2011 Sarah Belle Brown Community Service Award
On Tuesday, May 10 President Schmidly presented the 2011 Sarah Belle Brown Community Service Awards in a ceremony at University House. Of 22 nominees, the three recipients were: Dr. Raj Shah, Department of Medicine and Biochemistry, for the faculty award; Theresa Williams, Program Coordinator at El Centro De La Raza, for the staff award; and Christopher Ramirez, graduate student in Community & Regional Planning, for the student award.
These awards were generously endowed by Doug and Sarah Brown to recognize the volunteer service work done by members of the UNM community for the good of the greater community. The faculty and staff recipients each receive $2000 and the student recipient receives a $1000 scholarship.
Raj Shah has worked with the Zuni community for 13 years in helping with education, intervention and prevention of kidney disease and other contributing chronic diseases.
Theresa Williams has volunteered with over 14 organizations including support of female ex-offenders with mentoring, advocacy and transition referral services, and work with organization such as the Underage Drinking Prevention Coalition, The Martin Luther King Jr., Youth Against Violence Conference and Parade, and multiple boards and advisory groups.
Christopher Ramirez has done tremendous volunteer service work in the immigrant and LGBTQ communities as well as community organizing around a litany of social justice issues and organizations.
Congratulations to all three of these recipients as well as all of the nominees.
Nomination Form
Criteria
This award recognizes one faculty member, one staff member and one student who serve as examples of social responsiveness and who have, over an extended period of time, donated considerable personal time and effort advancing the University of New Mexico’s public service mission. Nominations are expected to be for service beyond the general scope of one’s professional or academic assignment at UNM.
Faculty
Faculty members must be tenured, tenure track, clinical educators or lecturers.
Staff
Must be employed at least .50 FTE and not in probationary status.
Student
Must be current, full-time undergraduate or graduate students admitted into a degree program.
Guidelines
- Nominations can be submitted by UNM faculty, staff, students, alumni or community members.
- Multiple nominations for the same candidate are discouraged. Stronger credit is given for nominations that are well thought out and executed than for multiple nominations. More than one person certainly may be listed as nominator.
- Please avoid technical jargon when describing the nominee’s service.
Nomination Deadline: Monday, April 17, 2011 at 5 p.m.
Submit nominations to:
mwood@unm.edu
OR
Attn: Marla Wood, Office of the President
1 University of New Mexico, MSC05 3300
Albuquerque, NM 87131
505.277.2943
Awards
The Sarah Belle Brown Community Service Award is given on an annual basis with an accompanying monetary award of $2000 (less applicable withholding) for a faculty member and a staff member, and $1000 for a student.
Award recipients will be notified and invited to a special recognition ceremony at University House in May.
Background
Serving New Mexico is central to the University’s mission. Everything we do at UNM – education, research, patient care, as well as public service- advances the interests of New Mexico. To support and promote the University’s commitment to public service, former Regent and current Anderson School Dean Doug Brown established this award in honor of his wife, Sarah Belle Brown.
Sarah Belle Brown has devoted considerable time to the community over the past thirty years. Her lifelong interest in helping children and her command of Spanish led her to specialize in teaching English to Spanish-speaking children in the Los Angeles School District. When she and her husband moved to San Francisco, she established a program in that school district focused on assisting newly immigrated Asian children to adapt to a new culture. While developing this program, she also served as a Court Appointed Special Advocate for children in foster care and as Board Chair for the Children’s Home Society, California’s largest social services agency. After relocating to New Mexico, Mrs. Brown continued her focus on children’s needs as a trustee of Mount Vernon College and joined the founding board of the charter school, Amy Biehl High School. She is a founding member of the United Way of Central New Mexico’s Alexis de Toqueville Society, co-founded the UNM President’s Club, and co-sponsored a professorship and several fellowships at the Anderson Schools of Management.
In addition to her volunteer work and philanthropic activities, Sarah Belle Brown focuses a great deal of time on her family, a husband of 30 years and two grown sons.
