Award for State Outreach and Public Engagement

President David Skorton has declared this academic year as the “Year of Public Engagement.” The University community will intensify its efforts and sharpen its focus on engagement with the public and public issues at the local, state, national and international levels.

Five individuals and one group of students were the first recipients of the University of Iowa President's Award for State Outreach and Public Engagement. The new annual award, created as part of the Year of Public Engagement, honors faculty, staff and students (individuals or groups) who demonstrate exemplary outreach to the State of Iowa. Three examples of the winners are highlighted below.

Herman Hein, Professor of Pediatrics. Since 1972, Dr. Hein has directed the Iowa Statewide Perinatal Care Program, ensuring quality care for mothers and babies at hospitals across the state. Since the program's inception, all Iowa hospitals providing maternity services have been visited on a yearly basis with each visit including educational programming provided by an obstetrician, a neonatal nurse, an obstetric nurse and a neonatal dietician. When deficiencies are discovered, Dr. Hein and his team work with local hospital staff to arrange training at an appropriate time. The program also established a national model for encouraging referral to regional specialty care centers. Since Dr. Hein started the program, Iowa's perinatal and neonatal mortalities have dropped sharply and for the last several years have been among the lowest in the nation.

Leonard Sandler, Clinical Professor of Law. The Housing Project, developed by Mr. Sandler, assist persons with disabilities and their families in obtaining and paying for modifications to their homes. Mr.Sandler and his students prepare extensive written materials designed to inform Iowans about state and federal resources available to fund such renovations and conducted workshops around the state to inform the public about how to obtain such funding. Community development officials, disability advocates, health care professionals, contractors, developers, grant writers, consumers, landlords, civil rights and fair housing officials, and representatives from religious organizations have participated in workshops in Cedar Rapids, Decorah, Des Moines, Dubuque, Fort Dodge, Iowa City, Mason City, Sioux City and Waterloo/Cedar Falls.

McKinze Cook, Danny Kimball, Amy Liss, Marketa Sonkova and Amanda Styron, Student Directors. The 10,000 Hours (10K) Show is an innovative approach to increasing community volunteer activity among students and other young Iowans. The project is run entirely by volunteers, the majority of whom are UI students, led in its second year by McKinze Cook, Danny Kimball, Army Liss, Marketa Sonkova and Amanda Styron. The project recruits and rewards volunteers through an annual concert for which admission is verified community service with local organizations. It is the first and only project of its kind in the nation, and was founded by two then-UI students in fall 2002. The project strengthens Iowa's nonprofit sector by providing accessible resources for connecting students and other young Iowans with volunteer opportunities, including "Service Source," a searchable database of Iowa nonprofits on the web. In its second year, 10K recruited 1,684 volunteers from 31 counties, most of whom were between the ages of 17 and 30. They generated more than 20,000 hours of service to Iowa communities.