Engaged Faculty Award
The Engaged Faculty Award recognizes one faculty member in North Carolina for exemplary engaged teaching and scholarship, including leadership that advances students’ community and civic learning, conducting community-based research, fostering reciprocal community partnerships, and building institutional commitments to service-learning and community engagement. The award is presented during the PACE conference.
Nominations typically open mid-September and close the first week in November.
2025 Engaged Faculty Award Recipient
Phillip Motley, MFA
Elon University
Phillip Motley Jr., Professor of Communication Design, Director of Graduate Programs for the School of Communications, and Faculty Fellow for Community-Based Learning, received the 2025 Engaged Faculty Award on February 12, 2025 during the annual PACE Conference hosted at The Conference Center at GTCC.
Pictured is Dr. Connie Book, Elon University President, with Professor Motley.
Read the “Today at Elon” article about Professor Motley.
Past Recipients
2024 – Carlos Alexis Cruz, UNC Charlotte
2023 – Dr. Lucy Lawrence, Warren Wilson College
2022 – Dr. Lynn W. Blanchard, UNC-Chapel Hill
2021 – Steven M. Virgil, Wake Forest University
2020 – Dr. Beth Wall-Bassett, Western Carolina University
2019 – Dr. Alessandra Von Burg, Wake Forest University
2018 – Dr. Annie Jonas, Warren Wilson College
2017 – Dr. David Malone, Duke University
2016 – Dr. Patricia Bricker, Western Carolina University
2015 – Travis Hicks, UNC Greensboro
2014 – Dr. Jim Cook, UNC Charlotte
2013 – Dr. Rebecca Dumlao, East Carolina University
2012 – Dr. Spoma Jovanovic, UNC Greensboro
2011 – Dr. Della Pollock, UNC-Chapel Hill
2010 – Dr. Michele Gillespie, Wake Forest University
2009 – Pam Kiser, MSW, Elon University
2008 – Dr. Cheryl Brown, Greensboro College
2007 – Dr. Rachel Willis, UNC-Chapel Hill
2006 – Dr. Betsy Alden, Duke University
Background
From 2006 through 2017, NCCE presented the Robert L. Sigmon Service Learning Award recognizing one faculty member in the network who made significant contributions toward furthering the practice of service-learning. The award was named in honor of Robert L. Sigmon, a service-learning pioneer and North Carolina native. In 1967, along with Bill Ramsay and Wendell Russell, he coined the phrase “service-learning” to better describe the community-based internships they facilitated at the Southern Regional Education Board. In 2009, Mr. Sigmon donated his personal library and research to Elon University to create the Robert L. Sigmon Service-Learning Collection. In 2016, the archive was digitized and is now available online. https://elonuniversity.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16128coll7
In 2017, Sigmon humbly expressed his desire that his name be removed from the award because “it is the service-learning movement in its many variations, rather than any one or two individuals who need to be recognized. The S-L language has now had a 50 year run with all kinds of frameworks added and subtracted.” To honor his wishes, we have expanded the award beyond service-learning to recognize other forms of engaged teaching and learning. Sigmon also reminded us that the “the key factor in service-learning relationships is the acceptance of the potential learning for all the parties involved as well as the recognition that each can be of some service or help with the others.” As a result, we launched the Community Partner Award in 2019.