Team Recognition Award
The Team Recognition Award recognizes a cross-departmental team of Western employees who exemplify cooperation, collaboration, and open communication. The team receiving the award must be comprised of a core group of integral team players who actively worked in partnership on a project that significantly advanced one or more of the three core themes of the strategic plan: Advancing Inclusive Success, Increasing Washington Impact, and/or Enhancing Academic Excellence.
Nominations for the 2026 Team Recognition Award are now CLOSED.
Selection Criteria
To be considered, the team must meet all of the following criteria:
- Build effective collaborative relationships across different work units, groups or departments.
- Produce a measurable positive impact on the advancement of the university mission and strategic plan goals, beyond the expectations of team members' regular position requirements.
- Approach the team project in an innovative way that departs from "business as usual."
- Create a team environment that promotes cooperation, communication, trust, and respect for differences.
Award/Recognition
Award Administration
Nomination Process
The nomination process for the 2026 award is now CLOSED. Thank you to those that took the time to nominate a collaborative team for this award!
Awardees
2026
Student Health Insurance Billing Team - Various
The Student Health Insurance Billing Team is responsible for a milestone achievement decades in the making. While Western Washington University first explored insurance billing as early as 1986, it was not until Feb. 2, 2026 that WWU became the final public university in Washington state to implement insurance billing within a student health center.
Over the past two and a half years, this team demonstrated extraordinary perseverance through budget constraints, staffing transitions, contractor setbacks, leadership turnover and a rapidly shifting external healthcare environment. Recognizing that insurance billing intersects clinical care, finance, compliance, technology and student experience, the team engaged representatives from Student Health Services, Enterprise Application Services, Finance, Information Technology, Enrollment Management, Legal, and external vendors.
As a result, this team strengthened the long-term financial sustainability of Student Health Services, aligned WWU with statewide standards, and expanded access to care for insured students. This work directly advances the university’s strategic commitments to equity, access, student success and operational excellence.
INDIVIDUAL TEAM MEMBERS
BACK ROW: Christine Hancock (Student Health Center), Jessica Heidemann (Student Health Center), Lucia Pearson (Student Health Center), and Chris Miller (Enterprise Infrastructure Services).
FRONT ROW: Carol Rehnberg (Risk Management & Compliance), Deborah Frost (Enterprise Application Services), Juliet Evans (Student Health Center), and Cori Douville (Student Health Center).
NOT PICTURED: Maggie Feeney (Counselling, Health & Wellness), Nicole Goodman (Risk, Ethics, Safety, Resilience, & Enterprise Operations), Kerena Higgins (Office of the Attorney General), Becky Kellow (Student Business Office), Ichi Kwon (Provost Office), Sislena Ledbetter (Student Affairs), Gage Loots (Procurement), Annette Nunamaker (Student Health Center), Mark Okinaka (Provost Office), Deborah Oksenberg (Student Health Center), Sally Parsons (Procurement).
RUNNERS-UP TEAMS
- CEDAR Migration Team
- Edens Hall Tree Lighting Team
- House of Healing Team
- Miller Hall Steam Heating Repair Project Team
- The Centers for Student Access, Community, and Intercultural Engagement Team
- University Residences Fire Alarm Upgrade Team
Past Awardees
1 awardee(s) for this year
2025 Awardees
WWU Douglass Day Team - Various
The Douglass Day Team serves as the event coordinator for the National Douglass Day, an annual program that marks the birth of Frederick Douglass. Western's team of students, faculty and staff join colleagues from across the nation to create learning resources about Black history. The project is supported by the Black Student Coalition as part of their Black History Month celebrations. The event involves a crowdsourcing project for the transcription of documents found in the archives of important Black women. This “Transcribe-a-thon” work is undertaken simultaneously by work parties across the nation. Local event organizers foster inclusive spaces for collaboration and participation.
Now in its third year, Douglass Day offers a unique opportunity to engage colleagues from around the world to celebrate the life and contributions of Frederick Douglass. Participants interact with important archival collections and engage in an innovative crowdsourcing project resulting in the creation of new digital resources for teaching and research. The success of WWU’s Douglass Day event was due to the passion and expertise of a collaborative team of faculty and staff who facilitated significant support and participation from an impressive number of campus departments.
INDIVIDUAL TEAM MEMBERS
(L-R in photo) Jenny Marie Forsythe (Department of English), David Schlitt (Western Libraries), Nia I. F. Gipson (Multicultural Student Services)
RUNNER-UP TEAMS
The Centers for Student Access, Community, and Intercultural Engagement; Western’s Safe Ride Program Implementation Team; What-Comm 911 Dispatch Transition Team; WWU's Winter Operations Team; Generations of Pride Program Team; Winter Weather Planning & Response Team; and the Scholarship Software Implementation Team