Outstanding individual and group outreach efforts recently were recognized with the 2012 Campus Awards for Excellence in Public Engagement. Recipients were honored March 13 at the Beckman Institute at a reception hosted by Vice President and Chancellor Phyllis M. Wise and Pradeep K. Khanna, the associate chancellor for public engagement. Those honored included Ruth Nicole Brown, a professor in Gender and Women's Studies and of education policy, organization and leadership; Richard Jaehne, the director of the Illinois Fire Service Institute; Christian Sandvig, a professor of media and cinema studies and in the Institute of Communications Research; and Aaron Silver, an undergraduate student in the department of molecular and cellular biology.
The award recognizes faculty members, academic professionals and students who have consistently applied their knowledge and expertise to issues of societal importance for the public good.
Each faculty member and academic professional receives $1,500 and a permanent $1,500 salary increase. A $5,000 award also is made to the unit honored. Students receive $1,500 to be used for professional development or other educational activities.
Ruth Nicole Brown is well known for her imaginative interdisciplinary approaches to research and teaching. Brown is the founder and co-organizer of the Saving our Lives Hear Our Truth program, an after-school program that uses art-based activities, such as photography, music, dance and theater to encourage self- and collective expression. The program has forged a dynamic, intergenerational framework of middle school, high school, undergraduate and graduate students to promote the exploration of African-American girls' expression. Brown's work with the program has been recognized and rewarded through a number of fellowships at the UI.
She has worked with African-American girls in the after-school program as well as community-based performances, museum and campus-based photography exhibits and campus-based public performances.
In addition to her work with SOLHOT, Brown is a key member of groups nationally and on the UI campus that work to promote educational opportunities for students from under-represented racial minorities. She serves on the board of the ESSENCE program, which supports K-12 public school systems with majority African American student populations. She also has been a member of the Empowering Black Youth Coalition and the Central High School Focus Group on Girls. Her work with SOLHOT and her public engagement work at the UI have forged strong and lasting connections with local area youth, especially young African-American girls.
Richard Jaehne is a visionary consensus-builder and leader who has transformed the Illinois Fire Service Institute into a model public engagement unit that provides unparalleled leadership in protective services training in the state, nation and worldwide. Under his leadership, the institute provides classroom and hands-on training to firefighters and first responders, conducts important research on issues facing the fire service and educates the public through community outreach.
Jaehne has consistently sought to engage new groups who previously would not have had contact with the university, whether it is taking firefighting training to local fire departments, or bringing educators, government officials and firefighters from across the state, country and world to the institute. Because of his efforts to reach firefighters in previously underserved areas, the institute has expanded its outreach to new fire departments and provides instruction to more than 900 fire departments statewide in all Illinois counties.
In his 14 years leading the Illinois Fire Service Institute, he has served on a variety of boards and commissions on campus, in the state and internationally. He is a co-chair of the Illinois Terrorism Task Force Training Committee and a past vice president of the North American Fire Training Directors. He is a board member on the Asia-Pacific Association for Public Safety Science and Technology and an advisory committee member to the Command, Control and Interoperability Center for Advanced Data Analysis. He was instrumental in developing and leading a series of 17 homeland security planning workshops after 9/11. Jaehne is an adjunct faculty member in the Program in Arms Control, Disarmament and International Security and has taught in the colleges of Law and Business.
Communication professor Christian Sandvig focuses his public engagement work on understanding the development of new communication infrastructures and their implications on public policy. He has created a long-term, mutually beneficial collaboration with the Tribal Digital Village, an innovative philanthropic and government project to provide high-speed solar-powered Internet to Native lands in Southern California. His colleagues at the Tribal Digital Village describe his work as important, and his ability to have the participants "tell their story" has opened many doors for the Tribal Digital Village program.
Sandvig's teaching also incorporates substantial public engagement components. His general education course on technology incorporates a partnership with the Illinois Amish Interpretive Center. His policy-related courses also incorporate a public engagement component by using a panel of people working for nonprofits, artists, reporters and government officials who agree to mentor students. His graduate students have participated in his Tribal Digital Village collaboration and have co-presented the work with him.
In addition to his teaching and outreach projects such as the Tribal Digital Village collaboration, he also has developed an international reputation in the media and in his research specialty. His research has appeared in The Economist, The New York Times, NPR, The Associated Press and other media outlets. His research on infrastructure has changed government policy in the United States and internationally. His work has culminated in the founding of a campus research center called the Center for People and Infrastructures.
Aaron Silver, a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity, founded and is the director of the Leadership Academy at Edison Middle School in Champaign. The academy is designed to teach students at the school the importance of leadership, volunteering and service learning. Not only has he dedicated his time in the last four years to the academy, he also has trained incoming college leaders to ensure the program will be a positive experience for Edison students for many years to come.
Silver also finds the time to efficiently and conscientiously engage himself in a variety of other worthwhile enterprises, such as volunteering in hospitals and serving as the chaplain and moral compass of his social fraternity. In addition, he tutors students in subjects where he once might have struggled, helping them to overcome obstacles.