The Heller School for Social Policy and Management
About Heller

Heller Awards

Heller Teaching, Mentoring, Staff Service, Teaching Assistant, Early Career Research Investigator,  and Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity Awards. The Barbara Wakefield Award will also be included in the nomination period and process. 

2024 Heller Awards honor outstanding service during the year

The nomination period opened on January 30, 2024. 

The nomination deadline has been extended to February 29, 2024.

Submit your nomination here.  See the full list of past winners here. 

Committee to Determine Teaching, Mentoring, Staff Service, Teaching Assistant, and Equity, Inclusion and Diversity, and Barbara Wakefield Awards

A selection committee composed of faculty, students, staff, and alumni will review nominations. The committee will primarily be guided by the content of the nominations and secondly by the number of nominations.  In the case of nominees for the Teaching Award and Teaching Assistant Award, the committee will also look at teaching evaluations. For the 2023 calendar year, the committee will be as follows:

Teaching Award Past Winners:

  • TBD, please check again soon

Mentoring Award Past Winners:

  • Sandra Jones, PhD
  • Monika Mitra, PhD

Staff Service Award Past Winners:

  • Calla Mattox, MPP/MBA'17
  • Amy AbuShanab

Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity Award Committee Representative:

  • Vianny Rodriguez, MPP'23

Representatives of Heller's 7 degree-granting programs and alumni:

  • Representative from the COEX program
  • Representative from the MPP program
  • Representative from the MBA program
  • Representative from the MS GHPM program
  • Representative from the SID program
  • Representative from the EMBA program
  • Representative from the PhD Program
  • Alumni Representative

Barbara Wakefield

  • Past Winner of the Barbara Wakefield Award 

Other Members

  • Deborah Garnick, Chair
  • Darren Zinner

Current committee members are ineligible to win.

Committee to Determine Early Career Research Investigator Award

The winner of this award will be determined by a subcommittee of the Research Steering Committee.

Teaching Award Criteria

Excellent teachers can help students to be excited about learning, understand complex issues and events, or master a subject area. Your nomination for an excellence in teaching award should describe how the faculty member has been an outstanding teacher, incorporating the criteria listed below. Please provide some specific examples and stories.  Any Heller faculty or research/program staff member is eligible to receive the Award if they have taught any Heller graduate course in the calendar year 2023. (Nominate someone)

Excellence in teaching manifests itself in many different modes, styles, and voices, but some criteria include the ability to:

  • Communicate subject matter accurately, clearly, and with enthusiasm.
  • Be sensitive to racism, ageism, sexism, genderism, ableism, inclusivity, and other diversity issues.
  • Present, invite, and test multiple and balanced points of view.
  • Expand students’ ways of thinking by offering intellectual approaches that apply beyond the specific subject matter of the class.
  • Challenge and inspire students to become engaged citizens of the world who aspire not only to achieve understanding but also to advance the cause of social justice.
  • Create communities of learners in which students can and do take intellectual risks and experiment creatively.
  • Treat all students with respect and consideration, responding appropriately to the individual needs of each student.
  • Stimulate students’ intellectual curiosity, fostering critical and creative thinking and problem-solving.
  • Inspire and support students to do their best work.

Mentoring Award Criteria

The mentoring relationships students form with faculty and researchers at Heller can enhance their graduate education and lead to the achievement of professional and career development goals. Your nomination for an excellence in mentoring award should describe how the faculty, staff, or researcher who has mentored you academically during the calendar year 2023 has been outstanding in supporting and encouraging your research, education, professional, and personal development. Please provide some specific examples and stories. (Nominate someone)  Some of the activities carried out by excellent mentors are:

  • Inspiring students to develop a vision of their personal and professional future, encouraging them to see what is possible, believe they can achieve it, and act on it.
  • Sensitivity to racism, ageism, sexism, genderism, ableism, inclusivity, and other diversity issues.
  • Advising and guiding research and fieldwork.
  • Organizing an effective environment for research and scholarship.
  • Developing talents such as research skills, management expertise, teaching ability, presentations, writing, and preparation of grant and fellowship applications.
  • Challenging and inspiring students to become engaged citizens of the world who aspire not only to achieve understanding but also to advance the cause of social justice.
  • Sponsoring students in the academic/professional community.
  • Advocacy and guidance in organizational and professional matters.
  • Serving as a successful role model.
  • Showing concern for students as individuals and supporting their personal development.
  • Demonstrating a long-term commitment to mentoring (including changing their roles as each student develops during graduate school).

Staff Service Award Criteria

Non-academic staff (not teachers or researchers) organize an effective environment for learning, teaching, and research and foster excellence in these areas.  Your nomination for an award for excellence in staff service should describe how the staff member has made an outstanding contribution to the community and its shared mission of using knowledge to advance social justice during the calendar year 2023.  Please provide some specific examples and stories.  (Nominate someone)

Excellence in staff service is demonstrated in many different ways, but some ways include:

  • Promoting cooperative and effective organizational operations.
  • Sensitivity to racism, ageism, sexism, genderism, ableism, inclusivity, and other diversity issues and to the diversity of life experiences of community members.
  • Interacting with all community members as individuals and supporting their personal development.
  • Guiding students in adjusting to and navigating the challenges of graduate school.
  • Assisting community members in pursuing excellence in scholarship and research.
  • Facilitating contributions to social policy.
  • Fostering a sense of community with a shared mission within and across programs.
  • Modeling excellence in communication skills.

Teaching Assistant Award Criteria

Like the lead instructors they assist, excellent teaching assistants can help students to be excited about learning, understand complex issues and events, or master a subject area. Your nomination for a teaching assistant award should describe how they have been an outstanding teaching assistant, incorporating the criteria listed below. Please provide some specific examples and stories.  Any Heller graduate student is eligible to receive the Award if they have been an official teaching assistant in any HSSP undergraduate or Heller graduate course in calendar year 2023. (Nominate someone)

Excellence in the role of teaching assistant manifests itself in multiple ways, but some criteria include the ability to:

  • Assist the lead instructor and students in creating a community of learners in which students, both as a group and individually, can and do take intellectual risks and experiment creatively.
  • Be sensitive to racism, ageism, sexism, genderism, ableism inclusivity, and other diversity issues.
  • Contribute to the smooth functioning of the course and the depth of students’ learning.
  • Treat all students with respect and consideration, responding appropriately to the individual needs of each student.
  • Communicate subject matter accurately, clearly, and with enthusiasm.
  • Make difficult concepts and information accessible and understandable.
  • Stimulate students’ intellectual curiosity, fostering critical and creative thinking and problem-solving.
  • Inspire and support students to do their best work.
  • Challenge and inspire students to become engaged citizens of the world who aspire not only to achieve understanding but also to advance the cause of social justice.

Heller Early Career Research Investigator Award

The purpose of this award is to honor the work of an early career Heller School researcher who has made an exceptional contribution to the science or whose work has had an impact on the public or community.  The contribution can be in the form of a publication, a research or program evaluation, research grant or contract, or other recognition by the research, scientific, or funding community.  Eligibility for this award is limited to Heller faculty and staff who are approximately ten years or less from graduation with a research degree.

Nominations will include a 2-3 page summary describing how the researcher has met each of the criteria, and the nominee's CV.

Criteria include:

  • Contribution of the research to science or current literature
  • Contribution of the researcher to the success of the research team
  • Importance of the issue in terms of social policy
  • Innovation / creativity
  • Impact or potential impact of the work on diverse or underserved populations
  • Contribution to Heller social impact mission

You may email the completed form and nominee’s CV (as an attachment) to Cindy Thomas (cthomas@brandeis.edu) and Joanne Beswick (beswick@brandeis.edu).  Please use the subject line “Heller Research Award 2024”

Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity Award Criteria

This award is given to members of the Heller community who go above and beyond their roles and responsibilities to make noteworthy contributions that help advance inclusive excellence. These individuals have demonstrated recognizable efforts related to diversity, inclusion, equity, and/or social justice to help enrich experiences for our faculty, researchers, staff, and students and contribute to the overall success and climate of the school. Any Heller Community member is eligible to receive the EID Award if they have made a significant contribution to equity, inclusion, and diversity in calendar year 2023. (Nominate someone)

The nomination should explain the particular distinction that makes the nominee exceptionally qualified for this honor using one or more of the following criteria:

  • Developing a climate supportive of all students, staff, faculty & researchers, including fostering an environment that encourages collaboration, trust, and respect.
  • Engaging or leading public and/or academically-oriented endeavors that demonstrate intellectual excellence and commitment to diversity including: all protected classes, geographic origins, languages, ability, religion, political perspectives, and socioeconomic class.
  • Welcoming new ideas and input from others and valuing diverse perspectives and opinions
  • Leading or sustaining efforts to use scholarly, co-curricular, and/or creative work to enhance the success of students and faculty of diverse backgrounds
  • Raising awareness and actively participating in diversity and inclusion efforts within the school
  • Committing to sustained effort and demonstrated outcomes to bring about equity in our community or society as whole.

Barbara Wakefield Award Criteria

This award is given to a recently graduated or soon-to-be-graduated student who has gone above and beyond to build up the Heller community, a leadership that goes outside the student's particular degree program through their activities, relationships, and attitude. The recipient will receive a small monetary award and an invitation to serve on the Heller Alumni Association Board the following year. In your nomination please share their leadership qualities and describe how they have built up the Heller community. Barbara Wakefield was the director of financial services and student aid at the Heller School until her death in 1996. She is remembered as a vibrant woman who was very welcoming to students and staff. She worked tirelessly to find funds to support students and frequently helped them navigate complicated university processes. She was a voice for the students, especially those in need of extra support.

Eligible students are those persons who are receiving diplomas in August 2023, February 2024 (completed program in December 2023), and May 2024, and include Ph.D. students who have completed 2 years of coursework and passed their comprehensive exams.  (Nominate someone)

The nomination should explain the particular distinction that makes the nominee exceptionally qualified for this honor using one or more of the following criteria:

  • Engaging or leading public and/or academically-oriented endeavors that promoted community building for all at the Heller School.
  • Inspired and uplifted classmates, colleagues, or others by going out of their way to communicate and build networks amongst these groups.
  • Fostered networking across degree programs and has strong relationship-building skills.
  • Took on a leadership role to purposefully bring together the community (for example, across programs, departments, centers, institutes, or campus-wide initiatives)