of the nominee's work within the community.  

*For those finalists who self-nominated, you will be asked to also submit:

• One (1) letter from a faculty member/supervisor addressing the enduring nature of the nominee's work (that is, multiple projects and/or multiple years) and the scholarly nature of that enduring work.

Past Recipients

Check out the previous award winners.