Rachel Williams has received the 2014 CLAS Outstanding Outreach and Public Engagement Award.

This award honors a CLAS faculty member who has engaged in activities that bring the University to broader communities in significant and sustained ways. Williams was nominated for her transformation of the GWWS service-learning course (oriented towards volunteer service at local agencies) into a fully-developed model of publicly-engaged pedagogy and scholarship from which every GWSS major benefits. Also highlighted were her cooperative efforts with the Department of Corrections and incarcerated women at the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women to create and provide a prisoner-directed curriculum exploring topics such as healthy relationships, motherhood, sexuality, wellness, and violence. Williams and her students have developed arts projects with and for the Iowa Juvenile Home that are supported by a Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust grant. Also extolled is her cooperative work on a community mural project at Broadway Neighborhood Center, the collaborative art projects with students from Iowa City’s Elizabeth Tate Alternative High School, and the “Comics and Creators Conference” with Iowa City middle and secondary school students.

Congratulations, Rachel, on this well-deserved honor!