CENTENNIAL AWARDS
10 faculty, staff honored for excellence in service, leadership and spirit
The Centennial Awards for Excellence represent the highest awards given to ECU faculty and staff for excellence in service, leadership and spirit. The awards are given annually with up to three recipients per category. A committee chooses the winners from peer nominations.
“The Centennial Awards selection committee tries to look at the nominees who have gone above and beyond the scope of their job responsibilities and strived to positively impact the greater community,” said Waz Miller, director of residence life for Campus Living. “We carefully review the recommendation as well as the support letter to ensure we grasp details, qualities and contributions, as these are of paramount importance. We selected two recipients for the faculty this year within the service category, as we had two distinguished nominees who contributed in different ways.”
Dr. Jocelyn Nelson and Dr. Denise Donica are two faculty service awards recipients who exemplify the work taking place each day at ECU.
Nelson is active in professional organizations as well as the local community. According to her nomination, her service to her fellow faculty and her field is unmatched, and her ethos and commitment to social justice is also apparent in her involvements and achievements.
Nelson serves as the vice president of the ECU Chapter of the American Association of University Professors. She has created a Contingent Faculty Interests Committee to produce and collaborate on several resolutions related to advancing protections and professional development interests for fixed-term faculty.
Donica is a servant leader who assumed interim duties and was subsequently named chair of the Department of Occupational Therapy. Her nomination mentioned that she exudes care, sensitivity and kindness, especially to the students who had their summer fieldwork delayed due to COVID-19. Donica was appointed by Gov. Beverly Purdue in 2012 to serve on the North Carolina Board of Occupational Therapy, whose mission is to protect the public through oversight of 7,000 occupational therapy practitioners. She played a critical role in developing and presenting sessions on ethics before and throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, which has presented many anomalies for therapists and related professionals.
(Video by Rich Klindworth)
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This year’s Centennial Awards for Excellence recipients are:
Service
- Jocelyn Nelson, Faculty, AAH Theory Composition and Music
- Denise Donica, Faculty, Occupational Therapy/College of Allied Health Sciences
- Jami Leibowitz, Administrator, Global Affairs
- Corey Adams, Staff, Coastal Studies Institute
Leadership
- Venkat N. Gudivada, Faculty, Department of Computer Science
- Melissa Nolan, Administrator, Human Development and Family Science
- George Crocker, Staff, Division of University Advancement
Spirit
- Kristina Simeonsson, Department of Pediatrics, BSOM
- David Bucci, Administrator, College of Engineering and Technology Student Success Center
- Jaryd Earlosky, Staff, Office of Financial Aid