Equity & Inclusion Achievement Award
ON HOLD FOR 2025: The Office of Equity is in the process of restructuring this award so that it better aligns with Western's institutional ADEI plan, needs, and goals.
The Equity and Inclusion Achievement Award* recognizes a student, staff, faculty member or office for outstanding contributions to advancing inclusive student, faculty or staff success, enhancing academic excellence, and/or increasing Western’s impact in Washington within the context of equity and inclusion. These contributions should align with one or more of the goals and values articulated in Western’s Strategic Plan.
* Previously called the Diversity Achievement Award
Selection Criteria
To be considered, the individual must demonstrate one or more of the following criteria, within the context of equity and inclusion, while aligning with Western’s Strategic Plan:
- Advancing student, faculty or staff success
- Enhancing academic excellence
- Increasing Western’s impact in Washington
Award/Recognition
* Multiple recipients may impact the grant amount.
Award Administration
Nomination Process
Additional Information
2024
Allison Pfeiffer - Geology
Associate Professor Allison Pfeiffer received her Ph.D. in earth and planetary sciences from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and began teaching at Western in 2019.
Over the past three years, Allison has worked with fellow faculty, staff, undergraduate, and graduate students in the Geology Department to form and lead a group, Unlearning Racism in the Geosciences (URGE), aimed at recognizing and rectifying the racism and sources of inequity in the Western Geology Department and discipline as a whole. The organization, which came out of a national effort of coordinated ‘pods’ at institutions across the country, has evolved into a permanent fixture here. URGE works to create new department policies, improve resources for students, and most importantly, foster collaboration and a sense of mutual purpose across career stages and roles in the Geology Department. Beyond her work in URGE, Allison is committed to continual improvements to make her classroom, department, and the Western community a more welcoming, accessible place of learning.
Allison's research, in collaboration with undergraduates and graduate students, deals with surface process geology, often focused on the morphodynamic response of gravel-bedded rivers to sediment pulses.
Tara Perry - Communication Studies
Communication Studies Professor Tara B. Perry earned her bachelor's degree in Journalism and double minors in Communication and French from Western, then went to graduate school at Washington State University, completing an M.A., in communication with a focus in Organizational Communication and a Ph.D. in Cultural and Disability studies.
Dr. Perry’s teaching specialty is in the area of Interpersonal Communication, Organizational Communication, and Identity & Difference. Her research interests emphasize scholarship of teaching and learning (e.g. service-learning, student learning), student-faculty collaborative relationships, anti-racism, dismantling anti-Blackness, and advocacy for people of the global majority, neurodiversity, and silenced voices.
In her own communication classes, Tara works to infuse the concepts of ADEI, anti-racism and well-being into every course. She gives students the assignment to create webinars and documentaries on complex community topics, such as dismantling anti-Blackness, well-being in higher education, ending homelessness and food insecurity. Tara has also built service-learning into all of her courses; her students have worked with Make a Difference Day, the Asia University America Program, the Volunteer CHORE program, and the Evergreen AIDS Foundation. They also created the #endhomelessnesswwu campaign in 2015, which continues today to raise awareness and offer resources through social media.
Past Awardees
1 awardee(s) for this year
2023 Awardees
Brandon Joseph - Counseling, Health & Wellness
Brandon Joseph is the director of Student Resilience in Counseling, Health, and Wellness. He provides non-clinical support for students in navigating their college journey and fostering an experience rich in holistic wellbeing. In collaboration with campus and community partners, he has hosted many campus wellness events, initiatives, and programs.
As a Koyukon Athabascan and Muscogee Creek scholar and practitioner, Joseph’s work is fundamentally inspired by his Native identity. In 2019, he established the Black & Brown Male Success Collective BBMSC, a research-based program that provides male-identifying students from historically marginalized racial and/or ethnic communities with an affinity space to strengthen connection and belonging. The group has represented WWU at regional and national conferences and hosted several anti-racist workshops on WWU’s campus.
Joseph also works to support the Native American Student Union and others in the Multicultural Student Services area. He has served on several campus committees devoted to moving forward conversations of accessibility, diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging at WWU. In 2021, he was appointed as WWU’s first Athletics Diversity and Inclusion designee, charged with overseeing ADEI efforts in Athletics. He also serves on Laural Ballew’s Tribal Advisory Committee.