Congratulations to Annie DeVane, a winner of the 2020 Tufts Distinction Awards, and to the Friedman School’s additional nominees, Nicole Tichenor Blackstone, Patty Dawson, Michelle Frankfort, and Courtney King!
The Tufts President’s Office and Human Resources together sponsor the University-wide Distinction Awards to celebrate outstanding staff and faculty accomplishments outside of teaching and research. Nominees model the University values of leadership, innovation, customer service, integrity, collaboration, respect for diverse perspectives, and support for inclusion.
Since we can’t celebrate Annie and our nominees in person this spring, we’d like to share some of their accomplishments to inspire us, help us, and put smiles on our faces. As Ed Kleifgen wrote in nominating Courtney King, “Here’s to infectious enthusiasm!”
Annie DeVane
Director of Communications and Web Strategies
Nominated by: Ed Kleifgen and Ed Saltzman; Matt Hast, Serena Baldwin, Will Masters, Isabel McFall, Michelle Frankfort, Richard Moyer and Lori Ioannone
The nominations for Annie describe her as a “modest and persistent leader” and include a robust list of activities she has undertaken in the past few years to expand communications and marketing at the Friedman School. Annie and her small team provide oversight for website management for the School and its research programs. As one nomination read, “Annie is a wizard at coordinating outreach across different modes of communication, reaching each audience in ways that are tailored to their needs.” She is thoughtful about the content included on the sites and within our communications: “What we think distinguishes Annie from her communication peers is her commitment to diversity and inclusion…[I[t takes a person with a certain soul to go above and beyond to tackle some of our complex issues pertaining to how the Friedman School presents itself through the website.” “Annie has been a long-serving member of our School's Social Justice, Inclusion and Diversity (SJID) Committee and has worked tirelessly on efforts to promote diversity and a respect for diverse perspectives at the School.” Annie has taken the challenges of our marketing needs head on. “Annie’s collaboration with our educational program directors and our student services and recruitment staff over the past year on marketing both traditional and nontraditional educational programs has led to a comprehensive review of policies, program descriptions, and websites. This and her focus on integrating recruitment/enrollment tools such as Slate with digital marketing strategies will surely improve our student recruitment efforts.” Annie has also been critical in moving forward a list of initiatives across the communications realm. She has successfully:
- Redesigned the School’s website and rebuilt its underlying technical infrastructure through a robust and participative process that produced one of the most dynamic, user-friendly, intuitive, and arguably beautiful sites one might find at Tufts, with continuing accolades from inside and outside the school.
- Designed the School’s Strategic Plan physical report, designed and fully implemented the electronic report, and oversaw the production of nine related professional videos that, along with the web version of the report, comprise the web presence for our Strategic Plan.
- Produced the School’s first annual report in 2017 and two subsequent all-digital reports, which have been used to communicate Strategic Plan progress and other successes to a range of internal and external constituencies.
- Advised the publisher of our Tufts Health and Nutrition Letter on updating their website design to complement our School’s site to enhance opportunities for synergies, mutual social media promotion, and revenue generation.
- Developed a network of stakeholders across our research groups, our development and public impact offices, and the HNRCA to assure that the Communications team can highlight and promote important research and educational activities through our websites, social media, and beyond, allowing our small team of three to accomplish more than teams many times their size and providing our school impressive results with very limited resources.
- Enhanced utilization of our professional TV uplink and recording studio through faculty training opportunities, and for recording online classes and marketing videos.
Congratulations again to Annie as one of the 2020 Tufts Distinction Award winners!
Nicole Tichenor Blackstone
Assistant Professor
Nominated by: Melissa Gordon, Peter Biechler, Adrienne Dunlap, Jeremy Halstead, Allie Wainer, and Amanda Dell
It’s clear from her nomination that Nicole incorporates her ideals into her teaching and research. She makes nutrition into a broader, more comprehensive field.
- “Nicole embodies the Tufts values in and out of the classroom by cultivating an inclusive and collaborative environment for all of her students.”
- “Nicole exemplifies conscientious pedagogy in all aspects of her role as an educator and researcher at Friedman…[H]er devotion to uplifting the voices of marginalized people in the food system, in a way that is sensitive to the impact of emotional topics on students, really is worthy of distinction.”
- Nicole also “enriched the curriculum this year by not shying away from teaching sensitive but imperative topics related to the history of agriculture such as slavery, racism, and land loss among Indigenous peoples and African Americans.” She showed “great professionalism and care in addressing these topics through a variety of pedagogical means,” and consulted with the Associate Director of Inclusive Learning at Tufts for guidance on incorporating sensitive materials into class discussion. She successfully did so “while respecting and understanding the possible impacts, reactions, and perspectives it might invoke in the students.”
- “It’s abundantly clear that Nicole gives her entire self to her students and her work.”
Patty Dawson
Academic and Faculty Affairs Officer
Nominated by: Courtney King; Ana Maafs
The nominations for Patty recognize her wide-ranging role at the Friedman School, spanning faculty and academic affairs, and jumping in to support large and high-profile events and programs to ensure their success. Highlights include:
- Patty “was the glue that held everything together” in ensuring the School’s first Food Innovation Summit happened as envisioned this past fall. She oversaw the details of the event in addition to her ongoing job responsibilities, joining forces with others to answer questions and lending a hand where ever needed. “The summit was a success thanks to Patty.”
- “Patty is the first to set aside time to speak with a student if they are feeling stressed or overwhelmed… she genuinely cares about each and every one of the Friedman School's students. The insight, guidance, and compassion she shows to each student leaves a lasting impression.”
- Patty’s efforts directly related to the School’s English language tutoring sessions, which are “clearly an example of active support for inclusion” and include a system with flexibility of dates, times, and types of sessions that help students overcome barriers, participate in a safe environment, take full advantage of the tutoring, and demonstrate the School’s authentic interest in making international students feel part of the community.
Michelle Frankfort
Registrar
Nominated by: Matt Hast, Ed Saltzman, Jennifer Pustz, Katrina Sarson, Sean Cash, Alexandra Cross, and Nicola McKeown
Michelle is described as “a huge part of what makes this school tick and is often the quiet grease that keeps the gears moving on so many things.” The nominations note that “what is often a two-, three- or greater than four-person job at other Tufts schools is only Michelle at Friedman. Michelle overcomes this issue by working hard and making a personal connection with everyone who enters her office.” Those personal connections are the core of the nominations supporting Michelle and the impact she has on the Friedman School community, especially on students. They say:
- “Her warm nature makes her office a safe space where students can sit, express themselves and find the comfort and strength to face their challenges.”
- “This is a woman who has single-handedly dried the tears and assuaged the fears of about 200 students each year.”
- “She's a miracle worker.”
- “I've heard many similar stories about her impact… Fellow students have told me about ways that she's made the logistics of scheduling and navigating academics and registration flow elegantly.”
Courtney King
Assistant Director of Business Operations
Nominated by: Ed Kleifgen and Ed Saltzman
The nomination applauded Courtney’s efforts establishing staff recognition programs, Friedman 101 and other training initiatives, community building, compiling financial analyses spanning both school and sponsored funding, engaging in collaborations with every office and function at the school, and being called on to help every Friedman School population throughout the course of her busy days. Courtney is described as “a quick study with an insatiable appetite for challenge” and “an extraordinarily positive colleague whose enthusiasm is infectious and unwavering, someone who puts the needs of her constituencies (faculty, staff, researchers, and students) before all else.”
Ed Kleifgen noted, “I can’t recall a week going by during the past year without hearing a faculty or staff member (or myself!) express admiration for Courtney for leading some effort, whether it was developing staff recognition programming, organizing processes to track complex financials, or organizing community building events such as Friday night outings or the recent Halloween costume event and contest…melting barriers between faculty, staff, and students.”
Continuing the spirit of recognition and thankfulness, please submit a nomination for a Friedman School colleague (or several!) for the 2021 Tufts Distinction Awards or David J. Kahle Award!
Congratulations to our Distinction Award nominees and winner!