NCHC Distinguished Leadership Award

Note: You must have a Reviewr account set up to proceed with nominating an individual for the NCHC Distinguished Leadership Award. 

1. NCHC encourages excellence in leadership and administration. The award recognizes distinguished contributions in honors education for 3 or more years.
2. The nominee must be a leader of an NCHC member institution who has actively worked to further honors education. The nominee may not be a previous recipient of the award.
3. Nominees should be a University or College President/Chancellor or Provost/Chief Academic Officer.
4. The nominee should have demonstrated a sustained commitment to Honors education. The impact may be seen in:
   • Administrative leadership and continuing efforts in promoting excellent effective honors education and advancing the role of honors education
   • Operational excellence of the honors college or program, demonstrated by financial commitment to honors, the dedication of other resources, or by advocacy for honors with donors, corporations or other parties
   • Building connections, interactions and partnerships between the honors college or program and the larger university/college/community or with community partners, businesses or nonprofits
   • Promoting, sustaining and growing inclusive excellence within the Honors community, fostering a safe, positive, productive and bias-free environment
   • Developing and inspiring others to achieve extraordinary results through innovative processes, mentorship, civic engagement
   • Support that resulted in substantial progress for honors education, honors professionals and faculty, or that enhanced the status of the honors unit based on research, teaching, outreach, publications, grants, or academic programs
5. Nominations can be made beyond this scope and will be evaluated for eligibility on a case-by-case basis.
6. This is a career achievement award and can be awarded to any given individual only once.
7. Nominators must be institutional members of NCHC. Nominators should be active members of NCHC (participate in programming and/or serve on committees in person or virtually) or in their regional Honors organization.
8. The recipient should still be serving at the institution by which they were nominated. Recipients are expected to attend the national NCHC conference.

Nomination Process

The nomination process includes the following:

1. Nominee's abbreviated curriculum vitae not to exceed five pages.
2. Biographical Summary (not to exceed 400 words) – key achievements and activities of the nominee, nominee’s personal philosophy regarding Honors education, suitable for the printed program for the presentation ceremony.
3. A nomination letter (not to exceed 500 words) indicating the reason for nominating this individual. This letter should identify major Honors educational innovations supported by the nominee in line with the NCHC shared principles and practices, the major contributions on which the nomination is based, such as support for the faculty and staff, programs, and resources and explain why the nominee is especially qualified to receive this award. Evidence of college or program improvements or sustaining commitments may be included.
4. Two additional letters of support. Letters of support may be obtained from administrators, faculty and staff reporting to the nominee or from an honors alumni. Letters of support from outside of the institution should support the impact of leadership and administration on honors education.
5. Nominees not selected for the award in the year of the initial nomination are kept on file for automatic consideration again the subsequent year, without requiring renomination. At the time for the Call for Nominations each year, nominators of previous unsuccessful nominations have the option of updating and resubmitting their earlier nominations.