Announcing the Provost Distinguished Staff Member Award

Over the past few months, the Staff/AAP leadership of the Main Campus has been gathering ideas on how the university might recognize our colleagues who perform at high levels on the duties of their job.

In the Council of Deans we discussed this effort and what different schools already are doing to recognize strong performance. We learned that almost all schools have some way of doing so.

We all agreed that the Provost Office could do more to recognize those staff among us who perform at consistently high levels.

We’re pleased to announce that a new award for Staff/AAP members of our community — the Provost’s Distinguished Staff Award. This award will be given to at most four staff members each year, twice a year with two awards each time.

Upon the award, each awardee will be given the honorific title of “Provost Distinguished Staff Member” for a period of one year following the award date. The award will include a $2500 bonus. The awardee’s name will be placed on a permanent plaque at the university, as well as highlighted in other communications describing their performance as a way to be a role model for others.

The eligibility for the Provost Distinguished Staff Award will require the completion of at least one year of employment as a Main Campus staff/AAP. The nominee must be employed at the time of the award. Anyone in the Georgetown community can nominate, a Georgetown faculty, staff member, or student.

The award would recognize extraordinary achievement on one or more of the following criteria:

Building community, success in generating a sense of work group belonging and shared purpose, a valuing of the contributions of different groups

Supporting student success, effective efforts to enhance the academic success of students.

Innovating in work processes, inventing new ways of completing the tasks in a work group, improving the efficiency of the work.

Helping their colleagues, volunteering to help others in completing their tasks, learning new skills or implementing new procedures.

Taking Initiative, anticipating and launching next steps in a work project, taking responsibility for the final output, checking work, exercising care in each task.

Exemplifying the Spirit of Georgetown, including people for others, community in diversity, contemplation in action, respecting the whole person, inter-group dialogue, faith that does justice.

We will attempt to keep the burden of nominating a colleague as low as possible, while providing critical information about their excellence.

The leadership of the Main Campus Staff/AAP caucus has expressed a willingness to organize a committee to vet the nominations an provide recommendations to the Provost.

These awards will allow us all to identify role models of staff members to hold up for praise and emulation. By holding the honorific title of “Provost Distinguished Staff” member, we hope that others will become knowledgeable of the awardee’s value as a member of our community.

We will be sending out an announcement for the first rounds of nominations, aiming for the first awards in fall, 2024.

I look forward to seeing the nominations and announcing the first Provost Distinguished Staff Members.