Each year, the Office of the Provost honors faculty or staff members who have demonstrated a strong commitment to the state of West Virginia.
The 2021 Ethel and Gerry Heebink Award for Distinguished State Service honors two outstanding faculty members –Eloise Elliott with the extended service award and Lauren Prinzo with the beginning service award.
The award was established by David Heebink in 1982 in memory of his parents, Ethel and Gerry Heebink, two former University employees. The criteria for both awards include educational and public service activity extending beyond a traditional classroom setting; evidence of exceptional service to the state; special benefit to a broad segment of West Virginia’s population; work that is well regarded by WVU peers and non-WVU community; effective use of WVU physical and human resources; and evidence of a commitment by the employee to remain at the University.
“Our faculty never fail to impress me,” said Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Maryanne Reed. “The Heebink award, in particular, is one that highlights and honors the value of service to the state of West Virginia and commitment to our land-grant mission. Dr. Elliott and Professor Prinzo are creating change in the Mountain State, and the University is better for it.”
Elliott was born and raised in West Virginia and has dedicated her career to making policy, systems and environmental changes that facilitate a physically active and healthier culture in which our state’s citizens live, work and play. She joined WVU in 2010 and is the Ware Distinguished Professor and service professor in the College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences and holds an adjunct appointment as a clinical professor in the School of Medicine’s Department of Pediatrics. She serves as the co-director of the state’s CARDIAC Project and created the Center for ActiveWV within CPASS, which focuses on improving the physical activity levels of West Virginia’s adults and children.
Within these roles and as part of her research, Elliott has traveled throughout the state providing services to children and their families, dedicating a significant amount of effort to childhood obesity as part of her quest to improve the health of West Virginians. Her extensive service to the state has included many local and statewide health initiatives, as well as multi-year, community-engaged, grant-funded initiatives that are both grounded in science and committed to the common good.
Elliott takes a collaborative approach to her work, often involving many of her WVU colleagues in CPASS and across the WVU campus. Her efforts have impacted some of the state’s most vulnerable populations in all 55 counties.
Prinzo joined WVU Extension Service in 2019 as an extension assistant professor in the Department of Family and Community Development. She is recognized for her youth entrepreneurship service because of the role entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial thinking play in diversifying rural economies and improving quality of life in West Virginia. Prinzo is the first WVU IDEA Fellow from WVU Extension, and through her focus on youth entrepreneurship, she has facilitated new partnerships across the University with the WVU IDEA Hub, WVU Launch Lab, the Encova Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and the Health Sciences and Technology Academy (HSTA). Here primary programs for rural youth and young adults in entrepreneurial thinking and problem solving are the “Impact Challenge” and “My Hometown Is Cool” – both of which are designed to increase confidence and self-efficacy in West Virginia students and motivate them to pursue post-secondary education.
Prinzo also co-created the “Fashion Impact Challenge 2020” course, which combined fashion, entrepreneurship and community engagement and challenged students to create a fashion or textile product or service linking an innovative solution to identified issues in their community. The course served undergraduate fashion students and West Virginia high school students, more than half of which were either first-generation college students or would-be first-generation college students. Such hands-on experiential learning and community engagement help to empower young adults to contribute to and invest in their West Virginia communities.
As the 2021 Heebink award recipients, Elliott and Prinzo will receive a $3,000 and $2,000 professional development honorarium, respectively.
Read more about these and other awards on the WVU Faculty website.