Faculty Awards
Purpose
Applications for the 2026 Faculty Community Engagement Award have closed. Please check back in early 2027 for information about how to apply for the 2027 Community Engagement Award.
The Office of Faculty Affairs and the Office for Engagement seek to recognize extraordinary contributions and commitment to the advancement of community engagement on our campus with the communities it serves. This includes exceptional and impactful initiatives that include but are not limited to the following:
- Efforts to advance reciprocal collaborations between UIC and Chicago area communities
- Research and/or teaching initiatives that center community knowledge, capacity and empowerment
- Efforts to strategically support community empowerment and develop community-led research or practice
Faculty Community Engagement Award | Guidelines
This award recognizes outstanding faculty contributions that advance meaningful, reciprocal community engagement through collaborative partnerships, community-centered research and teaching, and initiatives that empower and support community-led scholarship and practice.
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- Faculty (Instructor through Professor), who are in a clinical, pre-clinical, research, or administrative area, and who are based at UIC/UIH or a UIC-affiliated hospital or institution and have been employed at UIC a minimum of two years.
- A letter of nomination (a one-to-two-page description of the persons’ project/contribution), three letters of support and CV should be included.
- May be nominated by faculty, staff, community partners or students. Self-nominations are accepted.
- If self-nominated, the faculty should include a one-to-two-page description of his/her project/contribution, as well as three letters of support and CV.
- One letter should be from a community partner.
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- Noteworthy leadership (in a research, service or teaching capacity) that resulted in significant impact on community members and/or community organization(s).
- Implemented a project/initiative and/or program(s) that cultivates and models UIC’s commitment to community relations and/or community collaboration.
- Provides evidence of a sustained commitment that advances UIC’s commitment to community engagement. This can include scholarly contributions, teaching and mentoring experiences and campus or community service and programming.
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The review panel will make its determinations based on the following required nomination materials, which must be included with all nominations. Conciseness and brevity are encouraged. Failure to supply all required materials may result in a returned application requiring further clarification and additions.
- Required Checklist – Checklist must be submitted as the first page of the nomination packet
- A letter of nomination, which can be from faculty, staff, community partners or students (a one-to-two-page description of the persons’ project/contribution). Candidates can self-nominate. This letter should include a one to two page description of the candidate’s extraordinary contributions/initiatives and explain how they meet the CE criteria described in the award (Nominators should keep in mind that nomination materials will be reviewed at the campus level by a panel of faculty from differing disciplines).
- Three additional detailed letters of support describing the impact of the candidate’s CE work (at least one letter should be from a community partner and a senior faculty member).
- Nominee’s current curriculum vitae
Please submit complete nomination packets at the link provided at the bottom of this webpage.
Questions? Contact engage@uic.edu
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Faculty appointed as UIC Community Engagement Professor will receive a one-time $5,000 award payment. This payment will be processed for direct deposit after the annual Faculty Award Ceremony and Reception.
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UIC Community Engagement Award recipients will be notified by by mid-summer.
Award recipients will be recognized at the Faculty Awards Ceremony and Reception.
