Recognition reception honors excellence

Recipients of the President's Award for Innovation, the President's Medal for Social Embeddedness, and the top multiple SUN Award for Individual Excellence winners were honored by ASU President Michael Crow at the President's Recognition Reception and award ceremony April 11 in the Alumni Lounge of the Memorial Union on ASU's Tempe campus.

SUN Awards for Individual Excellence

The SUN Award for Individual Excellence is a peer recognition award that provides specific and immediate recognition to fellow employees for demonstrations of individual excellence in such areas as creative activity, continuous improvement, fostering cooperation, providing exemplary service, valuing diversity, and promoting ASU. During 2006, more than 1,300 SUN Award certificates were presented to ASU employees.

Four individuals were selected as ASU's 2006 top multiple SUN Award recipients. They are:

• Stephen Hopkins, New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences.

• Esther Martinez, Office of the Vice President and Executive Vice Provost, Polytechnic campus.

• Melody Philipp, Barrett, the Honors College .

• Christina Smith, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Programs.

President's Award for Innovation

One team received the President's Award for Innovation. This award recognizes individual employees or teams at the university for innovations that improve educational, administrative or other organizational processes through creative approaches. The innovation is an original program, project, initiative or technique that has been implemented and has demonstrated positive sustainable results. The winner is:

• ASU Unlimited Access bus pass – Since July 2005, ASU Parking and Transit Services has offered all ASU students, faculty and staff a free ASU U-Pass – an unlimited access bus pass valid on all Valley Metro routes. The ASU community is now the largest single group using mass transit in the state. More than 1 million riders are from ASU, which means that the university community helped prevent 176 tons of pollution from being added to the air in fiscal year 2006.

ASU team members include Theresa Fletcher, Judi Nelson and Linda Riegel of Parking and Transit Services; Sam Wheeler, Auxiliary Business Services; and Patricia White, Sandra Day O'Conner College of Law. Community partners include Carlos de Leon, Eric Iwersen, Sue Taaffe, and Robert Yabes of the city of Tempe ; Jim Dickie, ADOT, Public Transportation; and Marc Soronson, HDR/S.R. Beard & Associates.

President's Medal for Social Embeddedness

Three teams received the President's Medal for Social Embeddedness. This award recognizes ASU departmental, interdepartmental or multidisciplinary teams that have demonstrated excellence in identifying a community need or issue and fostering mutually supportive partnerships with Arizona communities to implement successful solutions. The winners are:

• Immigration Law & Policy Clinic – The clinic provides legal services to undocumented individuals, mostly battered children, who are seeking to obtain immigration relief. During the course of the semester, each clinic student from ASU's Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law spends an average of 300 hours working on cases in collaboration with Friendly House, the Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project and pro bono attorneys.

ASU team members include Evelyn Cruz and Ana Moore of the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law. Community partners include Aryah Somers of the Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project; and Richard Tobin of Lewis & Rocca LLP.

• New American City : Artists Look Forward – This partnership of ASU departments, community organizations, and 150 Maricopa County-based artists explored the role of artists and the art being produced in one of the fastest-growing and changing urban areas in the country: Phoenix . The goal of the project, which was anchored by a major exhibition at the ASU Art Museum , was to raise public awareness and generate meaningful dialog about the importance of an arts community in our city.

ASU team members include Sherry Ahrentzen and Ernesto Fonseca of the Stardust Center for Affordable Homes and the Family; Daniel Britton, Daniel Collins and Betsy Schneider of the School of Art; Nan Ellin, School of Public Affairs; Mary Fitzgerald and Jennifer Tsukayama, Department of Dance; Patricia Gober, School of Geographical Sciences; Renata Hejduk, Nancy Levinson, Sara Loughman, Sherrie Medina and Wellington Reiter, College of Design; Brenda Shears, Global Institute for Sustainablility; and Heather Lineberry and John Spiak, ASU Art Museum. Community partners include Cindy Dach, Changing Hands Bookstore; Rick Engelmann, Chandler High School; Greg Esser, Roosevelt Row CDC; Allen Goode and Tim Kelly, Hillstone Restaurant Group; Ken Keene, Centennial High School; Kimber Lanning, Stinkweed Records; Ruby Lerner, Creative Capital; Nancy Scott Lyon, Nancy Scott Lyon Public Relations; Myra Millinger and Cyd West, Maricopa Partnership for Arts and Culture; Matthew Moore, Sycamore Farms; Jahm Najafi, Najafi Cos.; Rebecca Ross and Kate Timmerman, Eye Lounge; Matthew Salenger and Maria Salenger, coLAB; Alicia Wadas, the Lavidge Co.; Jamie Watts, Ironwood High School; Vanessa Westfall, small giant; and Denice Westover, Snowflake High School.

• PDS TENET project – The Professional Development School Teacher Education Network of Excellence through Technology (PDS TENET) project is a school-university teacher education partnership for high-poverty urban and rural communities in Arizona . With district-based presence and through distance learning technology, ASU is working with its K-12 partners to provide high-quality, professional development and to prepare excellent new teachers in their own communities.

ASU team members include Nicholas Appleton, Mary Lou Fulton College of Education; Barbara Berheim, Ray Buss, Linda Califano, JoAnn Cleland (retired), Matt Crum, Patrick Dehner, Franklin Elliott, Peggy George, Barbara Giles, Becky Grijalva, Sally Hurwitz, Tracy Johnson, Steve Klister, Mari Koerner, Angie Linder, Faye Luna, Linda Montoya, George Powers, Scott Ridley, Michelle Rojas, Sonia Saenz, Kelly Stranathan, William Svoboda (retired), Tracy Tadrick and Rose Welsh of the College of Teacher Education and Leadership; and Steve Des Georges, Public Affairs. Community partners include Javier Abrego, Chinle Unified School District; Wilma Basnett, Mary Pistor, Joann Talazus (now retired), and Patricia Tate of Osborn Elementary School District; April Edwards, Global Nomad Consulting; Joe Frazier, Indian Oasis-Baboquivari Unified School District; Eugene Judson, Arizona Department of Education; Earl Pettit, Whiteriver Unified School District; Pam Santesteban, Madison School District; Cathy Stafford, Avondale Elementary School District; and Gail Zamar, Douglas Unified School District.

For more information about the awards program, or to read the full abstracts, visit the Web site www.asu.edu/hr/programs/erp/employee_rec_programs.html.