Celebrating Public Engagement 

Last year's awards ceremony.

ALBANY, N.Y. (April 18, 2017) – Breathing Lights, an artistic project that focused attention on the need to revitalize blighted buildings, is among the winners of this year’s 2017 President’s Awards for Exemplary Public Engagement.

The awards will be celebrated on Tuesday, April 25, at 5:30 p.m. in the Recital Hall of the Performing Arts Center.

This year’s winning projects are:

• Breathing Lights, Department of Art and Art History, College of Arts and Sciences. Associate Professor Adam Frelin, the lead artist, partnered with the cities of Albany, Schenectady and Troy and numerous civic organizations on the project.
• Building Professional Learning Communities to Improve Student Achievement, Department of Literacy Teaching and Learning, School of Education. Cheryl L. Dozier, associate professor in the department, was the lead. The initiative brings teachers, paraprofessionals, administrators, district staff members, faculty members and graduate students together in learning communities around specific areas of focus at each partner school in an effort to improve teacher preparation, enrich scholarship and enhance curriculum. Partners include: the Albany School of the Humanities, Nancy Andress, Capital Area School Development Association, Delaware Community School, Montessori Magnet School and the Thomas O’Brien Academy of Science and Technology.
• Healthy Historic Walking Paths, Department of History, College of Arts and Sciences. Assistant Professor Maeve Kane was the lead on the project. Kane’s students developed a series of self-guided walking tours through a number of Albany’s historic neighborhoods and produced a website and mobile app for the project. In its first year, albanywalksforhealth.com logged over 10,000 visitors. Kane worked with Orville Abrahams, director of Community Development, Capital District YMCA.
• Lani V. Jones, Ph.D. M.S.W., Associate Professor, School of Social Welfare. Jones is being honored for her outstanding publicly engaged research, teaching and service that includes her longtime leadership as principal investigator on the Liberty Partnerships Rising Stars program at UAlbany, an initiative designed to improve academic outcomes among adolescents at risk for dropping out. Jones partners with School of Social Welfare faculty and staff, the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, City School District of Albany, and City of Albany Youth and Workforce Services.
• New York State Kinship Navigator Demonstration Project, School of Social Welfare. Assistant Professor Eunju Lee was lead on the project, working with partners Gerald Wallace, Esq., Rachel Glaser and Ryan Johnson, NYS Kinship Navigator. The initiative has produced high impact scholarship, practice and policy changes that have improved the well-being of vulnerable children and their caregivers in New York State and throughout the country.

A reception will precede the ceremony at 4:30 p.m. in the Futterer Lounge. An RSVP is appreciated but not required. University guests may park in the State Student Lot. For more information, contact Mary Hunt at 442-3470 or [email protected].

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