Rupa Valdez
Rupa S. Valdez, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Public Health Sciences, has been named co-recipient of the Provost’s Office Award for Collaborative Excellence in Public Service. Valdez is recognized alongside colleagues David Edmunds and Laura Goldblatt by the Public Service Award Selection Committee of the UVA Provost’s Office.
The award recognizes a team of faculty members, from diverse departments and disciplines, who demonstrate the greatest collaborative impact on societal wellbeing in a particular place or community and who have pursued that wellbeing together with students.
In announcing the award, UVA Vice Provost for Academic Outreach Louis Nelson wrote: “The Selection Committee was composed of university faculty as well as community members, and we trusted that their collective insight, drawn from diverse fields and experiences, would elevate the most outstanding nominations. The field was highly competitive, and we could not be more pleased with their decision.”
Nelson cited Valdez and her students’ “long-standing partnerships with the Public Housing Association of Residents, the Westhaven Community, the newly established Community Research Review Board, and other community organizations,” which he wrote “exemplifies the type of transformative community-engaged scholarship these awards were designed to recognize.”