Office of Engagement’s

Engaging Rising Star Award

All Awards
award-trophy

2025 Award Winners

Lindsay DeBoer & Amanda Deering

Dr. Lindsay DeBoer (left) and Dr. Amanda Deering (right) have been named recipients of the new Engagement Emerging Leaders Award, which recognizes early-career faculty who integrate community engagement into their teaching, research, and outreach. Dr. DeBoer’s work advances engineering education in crisis contexts, empowering youth as agents of change through partnerships such as the Tumaini Innovation Center in Kenya, while Dr. Deering applies her expertise in produce safety to foster Good Agricultural Practices trainings and expand capacity through Purdue’s Food Safety Hub. Together, their work exemplifies engaged scholarship by building reciprocal partnerships, advancing innovative research, and creating meaningful societal impact.

Honorees will be invited to attend the Community Engagement Summit on March 3rd, 2026

Nomination forms should be submitted by email as one PDF file by January 20th, 2026 to Julie Gibbs at jagibbs@purdue.edu

Awards Committee may recognize multiple winners in each category or choose not to present an award, based on their discretion

The Engaging Rising Star Award honors assistant or associate professors in clinical/practice, and assistant or associate professors on the tenure track.

Who is Eligible for This Award

The engaging rising star award recognizes assistant/associate clinical/practice, and assistant/associate tenure-track professors (full professors are not eligible; they can be considered for the Morrill award) that are showing tremendous potential when integrating community engagement in their teaching, research, and/or engagement efforts resulting in broader or societal impact.

A key requirement for this award is that community engagement aligns with Purdue University’s Office of Engagement Framework and Protocol. In other words, community engagement follows the community engagement definition; aspires to one or more of the outcomes delineated; and leverages one or more of the onramps described, to name a few.

Here’s How to Nominate

Nominations for this award can be received from colleagues, department heads, deans, etc. Self-nominations are also welcome. Note that team-related nominations should be submitted under the Engaged Unit/Program award (see below). Winners will receive a $1,000 cash award. Nomination packages should not exceed 5 pages (not including support letters) and must include the following elements:
  1. Biography of nominee highlighting background, professional experience, and degrees as well as teaching, research, and/or engagement interests.
  2. Describe community engagement teaching, research, and/or engagement activities/projects over the past three years. Additional points will be provided to those who have integrated community engagement in at least two of the mission areas of the university (teaching, research, and engagement) and is clearly described in the application. Please include relevant links/attachments to reports, programs, outputs, impact stories, journal articles, etc.
  3. Future community engagement teaching, research, and/or engagement activities over the next 3 years.
  4. List of community partners with whom you have or will partner with.
  5. Two letters of support on letterhead: one from supervisors/colleagues and one from community organizations/partners.

Nomination forms should be submitted by email as one PDF file by January 20th, 2026 to Julie Gibbs at jagibbs@purdue.edu