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2.20.06 Outreach Scholarship Community Partnership Award Debuts at Annual MSU Awards Convocation
News Release
Contact: Carla Hills, Office of University Outreach and Engagement, (517) 353-8977; hillsc@msu.edu
2/20/06
A new Outreach Scholarship Community Partnership Award was presented for the first time at Michigan State University's Annual Awards Convocation on Thursday, February 9, 2006.
Cris M. Sullivan, MSU professor of psychology, and Suzanne Coats, executive director of Turning Point, Inc., Mount Clemens, Michigan received the debut award. The partnership was recognized as a model of campus-community collaboration that applies rigorous research methods to assess the quality of interventions for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.
One of Sullivan and Coats' collaborations involved co-authoring Outcome Evaluation Strategies for Sexual Assault Service Programs: A Practical Guide (2000). This training manual has received national attention from agencies that provide services for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.
"This new award recognizes a sustained mutually beneficial campus-community research partnership. It is further evidence of MSU's strong commitment to the scholarly model of outreach research, teaching, and service," said Hiram E. Fitzgerald, Associate Provost for University Outreach and Engagement and University Distinguished Professor of Psychology.
"Professor Sullivan and Ms. Coats set a high bar for future Outreach Scholarship Community Partnership Award recipients. Their work reflects the University's scholarly engagement standards of significance, contact, scholarship, and impact."
The partnership embraces several of the key criteria of the Outreach Scholarship Community Partnership Award:
* developing an infrastructure to support research (in this case, on community mental health services pertaining to violence against women);
* developing a community-based agency's infrastructure to enhance its capacity for collaborative research;
* testing an evidence-based intervention in a community setting; and
* evaluating an integrated model of the collaborative research process.
"I am honored to have the support of the MSU academic community for work I find so rewarding and essential. It is truly an honor to receive the debut award for outreach scholarship and community partnership," said Cris Sullivan, Professor, Department of Psychology.
Dr. Sullivan is recognized nationally for her research on violence against women and its broader impact on parenting behavior, child adjustment, and community responses to male violence. She has generated more than $7.5 million in research funding, primarily from the National Institute of Mental Health and the Department of Justice. Her scholarly work is published in peer-reviewed scientific journals as well as in training manuals and technical reports.
Turning Point is a service agency based in Mount Clemens, Michigan, that provides programs and resources to help victims and survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and homelessness regain control of their lives. Executive director Suzanne Coats is a passionate advocate for delivering demonstrably effective community intervention programs.
The Outreach Scholarship Community Partnership Award is supported by the MSU Quality Fund.
Visit www.outreach.msu.edu for more information about outreach and engagement activities at Michigan State University.