Engagement Award Winners Recognized by Purdue Office of Engagement

Corps of Engagement Award

Corps of Engagement Award is awarded to a team of faculty, staff, students, and/or community stakeholders for outstanding partnership and achievement in the scholarship of engagement.

Award goes to
The Center for Health Equity and Innovation (CHEqI)

The Center for Health Equity and Innovation (CHEqI) was established by the Purdue College of Pharmacy (PUCOP) in January 2020. Its mission is to address the needs of populations who are underserved through innovations in health equity. CHEqI coordinates students, interdisciplinary faculty, and local and global partners to reduce health inequity collaboratively through innovative and proven strategies in under-resourced communities.

CHEqI is committed to working with communities and community-based organizations in a community-first approach to improve health equity through reciprocity, equitable distribution of resources, and shared decision-making. CHEqI does this by implementing and supporting initiatives to improve preventive healthcare, access to care, and care optimization, with a focus on the social determinants of health (SDOH). CHEqI is one of the first and only health equity-focused centers embedded within a College of Pharmacy in the nation.

Student volunteers engage with individuals experiencing homelessness, immigrants, individuals with limited health literacy and numeracy, trans and gender diverse people, children and adolescents from under-resourced communities, among other groups that have been marginalized. Under-resourced communities are at the center of all CHEqI-driven initiatives.

CHEqI faculty have implemented innovative collaborative practice agreements with free clinics onsite at food pantries. CHEqI faculty have also broadened local and national networks due to CHEqI initiatives.

Faculty Engagement Fellow Award

Faculty Engagement Fellow Award is awarded to a full professor whose work has led to a strong record in the Scholarship of Engagement.

Award goes to
Dr. Jennifer Bay

Dr. Jennifer Bay is a professor in the College of Liberal Arts. For the past thirteen years, Professor Bay and her students have contributed to the region’s fight against food insecurity, touching the lives of over 12,000 food pantry clients, 1,300 volunteers, and 175 member agencies at Food Finders Food Bank, which serves Tippecanoe and its 15 surrounding counties. In 2010, Professor Bay established a reciprocal community partnership with Food Finders, in which she and her students conduct research, write reports, and produce brochures and other supplementary training materials to help Food Finders with their mission.

Professor Bay developed new and innovative methods for documenting food insecurity and the impact of Food Finders’ new interventions. With the opening of Food Finders’ Food Resource and Education Center (FREC), clients would be offered educational courses and introduced to Resource Coordination, in which clients meet with consultants to help address critical needs. Professor Bay’s graduate students worked with Food Finders to develop initial assessment materials that measured how the center improves the lives of clients by helping them address conditions of poverty. In 2017, her undergraduate students produced an impact report on how well the FREC has achieved its goals in the first year of operation.

Professor Bay continued to develop new ways to measure success among Food Finders’ clients, including the secret box project where clients can share their daily struggles, pivot tables to analyze the data that Food Finders was already collecting, and mapping methods for understanding where clients live and their proximity to basic human needs.

Professor Bay also mentors graduate students to become scholars of engagement. She developed an innovative graduate seminar that trains graduate students who want to develop reciprocal community partnerships in the courses they teach and helps to shape them into engaged scholars. As part of the course, students not only study the scholarship of engagement and service-learning but also participate in service-learning projects with Food Finders and other community organizations.

Faculty Engagement Scholar Award

Faculty Engagement Scholar Award is awarded to an assistant or associate professor with an outstanding record of early achievement in, and strong indication of future contribution to, the Scholarship of Engagement.

Award goes to
Dr. Casey Mull

Dr. Casey Mull is the Assistant Director of Extension and Program Leader for 4-H Youth Development and concurrently serves as a clinical associate professor in the Department of Agricultural Sciences Education and Communication. Dr. Mull leads programs that help provide educational experiences and serve as a laboratory of engaged scholarly work for youth across Indiana.

Dr. Mull is a nationally recognized expert, and contributes to scholarship, in the areas of positive youth program development, boundary spanning within higher education community engagement, and military youth programs. Dr. Mull began working with the 4-H Military Partnership in 2006 and gained responsibilities with the Department of the Air Force Headquarters, Child and Youth Services in 2009.

Dr. Mull promotes work with military-connected audiences and engages scholarship within the larger Cooperative Extension System. He believes the greatest reward in working with military-connected audiences is when youth find a sense of belonging for the first time or when someone feels the call to military service because of their experiences in the 4-H military partnership.

Dr. Mull utilizes his capacity as a Public Affairs Officer in the U.S. Air Force Reserve to bridge military and higher education communities. He continues to expand significantly the level of community-engaged scholarship between the military community and Purdue University. Since joining Purdue, he has dedicated his time to identifying opportunities and pathways for the university to support youth development.

Service-Learning Award

Service-Learning Award is awarded to a faculty member who demonstrates an impact on students and the community both in and out of the classroom, portrays consideration of and commitment to the needs of community partners and a long-term commitment to the service-learning community.

Award goes to
Dr. Ellen Schellhase

Dr. Ellen Schellhase is a clinical professor in the College of Pharmacy. She has been involved with service-learning at Purdue since 2009 when she was a Purdue Service-Learning Fellow. She used what she learned in this program within the Purdue Kenya Program and as the College of Pharmacy Director of International Engagement where she oversees approximately 50 students annually in Colombia, Kenya, and the United Kingdom.

Dr. Schellhase was the founding member of the award-winning Purdue Kenya Partnership (PKP) where she has served as the education and program coordinator since its inception in 2003. She built and continues to support community engagement and student education. One of her primary responsibilities is to prepare students for their 8-week experience in Kenya through pre-departure preparation. The preparation includes familiarizing the students with their care activities, community partners, and proposed service-learning projects so students can be ready to engage when they arrive.

In 2016, Dr. Schellhase began a partnership with the University of Antioquia (UA) in Medellin, Colombia. This was a new international experience for the College of Pharmacy and has assisted in bolstering the Colombia Purdue Partnership while creating an opportunity for students to enhance their Spanish language skills. Dr. Schellhase has cultivated strong partnerships with members of the UA and Medellin communities which is creating opportunities for students traveling to Colombia to engage in service-learning activities.

Staff Engagement Award

Staff Engagement Award is awarded to a staff member who has collaborated in sustained synergistic partnerships within his or her community; embodies the scholarship of engagement, not only to strengthen Purdue University, but also community partners; and continually gives back, through community service, in order to improve the lives of others.

Award goes to
Dr. Megan Conklin

Dr. Megan Conklin is a Health Equity Fellow for the Purdue University Center for Healthy Equity and Innovation (CHEqI). She is commitment to serving under-resourced communities is evident throughout her involvement in various initiatives and partnerships. While completing her PharmD training at Purdue she assisted patients living with HIV through her volunteer work at the Damien Center and National Alliance on Mental Illness-West Central Indiana (NAME-WCI). During the COVID-19 pandemic, Megan volunteered to provide virtual lectures on mental health challenges in high school for students at Purdue Polytechnic High School Englewood campus.

Dr. Conklin’s scholarly endeavors reflect her dedication to understanding and addressing healthcare disparities. Her involvement in research projects, ranging from assessing the impact of cash transfers on chronic disease outcomes to exploring the role of community pharmacists in opioid use disorder practices, demonstrates her commitment to evidence-based solutions and innovative approaches to healthcare delivery.

Dr. Conklin prioritizes the needs of community members and is focused on bringing healthcare services to the community. During her time with CHEqI, she identified an unmet need of communities facing homelessness and food insecurity. As a lecturer, she shares her expertise on patient-centered care and patient safety and informatics, providing future healthcare professionals with the knowledge and skills necessary to provide compassionate and culturally sensitive care.

Her dedication to the sustainability of community impact, as exemplified by her commitment to training CHEqI staff, volunteers, and pharmacy students, ensures that her initiatives will continue to thrive and evolve. Her contributions uplift the communities she serves.

CICP Faculty Commercialization Award

CICP Faculty Commercialization Award is an annual award given to tenure-track faculty, clinical/professional faculty and researchers who have contributed to the commercialization of Purdue generated or owned technologies.

Award goes to
Brooke L. Beier

Brooke L. Beier is a senior vice president for Purdue Innovates. A Purdue University alumna, Brooke Beier joined Purdue Research Foundation in 2013 and has since held many important roles within the organization, most recently Senior Vice President of Purdue Innovates upon its inception in 2023.

As leader, Beier oversees the personnel under the umbrella of efforts at Purdue Innovates, including the Incubator and Office of Technology Commercialization (OTC). 

At her direction, Purdue Innovates is a comprehensive system, streamlining access to both technology commercialization and startup support resources. This includes de-risking technologies for licensing to startups and industry, incubating and accelerating Purdue-connected startups, and providing investment support to Boilermakers. Under her leadership, Purdue has been ranked #6 in the world for U.S. patents issued from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Beier holds a BS, MS, and PhD in biomedical engineering from the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering of Purdue University. Her graduate research focused on the development of wireless, implantable medical devices in the fields of cardiology, diabetes, and spinal cord injury.

Jefferson Award

Jefferson Award Winners are annual awards sponsored by Multiplying Good to recognize and celebrate outstanding public service by individual Purdue employees.

Award winner
Manabu Taketani

Manabu Taketani is a program administrator for the Asian American & Asian Resource and Culture Center at Purdue University. Manabu has facilitated over 100 weekly opportunities for individuals to gather, share a meal, and learn from one another by organizing the Lunch & Learn program. This program has brought together the community in Greater Lafayette over the past five years with more than 700 individuals participating during the 2022-2023 academic year alone. Manabu also volunteers his time as a faculty advisor to multiple student organizations. Through his guidance and mentorship, he has provided countless opportunities for professional growth and community building. Manabu is a member of the Greater Lafayette Indiana Global Fest Committee for the past four years where he has volunteered his time to help make the event successful. Manabu’s contributions have played a vital role in fostering a more inclusive and interconnected Greater Lafayette. His tireless efforts have brought people together, promoted cross-cultural understanding, and empowered students to reach their full potential. Taketani has been selected by Multiplying Good to compete for national recognition later this year in New York City.

Award winner
Madia Bickett

Madia Bickett created and managed a local farmers market in Stockwell, IN. Bickett started the Stockwell Farmers Market in 2019 after moving to the small community. Bickett noticed a need for a community event that would bring the residents together, improve the community, and share the beauty and small-town charm with local Tippecanoe County residents. The market started small with five vendors and has grown to more than 30 vendors every month. The market was nominated for Best Indiana Farmers Market. The market also works with the group Keep Stockwell Beautiful to share ways to beautify the Stockwell community. The market has grown to bring new ways to help the community with high food costs with low-cost alternatives.

Award winner
Natasha Harris

Natasha Harris serves as Associate Director of Science for the Multicultural Science Programs. Harris helped establish the foundational blocks for the Emerging Leaders Scholars program at Purdue University. The Emerging Leaders Scholars Program is a comprehensive four-year experience designed to maximize student potential for recipients of the Emerging Leaders Scholarship. Participants of this program include participation in an early start during their first summer on campus and engagement in a high-impact educational experience each successive summer such as academic coursework, study abroad, research, internships, and service-learning. Having established this foundation, Harris continues to build out the program within the College of Science. Her dedication to student success, especially in underrepresented student populations, is at the forefront of her work and woven into every event or program she coordinates.