Community Engagement Professional Award Application
Established in 2006, this award honors community engagement professionals who perform the critical work of cultivating, facilitating, and sustaining high-quality, meaningful, and reciprocal partnerships with community organizations. These individuals play an essential role in advocating for and maintaining the overall community engagement mission and infrastructure of the institution by supporting faculty, other professionalstaff, students, and departments across the institution as they work in and with their local communities. These community engagement professionals possess the knowledge, skills, and ability to secure community-based, co-educational environments that strengthen students’ confidence, competency, and self-efficacy, all while playing an integral part in creating and sustaining a culture of engagement.
Eligibility
To receive this competitive award, nominees must be full-time professional staff employed at a Community-Engaged Alliance member institution.
Timeline
- Nominations Due: September 18, 2026
- Peer-Review: September 19 – October 2, 2026
- Recipient Announced: November 6 – 2026 Idea to Action Incubator
- Awardee Engagement: November 2026 through May 2027
Nomination Process
All nominations/self-nominations must be submitted electronically via the Community-Engaged Alliance GivePulse page.
Nomination Form
- Personal Statement (required)
- Describe the nominee’s understanding of community engagement, how their efforts have brought about
positive change, and how they have influenced others to work with local communities (e.g., community
organizations, local communities, community members). - Discuss how the nominee’s involvement in community engagement has encouraged them to develop a better
understanding of how they can contribute to shared interests and common goals with community partners.
- Describe the nominee’s understanding of community engagement, how their efforts have brought about
- Evidence of Community Engagement (required)
- Provide a brief overview of the nominee’s community engagement activities. This may include direct work with
community organizations/members, supporting others’ work with community engagement, departmental
community engagement initiatives, community-based teaching activities, or community-based research activities.
- Provide a brief overview of the nominee’s community engagement activities. This may include direct work with
- Highlights of Accomplishments(optional)
- List awards won, recognitions received, publications, grants awarded, or other accomplishments.
- Letters of Recommendation/Nomination (Optional)
Attach any letters of recommendation or nomination from faculty, staff, students, or community partners.
Review Criteria
Nominees are reviewed based on the following criteria:
- Articulation of their understanding of community engagement and how community engagement has been
integrated throughout their curricular and co-curricular experiences - Evidence of their development as a civic-minded leader, and their ability to foster civic growth and development
among their peers. - Evidence of how their community-engaged learning has led to leadership on campus and in the community.
Award Recipient Engagement
Community-Engaged Alliance will highlight the work and engage the award recipient in the following ways (October to May):
- Announced at the 2025 CEA Annual Retreat. All nominees are asked to attend.
- Showcase award recipients in the following ways:
- Present or serve as a facilitator/moderator during the 2026 CEA Annual Retreat
- Present their research and/or program models via webinar and expert lecture sessions.
Award Materials
Award winners will be presented with an award plaque and a $500 cash gift. This cash gift is payable after the recipient’s w-9 is received.
View highlights of previous recipients and learn more about the Community Engagement Professionals Award.