• This award highlights exceptional work specific to their position or department, demonstrated by effectiveness in job performance, resulting in significant contributions to their department's goals.
• Recipients of this award should: consistently meet/exceed expectations, display a high level of professionalism, and set a benchmark for quality and excellence within their field.

• This award showcases individuals who have impacted the broader campus community, reaching outside of their department
• This could include contributions such as: improving the campus environment, fostering cross sectional collaboration, enhancing student life, or initiating successful projects that benefit the campus as a whole.

• This award recognizes individuals who not only embody admirable qualities and behaviors but also actively engage in formal or informal mentoring.
• This person should: embody the values and standards of the organization, inspire colleagues through their actions and attitude, and positively influence the workplace culture.

• This award celebrates an individual who demonstrates the following: outstanding collaboration, communication, and support within a team.
• recipients are those who go above and beyond to foster a positive work environment, contribute to collective goals, and uplift their peers. They strive in showcasing a commitment to the success of the entire team rather than just personal achievements.

• This award highlights a staff member who has put forth effort to create an environment where all employees feel valued, respected, and supported, regardless of their cultural background, ethnicity, gender, or other personal attributes.
• Recipients of this award are those who actively promote multicultural understanding, equitable practices, and a sense of belonging emphasizing the importance of diverse perspectives in achieving common goals.

• A creative and implemented approach to process improvements
• Original idea that contributed to the success of the unit/institution
• A Staff employee who is in a non-leadership position that provided leadership, team building and/or facilitated a team or project that enhanced the organization
• A Staff employee in a leadership position that consistently grows their organization by mentoring and growing each of their subordinates

• Someone who consistently makes a difference and impact in student lives
• Contributed to an innovative, original idea that implemented and transformed an aspect of the student experience

• A personal dedication to a project or cause that definitively improved the greater community and had an impact on the university.
• Staff employee of the USM community who throughout his/her career has, in a collaborative and sustained manner, made a difference in the larger community
• The award is based on a sustained record of service over a period of years carried out through the individual’s role(s) in the University rather than as a private citizen

To publicly recognize exemplary ideas that, when implemented, will serve to further the University System of Maryland’s goal to continually increase the effective and efficient use of its resources. One award from the listed categories may be made for an exemplary initiative that has the potential to be implemented system wide.

Awards shall be bestowed in the following two categories:

1.) Academic Transformation

• • Improved learning and a minimum cost savings of $10,000.00

2.) Administrative Transformation

• • Improved effectiveness and efficiency resulting in a minimum cost savings of $10,000.00

In addition to the existing application procedures, the nominee’s packet needs to include:

1. A brief description of the innovative initiative
2. Potential benefits
3. Magnitude (single/multiple institutions or system-wide)
4. Effectiveness and efficiency to be attained (including estimated cost and/or resource savings)

Award recipients may be invited to address the Board.

This award salutes the outstanding work of a USM staff member in their ability to build, nurture, and advance inclusion, multiculturalism, and social justice practices within their community. Their community may be comprised of their internal institutional community, their external institutional community, or a combination of the two. 

Review criteria include outcomes, including, but not limited to:

1. Community engagement in diversity dialogue and education
2. Examination and modification of current practices of one’s department/institution that supports inclusion
3. Implementation of initiatives that foster inclusion, multiculturalism, and social justice