CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Individuals and teams from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who have made a visible impact on society were recently recognized with 2024 Campus Awards for Excellence in Public Engagement. Faculty and staff members, students and community members who engage the public to address critical civic and community issues on local, state, national and global levels were honored at a recent awards ceremony.
The recipients this year include faculty members Sheldon Jacobson and Emily Knox; graduate students Dusty Bacon and Imani Canton; the Champaign-Urbana Community Fab Lab community engagement team; and the University of Illinois Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology Clinic.
Jacobson, a professor of computer science, is the recipient of the Distinguished Award for Excellence in Public Engagement.
Jacobson’s specialty in operations research, which focuses on mathematical modeling to inform operational decision making, has shaped his public engagement efforts in over 30 years in academia. When national conversations arose over aviation security, pediatric vaccine economics, political redistricting or infectious disease response during the COVID-19 pandemic, Jacobson lent his expertise to these topics through the prism of his research: data-driven, risk-based decision making and its impact on people and society.
He maintains a prolific presence in national media outlets through his essay writing, with over 420 articles in publications and outlets such as The Washington Post, CNN, the Chicago Tribune and many others. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, journalists from many of the same national outlets sought out Jacobson to assess the data and risks driving the pandemic response.
Jacobson also offers media training and mentoring to colleagues in the Department of Computer Science, providing actionable insights and helping faculty members navigate the added responsibility of public engagement to their teaching and research efforts. His dedication to engaging the public centers on the belief that informed and knowledgeable people need to contribute their voices to national issues; otherwise, misinformation fills the void.
Knox, a professor in the School of Information Sciences, is the recipient of the Emerging Award for Excellence in Public Engagement.
Well before the current rise in challenges to books in public libraries and schools, Knox dedicated much of her professional life to advocating for intellectual freedom, the freedom to read and the importance of libraries to communities. She joined the board of the National Coalition Against Censorship in 2016 and was elected its board chair in 2022. Her annual appearances at the Banned Book Week lecture at the Rantoul Public Library provided a range of views on the freedom to read that afforded her opportunities to speak to the public on a contentious topic before it became a trend nationally.
Since 2020, Knox has delivered over 30 talks and workshops to professional audiences, appeared on panels at national conferences and book shows, and spoken in public presentations that often include Q&A sessions. She was described by her nominator as “the most active chair in NCAC history,” speaking almost anywhere she is asked. The frequency of Knox’s public interactions at these events continues to develop her understanding of the issues that concern the public and to evolve her responses to the diverse audiences that seek out her expertise.
Knox’s unparalleled commitment to the topic culminated in her appearance as an expert witness before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary during its hearing on book bans in September 2023. As she has done ever since those Rantoul Public Library appearances, Knox focused her testimony on two topics: providing context for challenges to materials in public institutions and advocating for the freedom to read.
The Champaign-Urbana Community Fab Lab community engagement team is the recipient of the Team Award for Excellence in Public Engagement. Operating from the informatics program within the School of Information Sciences, the CUC Fab Lab is a specific kind of makerspace focused on fabrication machines and technology. Access to the lab is free, and the community engagement team ensures its programming reaches hundreds of patrons across a variety of locations.
The CUC Fab Lab’s longstanding community partnerships set it apart from typical grant-dependent partnerships, allowing the lab to nurture and improve those relationships to the community over many years. The Fab Lab began its outreach to the Urbana Free Library in 2012 with the creation of the Teen Open Lab and has since partnered on programs like Makerspace Jr. for children in grade school to explore makers equipment and the Teen Art in the Library project. The Teen Open Lab alone has attracted a total attendance of over 30,000 middle and high school students.
In almost a decade of providing afterschool education with the Urbana Neighborhood Connections Center, the Fab Lab has exposed middle school students from challenging socioeconomic backgrounds to quality STEM instruction, facilitated unique learning experiences and introduced potential STEM career paths. The lab also responded to the spike in popularity of maker learning in the educational system by writing curriculum for several schools in the region and providing support to local educators. Instructors from the engagement team work hand-in-hand with those educators to craft modules specific to their classrooms that allow students to learn through exploration and creation.
The University of Illinois Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology Clinic — whose team members include Jennifer Dahman, Sadie Braun, Amy Strohman, Kat Chesnut and Clarion Mendes — is also a recipient of the Team Award for Excellence in Public Engagement.
The clinic has built a legacy of sustained dedication to marginalized healthcare communities, working to make effective communication a human right that’s accessible and achievable for all. With access to skilled speech therapy almost impossible for many children during the early pandemic restrictions of spring and summer 2020, the clinic enacted a plan to provide pro bono therapy via telehealth to Illinois residents. Not only did the clinic staff tirelessly promote these services to school districts across the state, but also they provided the advocacy needed to overturn a state law that would not permit students to receive telehealth services.
The clinic team also spearheaded major contributions to the ambitious Speech Accessibility Project, a national initiative supported by the world’s largest technology companies to make speech recognition technology more accessible to individuals with speech difficulties and differences. The clinic has worked with 200 paid volunteers who are members of various disability communities to collect more than 100,000 speech samples. With a goal of more than one million speech samples, their efforts are making it possible for those with speech disabilities to interface with technology — smartphones, laptops, digital assistants — that the general public uses daily.
Dusty Bacon and Imani Canton are the recipients of the Graduate or Professional Student Award for Excellence in Public Engagement.
Bacon is pursuing their Ph.D. in English with a concentration in writing studies. Alongside their scholarly and research pursuits, Bacon has spent over four years working with the Solidarity Gardens network in Champaign-Urbana — which connects home and community gardeners to efforts addressing local food insecurity.
Bacon started as a volunteer with Solidarity Gardens in 2020 before serving as the community liaison for the entire network during the 2023 growing season. They pushed the network into new directions in this role, establishing perennial edible crops in one of the affiliate gardens and breaking down barriers to immigrant gardeners with the Free Plot pilot program. By boosting engagement from volunteers, garden leaders and the wider community, Bacon increased the amount of donated produce by 1,000 pounds over the previous growing season.
Canton recently completed her Ph.D. in kinesiology with a research focus on addressing systemic factors that cause health disparities and advancing health equity, especially among middle-aged Black women. She designed a community-based program examining the impact of community gardening on increasing physical activity and improving psychological well-being through the eight-week Tending to our Roots to Increase our Wellness program.
At the conclusion of the TRIOWell program, Canton found a 14% increase in total daily physical activity and a 15% increase in daily step count among the African American women who participated while also noting a 37% increase in fruit and vegetable intake and a decrease in stress levels. She also helped secure a $16,000 grant to continue the program and distributed a survey to Black women living in Champaign to ensure that future programming is participant-centered and culturally sensitive.