Chancellor’s Awards of Excellence Guidelines

The UAMS Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence Program was established in 2004 to recognize excellence in teaching and in 2022 was expanded to recognize excellence across five domains among faculty in Academic Affairs, College of Health Professions, College of Medicine, College of Nursing, College of Pharmacy, College of Public Health, and the Graduate School on all campuses.

Award recipients will be UAMS faculty members who have displayed outstanding contributions in one of the following domains:

Educational Innovation — a sustained commitment to effective teaching and/or learning including formal and informal teaching, curriculum development, academic advising, supervising, precepting, or otherwise facilitating learning in undergraduate students (pipeline programs), pre-licensure students, graduate students, advanced trainees (residents, fellows, master’s degree, doctoral degree, etc.), staff, and faculty (professional development/continuing education).

Faculty Mentorship/Sponsorship/Coaching — a sustained commitment to effectively guide less experienced faculty in career success through mentoring, sponsorship, and/or coaching that comprises specific goals and measurable objectives.

Clinical Innovation — a sustained commitment to high quality and innovative patient care who have significantly advanced clinical practice. This may be accomplished through innovation in clinical practice design or management, or advocacy on the behalf patients that fosters change.

Community and/or Institutional Service — a sustained commitment to serving the community, including membership and active participation on UAMS or professional boards or committees, lectures in the community arising from one’s area of expertise, enhancing the UAMS “brand” and reputation in the community, state, nation, and/or provision of public health education to patients, families, and/or the community-at-large.

Scholarship — a sustained commitment to scholarship.  Scholarship is defined using the Boyer Model and the Four Domains of Scholarship (see below).This would include but is not limited to:  community-based research [application], clinical research [application], laboratory research [discovery], educational research [teaching], Quality Improvement projects [application], interdisciplinary team science [integration], etc.

Collaboration and Teamwork  — a sustained commitment to interprofessional collaboration and teamwork.  This award recognizes the teamwork, dedication, and synergy that teams demonstrate in achieving shared goals.  High-functioning teams can help to promote a culture of mutual respect and appreciation, foster a sense of pride and camaraderie, utilize an effective team process with shared decision-making, and often achieve greater outcomes than individuals alone. The team can be educational, service, or research/scholarship oriented, or the team can demonstrate excellence across any combination of these three domains.  Applicants should provide a list of all team members who substantively contribute to the team process and outcomes, and the application should include relevant materials to support the contributions of each of such team members (e.g., a CV or resume, a letter of support, team bylaws/policies, etc.).

Eligibility

Faculty may apply or may be nominated for individual awards. The team award may include faculty, staff, or students but must have at least one faculty member. Nominees must be at least 50% FTE at UAMS.   Nominators may be UAMS faculty, emeriti, students, or employees. An individual or team member who has previously received one of the Chancellor’s Awards is ineligible for that award for five years.

Award Process

The Chancellor’s Awards of Excellence Committee will be selected and representative of the faculty across campuses and the five Colleges, the Graduate School, and Academic Affairs.  They will review applications and identify no more than three finalists for each award and vote on a ranking of those finalists to be provided to the Provost and Chancellor. This process will be supported administratively by the Center for Faculty Excellence.  The Provost and Chancellor will consider the application materials and the ranking recommendations from the Committee and will make the final selection of the award recipients. The recipients will be recognized at an event in the Fall. If none of the nominees for an award have reached the bar of excellence (defined as outstanding and noteworthy contributions worthy of institution-level recognition) as determined by either the award review committee or the Chancellor and Provost then that award will not be given that year.

The nominator or applicant(s) must:

1. Complete a Chancellor’s Awards of Excellence Application Form (only one form is required for a team application)
2. Provide an attestation by their department chair or dean that they embody the UAMS Code of Conduct and are an exemplar of professionalism (an attestation is required for each team member with a substantial team role for the team award. For faculty members that share a department chair or dean, a single letter from the chair or dean may list each of the respective team members)
3. Provide a Curriculum Vitae (highlighted with areas that are pertinent to the award for which they are being considered).  A CV is required for each faculty team member with a substantial team role for the team award; staff and student team members with a substantial team role may provide a resumé in lieu of a CV.
4. Submit one support letter (maximum of two pages), which addresses the candidate’s (or team’s) outstanding contributions in the relevant award domain. The letter should be written by someone thoroughly familiar with the candidate’s (or team’s) contributions and reflect activities over a minimum of five years. Additional letters will not be reviewed.  Additional supporting documentation may be included if it directly supports the determination of excellence (reviews, ratings, publications, other awards or honors, links to online materials and other evidence to support the accomplishments noted in the

Submission/Nomination packets are due by Monday, September 15th at 11:59pm.