President’s Leadership Awards
The President's Leadership Awards were established in 2017 to honor faculty and staff who embody leadership, service, innovation, courage, collaboration, community building, and diversity and inclusion. The program includes four distinct award categories. Beginning in the 2026–27 academic year, two award categories will be open for nominations each year on a rotating basis, ensuring that all four awards continue to be recognized over time while encouraging broad participation across all award categories. Award recipients are announced at Spring Conference and receive possession of a Heartwood Trophy for one year.
Congratulations to the 2025-26 Awardees!
Kris Higginbotham
Jane Cauvel Cultivating Collaboration and Community-building Award
Sara Rotunno
Brian Young Community Service Award
About
Nomination Criteria and Eligibility
Nominations may be submitted for staff or faculty, as individuals or groups, who demonstrate CC's leadership philosophy and have made impactful contributions in their work. Nominations can be made for contributions that have taken place over a span of years or contributions that have been more recent. An impact can be made at any time within the employee life cycle, whether by someone with a long history at the college or a newer motivating force, and all contributions are eligible for recognition.
Submissions should be approximately 400-600 words, submitted as a Word document or PDF file.
Nominations should include examples and context relevant to the award category. Questions to consider for each award, along with examples of past nominations, are included in the award descriptions below.
At least four nominations are required for an award category to move forward to the review committee process.
Timeline, Selection Process, and Awards
After the nomination window closes, review committees for the award categories featured during that year's nomination cycle evaluate submissions using an equity-conscious rubric. Once scoring is complete, recipients are selected and announced at Spring Conference.
In addition to being honored with an award, award recipients will also be featured on CC websites, receive a $2,500 premium (per award category distributed among groups if applicable), their names are engraved onto a Heartwood Trophy, and are given possession of a Heartwood Trophy for one year. After one year, award recipients are presented an individual block trophy and the Heartwood Trophies are collected for the next cohort of recipients.
For questions about the awards program or the nomination process, please contact the Office of the President.
Brian Young Community Service Award
This awardee demonstrates a continued pattern of voluntary service to the college and exceeding their job duties, as demonstrated by former Vice President for Information Technology Brian Young. The awardee must have been employed by the college for five years or more. See past winners. [examples of winning nominations for the Community Service Award]
Do you know someone who has continuously given of themselves to the college above and beyond their assigned job duties — someone who embodies community service to students, or other members of the staff and faculty, of the college as a whole?
Victor Nelson-Cisneros Diversity and Inclusion Award
This awardee exemplifies the qualities of former Associate Dean of the College Victor Nelson-Cisneros in supporting diversity and inclusion on campus. See past winners. [examples of winning nominations for the Diversity and Inclusion Award]
Do you know someone who makes a point of including diverse perspectives in meetings, conversations, and projects? Someone who is inclusive in planning for the future? Do you have a colleague who intentionally brings all of the right people to the table for decision-making and ensures those voices represent the college's community?
Glenn Brooks Innovation and Courage Award
This awardee displays the courage and innovative qualities of former Dean of the College/Dean of the Faculty Glenn Brooks, who was one of the founders of the Block Plan. See past winners. [examples of winning nominations for the Innovation and Courage Award]
Have you worked with a unit on campus whose members are creative and innovative in approaching their work? Do you work with a group that doesn't assume business as usual is the best practice? A group who consistently thinks outside of the box and pursues excellence every day?
Jane Cauvel Cultivating Collaboration and Community-building Award
This awardee cultivates collaboration on campus and is a community-builder, as exemplified by Jane Cauvel, Professor of Philosophy Emeritus, and the college's first ombudsperson. See past winners. [examples of winning nominations for the Collaboration and Community-Building Award]
Do you know someone who embodies the spirit of community building? Someone who builds and sustains bridges across units or between the faculty and staff? Do you know a team who uses collaboration as a foundational tool in their interactions with other units across campus?
The Heartwood Trophies
Reclaimed cross-sections from the trees taken down in the construction of Tutt Library, the Heartwood Trophies honor not only our people, but also our sense of place. Award recipients will have their names engraved on the growth rings and receive possession of a Heartwood Trophy for one year. Apart from the initial recognition and fortune that comes from being named recipient, rumors of luck and fortuity also surround the trophies. Recipients of years past reported the trophies increased office visitors, evoked pleasant memories, and made office plants grow. There was even a report that an honoree was never without a pen the year they had the trophy.