Excellence in Academic Outreach Award

Award Information

On behalf of the provost, the University’s Academic Outreach and Engagement Council (AOEC) is soliciting nominations for the Excellence in Academic Outreach Award to recognize excellence in academic outreach by faculty. The Academic Outreach Award recognizes extraordinary contributions of faculty to the public that occur as an outgrowth of academic pursuits and are related to the university’s academic mission. The faculty award is based on demonstrated outstanding contributions to the public stemming from the academic expertise of the nominee.

Award Terms

The recipient of the Excellence in Academic Outreach Award also receives a monetary award in the amount of $3,000. Awards will be conferred at the Academic Honors Banquet on Monday, April 21, 2025.

Academic Outreach

Academic outreach is defined as integrated scholarship that engages the institution’s academic missions of research, creativity, teaching, and service with the community at large. It involves the university’s faculty and students employing their academic expertise to engage the community in reciprocal, collaborative relationships to improve the quality of life for citizens. In turn, the relationships with the community inform the scholarship and learning of faculty and students. Scholarship in academic outreach can be demonstrated in the nomination and faculty member’s curriculum vitae with awards, grants, publications and/or other recognitions within the discipline and/or the community. Academic outreach scholarship is demonstrated across the three domains of the faculty role: teaching, research, and service. For a more detailed discussion of academic outreach in the scholarship of teaching, research or creative activity, and service, please see the attached document.

Eligibility

All tenure-track and tenured faculty, including the Institute of Agriculture, are eligible for this award. The award is intended to honor an individual faculty member who has exceeded normal expectations in their academic outreach activities and engaged scholarship. Previous award winners and members of the University’s Academic Outreach and Engagement Council are ineligible. All nominees should have a minimum of five years of continuous service at the University of Tennessee.

Nomination Process

Nominees should demonstrate an extraordinary commitment to advancing public engagement that encompasses student success, community-engaged scholarship, broader impacts, and other efforts that have produced exceptional outcomes that improve lives and serve society. To that end, the submission should include the following.

Nominator submits a completed nomination form online. The online form asks for the following information:

• Program Description: Describe the overall program or project, goals and objectives, and how principles of co-design, co-creation, and implementation were achieved.
• Participating Community Partner(s): Describe the history of the partnership. Identify key community partner(s), including their role in the co-design, implementation, management, and evaluation of the program or project.
• Outcomes & Impact: Provide evidence and clearly describe how key outcomes and impacts are aligned with the project’s stated goals and objectives.
• Lessons Learned: Describe lessons learned through this partnership that can inform others who would like to develop a university-community partnership with the collaborating organization(s).
• Sustainability Plans: Discuss the future of the initiative, including any growth or expansion plans and sustainability of program. Include key lessons learned and how the program has or will adapted.

Evaluation Criteria

Submissions will be evaluated based on documented evidence of the following criteria.

• A thorough and detailed description is presented of the collaborating/partner organization(s), including their history and mission and the ways that community voice is represented in the project.
• The history of the partnership and initiative and how it has evolved over time is presented in a thorough and detailed manner, including how the nominee and public entity/community partner(s) identified principles for partnership, reciprocity, and decision-making.
• Past and current projects and their impacts are described in detail, including the impact of the initiative on the public and community capacity building as well as the University.
• Plans for the future of the collaborative initiative, including anticipated future changes and possible next steps.
• The submission presents lessons learned from and for the nominee and collaborating organizations.

Selection Process

The Faculty Awards and Recognition Committee of the University’s Academic Outreach and Engagement Council will preside over the nomination and selection process. The selection committee will include representatives of the University’s Academic Outreach Council and the previous year’s award winner. The selection committee will review nominations and select the faculty member to be recommended to the Office of the Provost as the award recipient.