Among the University of Virginia Office for Diversity and Equity’s many efforts to cultivate and promote diversity on Grounds is administering the annual John T. Casteen III Diversity-Equity-Inclusion Leadership Award. The honor recognizes a student, faculty or staff member who has demonstrated a deep commitment to diversity in the UVA community.

Nominations are due March 3 by 5 p.m. A luncheon to honor the recipient will be held March 31 in Alumni Hall’s Jefferson Room.

Specific criteria for the award include playing a leadership role in increasing diversity, equity and inclusion at UVA and making a sustainable and quantifiable impact in these areas. The award was established in honor of the accomplishments of Casteen, the former UVA president who was the award’s inaugural recipient in 2010.

Longtime faculty members Deborah McDowell and E. Franklin Dukes shared the 2016 award. McDowell, the Alice Griffin Professor of English, came to UVA 29 years ago and became director of the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies in 2008. Dukes, director of the Institute for Environmental Negotiation in the UVA School of Architecture from 2000 to 2015, founded the group University & Community Action for Racial Equity in 2007.

For a list of past winners, click here.

An award selection committee, chaired by Dr. Marcus L. Martin, vice president and chief officer for diversity and equity, will review the nominations and select the recipient.

Nominators should complete and submit the nomination form available online; submit a letter describing how the nominee has exemplified the award’s criteria; and coordinate the submission of three additional letters of support, one of which must be from outside the nominee’s department or school.

Nominations can be submitted via e-mail, with supporting materials attached, to gip8w@virginia.edu, or mailed to the attention of Gail Prince-Davis, Office for Diversity and Equity, P.O. Box 400881, Charlottesville VA 22904-4881. For information, call 434-243-4311.