In January 2020, App State presented its inaugural Inclusive Excellence Awards. These awards are designed to shine a light on individuals at App State and in the community whose work demonstrates their active, intentional and ongoing commitment to inclusive excellence. Additional award categories were added in 2022.
“The efforts of the App State Community work in concert with those of our surrounding communities. Together, we are working to create an environment that supports a full breadth of belief, thought and community.”
App State Chancellor Sheri Everts
2023 Award Criteria and Nominations
The 2023 Inclusive Excellence Awards Luncheon will take place on Wednesday, April 26. Recipients of the following four awards will be announced at the event: Inclusive Excellence for Faculty/Staff Award, Inclusive Excellence for Students Award, Inclusive Excellence in the Community Award and Inclusive Excellence for Youth Award.
Inclusive Excellence for Faculty/Staff Award
Nomination criteria: The Inclusive Excellence for Faculty/Staff Award celebrates a distinguished App State faculty or staff member (including professors of all ranks as well as EHRA and SHRA employees) who has collaborated with members of the campus community to advance diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging at App State. Nominees should have made a significant contribution toward creating a diverse and inclusive campus environment through one or more of the following:
- Embedding diversity, equity and inclusion into a structural/institutional aspect of their department or classroom.
- Participating and engaging in diversity and inclusion events on campus.
- Fostering and supporting an equitable campus climate through visibility, advocacy, communication and education.
- Contributing to other areas critical to establishing diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging.
Inclusive Excellence for Students Award
Nomination criteria: The Inclusive Excellence for Students Award celebrates an App State undergraduate or graduate student who has advanced diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging at App State. Nominees should have made a significant contribution toward creating a diverse and inclusive community through one or more of the following:
- Advocating for the rights of and justice for minoritized groups within or outside of App State.
- Using scholarship to create awareness of diversity and inclusion within the campus community.
- Recruiting new students from minoritized groups.
- Encouraging diverse perspectives on App State’s campus through demonstrative actions.
- Contributing to other areas critical to establishing diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging.
Inclusive Excellence for Community Award
Nomination criteria: The Inclusive Excellence in the Community Award celebrates an individual or group who has advanced diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging in their community consistent with App State’s mission, vision and values. Nominees should have made a significant contribution toward creating change through one or more of the following:
- Demonstrating a commitment to diversity and inclusion through scholarship, advocacy and leadership that deepens and furthers App State’s goal to be inclusive in meaningful ways locally and globally.
- Providing leadership and/or mentorship to underrepresented groups.
- Demonstrating sustained service and significant impact in the community consistent with App State’s values.
Inclusive Excellence for Youth Award
Nomination criteria: The Inclusive Excellence for Youth Award celebrates an individual or group of individuals under the age of 18 years old who has made a significant contribution in diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging in their community consistent with App State’s mission, vision and values. Nominees should have made a significant contribution toward creating significant change through one or more of the following:
- Demonstrating a commitment toward diversity and inclusion through advocacy and leadership that deepens and furthers our goals to be inclusive in meaningful ways locally and globally.
- Providing leadership and/or mentorship to underrepresented groups.
- Demonstrating sustained service and significant impact in the community consistent with App State’s values.
Past Awards
2023 recipients
- Caitlin Langley
Inclusive Excellence for Students
App State junior and first-generation college student Caitlin Langley, from Prospect Hill, works as a student assistant in App State’s Major General Edward M. Reeder Jr. Student Veteran Resource Center, where she advocates for other students and strives to make everyone feel welcome in the space. As the first female president of the university’s Student Veterans Association, she has organized numerous community-building events to recruit a wider number of veterans, including women, to get involved in the center’s activities. Langley came to App State in 2018, after serving in the United States Army Reserve. - IlaSahai Prouty
Inclusive Excellence for Faculty/Staff
IlaSahai Prouty, an associate professor in App State’s Department of Art, has made significant contributions to advancing diversity, equity and inclusion efforts on App State’s Boone campus by developing and teaching the classes Art for Social Change and Socially Engaged Art. She has also created socially engaged public artworks and experiences, helped create App State’s creative engagement and social change minor, and served as a member of the university’s Inclusive Teaching Lab and Inclusive Teaching Team. - Blue Bear Bus Summer Team
Inclusive Excellence in the Community
The Blue Bear Bus of Mount Airy City Schools is a refurbished school bus that serves as a mobile classroom for science, technology, engineering, the arts and mathematics (STEAM) classes. The bus first rolled into the five Mount Airy Housing Authority neighborhoods during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, where, each week, the program’s team provided families with first-hand experience of how teachers and instructional support staff work with students. - Naomi and Lucero Escobar Jaramillo
Inclusive Excellence for Youth
Watauga High School students Naomi and Lucero Escobar Jaramillo have been actively involved in promoting social justice and celebrating diversity in their community for many years. The sisters participate in the Immigrant Justice Coalition in Boone and are members of the Las Rosas y El Clavel dance troupe. They worked to form a new Watauga High club called Manos Unidas, or Hands United, which provides an affirming place for Latine students to celebrate their culture and give back to their community.
2022 recipients
- Dr. Jamie Levine
Inclusive Excellence for Faculty
Levine is an associate professor in App State’s Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences and she established a diversity, equity and inclusion committee within the department. She has also served as an inclusive excellence liaison in App State’s Center for Academic Excellence for three years. - Yolanda Adams
Inclusive Excellence in the Community
Adams is the family resource coordinator for Watauga County Schools. She implemented the Juntos Program, which helps encourage 8th through 12th grade Latino students to pursue higher education. She also works to build bridges between the Latino community and law enforcement by helping organize events, including Coffee with a Cop and the Latino Fair. - Chandler Smith
Inclusive Excellence for Undergraduate Students
Smith is an App State senior majoring in nutrition and foods. She has worked to be an advocate for her peers and those in the community and to support programming on campus, including Body Positive App State. - Eris Jenkins
Inclusive Excellence for Graduate Students
Jenkins is an App State graduate student majoring in student affairs administration. They are an intern in the Office of Diversity, the residence director of Appalachian Heights and the office assistant for the Henderson Springs LGBT Center. - Lamont Sellers
Inclusive Excellence for Staff
Sellers is App State’s director of Intercultural Student Affairs. He has worked to revitalize the university’s intercultural student development and to help the campus community discuss potentially triggering topics in a collaborative manner. - University Housing
Inclusive Excellence for a Department
Staff members in App State’s University Housing have participated in professional development opportunities, including implicit bias training and the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI). Regarding the latter, the staff attended one-on-one sessions with certified facilitators to process their results and establish personal development plans.
2020 recipients
- Dr. Claudia Cartaya-Marin
Inclusive Excellence for Faculty
Cartaya-Marin is a professor in and chair of App State’s A.R. Smith Department of Chemistry and Fermentation Sciences and serves on the Chief Diversity Officer’s Advisory Board. She created a summer bridge program designed for incoming students transitioning into STEM programs and helped found APP Unidos, the university’s Hispanic/Latino faculty and staff association. - Rabbi Stephen Roberts
Inclusive Excellence in the Community
Roberts has served as the spiritual leader of the Temple of the High Country since 2013 and is an active member of the High Country Multi-Faith Clergy and Leaders. He has edited two textbooks on pastoral care and founded ChaplainDL, a distance learning continuing education platform for professional chaplains. - Watauga County Schools Coffee Talk program
Inclusive Excellence for Youth
The Watauga County Schools Coffee Talk began at Hardin Park Elementary in 2004 and expanded to Watauga High in 2008. Through this instructional program, students with disabilities plan, run and host a coffee shop for faculty, staff, parents and community members that allows the students to refine skills related to academics, vocations, healthful living and social interactions. Each month, Coffee Talk involves 14 students at Hardin Park Elementary and up to 30 students at Watauga High. The program has also donated to local charities, including the Health and Hunger Coalition, Hospitality House, OASIS (Opposing Abuse with Service, Information and Shelter), Western Youth Network and Watauga Humane Society.