Inaugural Community Engagement Awards announced

The College of Pharmacy’s student-led “Operation Immunization” effort and the UNMC chapter of the national nonprofit Primary Care Progress each won respective inaugural awards recently established by the UNMC Office of Community Engagement (OCE).

Heidi Keeler, Ph.D., director of the Office of Community Engagement, Madeline Volk, Carli Zegers, Liliana Bronner, assistant professor of family medicine (Primary Care Progress faculty advisor), Balkissa Ouattara, Katie Salinas, Jed Hansen.

The first OCE Health Impact Award went to Operation Immunization, a collaboration between the College of Pharmacy, employee health, student health and the UNMC chapter of the American Pharmacists Association — Academy of Student Pharmacists (APhA-ASP).

In addition to annually administering flu shots and TB tests to faculty, staff and students on UNMC’s Omaha campus, OI has identified communities with low access to immunizations. To address this, student leaders and volunteers organize education and immunization clinics several times per year. The student group serviced over 700 community members in 2018 alone.

The OCE Health Impact Award recognizes student organizations that extend UNMC core values through demonstration of exemplary contribution to the development of educational health care services or programming to community agencies, schools or organizations.

Meanwhile, Primary Care Progress was presented the first OCE Health Education Award for its work with Omaha’s Intercultural Senior Center.

Over the course of this academic year, Primary Care Progress delivered several health education programs to diverse groups of older adults. Each topic was provided multiple times to accommodate elders who speak different languages and are of various ethnicities.

The UNMC chapter of PCP is an interprofessional group of student leaders from multiple sectors of the health care field.

The OCE Health Education Award recognizes student organizations that extend UNMC core values through demonstration of exemplary contribution to the development of educational health care services or programming to community agencies, schools or organizations.

The OCE, located within the Office of Academic Affairs, reported that competition for these new awards was very stiff. Nominations are reviewed by external reviewers selected from the Great Plains IDEA Clinical Translational Research group, and the Student Senate, with scores tallied from four criteria: identification of a community and need, creation of a solution, execution of the solution, and long term commitment and dedication to the community partnership.

“The collective impact of each community partnership demonstrates the mission and vision of UNMC to improve the health of all Nebraskans,” said Heidi Keeler, Ph.D., OCE director. “Our UNMC faculty, staff, and students are working hard in our community, often without formal support or recognition. These awards are designed to spotlight and reward exemplary dedication and commitment to our UNMC ITEACH values.”