Director's Awards

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award

Montana State University Extension believes professional and community excellence are best achieved through intellectual and personal growth that is diverse, culturally relevant, and inclusive. We prioritize efforts to create and support diverse working, teaching, and learning environments that welcome, respect, and nurture all community members and staff. We cultivate inclusive environments by celebrating the diverse dimensions of people’s identities and promoting awareness and understanding of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Each MSU Extension employee has an important role to ensure that our programs are open and accessible to all clients in accordance with the goals of the program, and to maintain a positive and equitable environment. We are all responsible to recruit and retain people who are traditionally underrepresented in our programs and employee groups. We each become more effective in teaching and learning when we are open to diversity of ideas, cultures, experiences and backgrounds. Our lives are not only enriched but also contribute to building healthier communities for learning and living.

Award for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion:

The MSU Extension Award in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion recognizes Extension professionals, individually or as a team, who design and implement programs and opportunities serving traditionally underserved populations in our communities and highlight building programs, learning opportunities, and facilitating environments that address Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

Both nominations and applications are encouraged.

A submission for this award can be a self-nomination or a nomination by a peer.

Recognition of programming in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion may include:

• Development of culturally relevant curriculum and programs for audiences who are traditionally under-represented and under-served.
• Engagement and inclusion of faculty and staff members in creating awareness of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
• Engagement in service opportunities to enhance MSU Extension’s commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
• Developing or reimagining programs and efforts that promote topics of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to diverse audiences.

To apply for consideration for the Montana State University Extension Director’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award, please write a narrative of no more than three pages answering the following prompts:

1. Name of program or event
2. Name, phone, and e-mail of person completing the application
3. Nominee or team leaders (names and titles) who contributed to the success of the program (leadership may be shared with a non-Extension professional)
4. Nominee or team members (names and titles) who contributed to the success of the program (individuals can be Extension and non-Extension staff, as long as some are employed by Extension)
5. Timeline of the program or effort.
6. Include a narrative describing each of the following:
   • Describe how the individual(s) and programming effort being nominated for the award addressed Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in our organization and communities
   • Innovativeness of the program design and development
   • Describe the target audience(s)
   • Describe how needs were identified
   • Delivery methods and media used, and justification for methods used 
   • How efforts increased the impact and awareness of programming in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
   • If applicable, provide evaluation and assessment data that describe and display the impact programming work in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion had for the target audience

This nomination award should be submitted as a Word Document to __________ no later than (Date to be determined each year) for consideration in the Fall of _____. Awardees will be announced at Fall Annual Conference.

Email nominations as a Microsoft Word document on or before (date) to: ___________

Scoring of Applications:

Applications will be reviewed and scored as follows:

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MSUE Director’s Team Award

The purpose of this award is to recognize and promote team efforts to solve problems locally and across the state.  Additionally, it is to acknowledge and encourage collaboration, collegiality, and interdisciplinary work.

Both nominations and applications are encouraged.

Application paperwork should include:

1. Category: large (5+ major collaborators) or small team (3-4 collaborators)
2. Name of program or major event
3. Name, phone, and e-mail of person completing the application
4. Team leaders (names and titles) who contributed to the success of the program (leadership may be shared with a non-Extension professional)
5. Team members (names and titles) who contributed to the success of the program (individuals can be Extension and non-Extension staff)
6. Timeline of the program or effort
7. Geographic focus or scope of the program/event
8. For the awards ceremony at Annual Conference and website, provide one sentence describing the program and one sentence describing the major impact(s).
9. Attach a narrative of two pages or less describing each of the following:
   • The responsiveness to Montana/county needs
   • Innovativeness of the program design and development
   • Timeliness and importance of issues addressed and why a “team” approach was most appropriate
   • How the objectives were evaluated and what the outcomes were (if you have no evaluation data yet, consider applying next year to strengthen the application)
   • List of teaching materials (sample requests may be made)
   • Delivery methods and media used, and justification
   • Engagement of team members (agents, specialists, and others)
   • Needs and evidence of interdisciplinary and/or multi-disciplinary efforts
   • Brief summary of the program’s impact
   • Attach any marketing materials used

This nomination award should be submitted as a Word Document to _____________ no later than (Date ot be determined) for consideration in the Fall of ____.

Email nominations as a Microsoft Word document on or before (date) to: ___________

Scoring of Applications: