{"id":83271,"date":"2020-04-23T12:58:28","date_gmt":"2020-04-23T16:58:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/busm\/?p=83271"},"modified":"2020-04-23T12:59:10","modified_gmt":"2020-04-23T16:59:10","slug":"bus-2020-perkins-awards-for-distinguished-service-announced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/2020\/04\/23\/bus-2020-perkins-awards-for-distinguished-service-announced\/","title":{"rendered":"BU\u2019s 2020 Perkins Awards for Distinguished Service Announced"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar butoday-prepress-layout-metabar\">\n<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-comments\">\n<figure id=\"attachment_83272\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-83272\" style=\"width: 2010px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/camed\/files\/2020\/04\/COM-ResizePerkins.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"size-full wp-image-83272\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1335\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/files\/2020\/04\/COM-ResizePerkins.jpg 2000w, https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/files\/2020\/04\/COM-ResizePerkins-636x425.jpg 636w, https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/files\/2020\/04\/COM-ResizePerkins-768x513.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/files\/2020\/04\/COM-ResizePerkins-1024x684.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-83272\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Colin Riley (from left), Kim Richards, and Debra Paarz have won this year\u2019s Perkins Awards for Distinguished Service. They will be feted when the University returns to normal operations. Photos courtesy of Riley, Richards, and Paarz<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-comments\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-share js-bu-prepress-share-tools\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block-editorial-introparagraph butoday-block-editorial-introparagraph\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-editorial-introparagraph-toc\">\n<li>Perkins Awards to Colin Riley, Kim Richards, Debra Paarz<\/li>\n<li>Annual recognition for distinguished service to the University<\/li>\n<li>Ceremony postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>Call it the pandemic-era Perkins: all three winners of this year\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/fafc\/perkins-award\/\">Distinguished Service Awards<\/a> learned of the honor during Zoom conferences due to social distancing requirements.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was quite taken aback when a screen was shared with a copy of the letter notifying me that I was selected as one of this year\u2019s recipients,\u201d says Kim Richards (Questrom\u201908, MET\u201914), Metropolitan College computer science<strong> <\/strong>department director of program administration.<\/p>\n<p>She and fellow honorees Colin Riley, Marketing &amp; Communications executive director of media relations, and Debra Paarz, School of Medicine general internal medicine section administrator, have won the Faculty Council\u2019s annual shout-outs for outstanding service to the University. Nominated by professors, Perkins Award recipients receive $500, courtesy of an endowment provided by the estate of John S. Perkins, a BU trustee, administrator, and faculty member. The awards were created in 1981.<\/p>\n<p>This year\u2019s winners, who collectively have two-thirds of a century\u2019s experience at BU, will be honored at a ceremony that has been bumped from its original May date to an as-yet-unscheduled day after BU returns to post-pandemic operations.<\/p>\n<p>The rhythm of University life, Riley says, fortifies him against such delays. \u201cWorking in higher education is sort of a time warp,\u201d he says, \u201cin that most of the faces you see on campus every day, year after year and changing each fall, are between the ages of 18 and 22, yet I keep getting older. So working at BU keeps me young.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Colin Riley<\/h3>\n<p>For three decades, Riley has represented BU to reporters and lawmakers, today as its lead spokesman. His hand on the tiller in choppy public waters was never more clear, one nominator wrote, than during the years-long effort to open <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/neidl\/\">BU\u2019s National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories<\/a> (NEIDL) in the South End.<\/p>\n<p>Facing community concern about NEIDL\u2019s on-premises research into deadly diseases, Riley \u201cplayed a key role in building trust with the community\u201d by educating himself about the science behind the lab\u2019s mission so he could credibly translate its work and why it was essential, the nominator said. Riley \u201cindefatigably, patiently, and with consummate integrity produced a truthful public narrative\u201d that concluded with NEIDL\u2019s approval. Among the public threats <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/articles\/2020\/neidl-covid-19-research\/\">NEIDL\u00a0researches today is COVID-19<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Riley\u2019s toughest duty, he says, is coping with student deaths. The 13 months ending in May 2013 saw almost a dozen, including that of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/articles\/2013\/grad-student-killed-in-blasts\/\">Lu Lingzi<\/a> (GRS\u201913), killed in the Boston Marathon bombings, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/articles\/2012\/three-students-dead-in-new-zealand-crash\/\">three students who died in a 2012 New Zealand van crash<\/a>. \u201cFor many classmates of those students, that loss was the first time they had experienced the death of a peer,\u201d Riley says. In such tragedies, \u201cDean of Students Kenn Elmore and his staff pull together a team from across the University to ensure there is outreach, support, care, sensitivity, and services to the family of the students, and to the BU community at large.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Good news or bad, Riley says one insight guides his work: \u201cI work at an institution where great things happen: faculty educate and transform young lives and scientists conduct basic and applied research that improves the world we live in. BU is in the business of doing good. That\u2019s the foundation I stand on.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Kim Richards<\/h3>\n<p>Life online is familiar to Richards, whose duties include distance-recruiting, interviewing, and equipping of MET faculty. One colleague\u2019s letter nominating her for the Perkins dubbed her a \u201cmagician\u201d at forging community among faculty and learners in MET\u2019s computer science department, which educates more than 1,000 students in 70 campus and online courses.<\/p>\n<p>Richards created a new student orientation and internship program, keeps in constant contact with tech employers to help job-seeking students, developed and maintains the department website, which has made administrative chores easier for staff and students, and is the department\u2019s\u00a0 canary down the mineshaft, who \u201cis among the first to test new systems and technologies,\u201d one nominator said.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-bu-pullquote butoday-block-bu-pullquote has-image-focus-center-middle\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-bu-pullquote-inner\">\n<figure><\/figure>\n<blockquote>\n<div class=\"container-lockup\">\n<div class=\"container-icon-outer\">\n<div class=\"container-icon-inner\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"container-text\">\n<hr \/>\n<h3 class=\"quote-sizing\">I was quite taken aback when a screen was shared with a copy of the letter notifying me that I was selected as one of this year\u2019s recipients.<\/h3>\n<h3 class=\"caption\">\u2014Kim Richards (Questrom\u201908, MET\u201914)<\/h3>\n<hr \/>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>All this by a woman who studied business administration, not computer science, although she has boned up by taking a couple of her department\u2019s courses.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWork shouldn\u2019t be easy,\u201d Richards says, \u201cthough I have always had an interest in web development and programming. Academia is an ever-changing field, especially when your focus is computer science. It is fascinating to be a part of that process and to learn from [faculty] about the changes that are occurring.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Debra Paarz<\/h3>\n<p>A quarter-century BU veteran, Paarz has spent most of the last two decades with MED\u2019s 120-instructor general internal medicine section, currently serving as its administrator\u2014which now means, among other things, she says, that she\u2019s kept busy supporting leaders, doctors, and nurse practitioners \u201cas their involvement ramps up with COVID-19\u2013related activities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In circumstances not involving emergencies like that, she oversees such matters as faculty recruiting, retention, services, promotions, and efforts to counter burnout. She also helps manage clinical and research activities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrom the moment you join the faculty,\u201d one nominator wrote, \u201cDebbie is there to support you in all aspects, ranging from identifying your mentors, clarifying your clinical schedule, completing your educational expectations, monitoring your clinical performance, maintaining your licensure\/certification, applying for intra- and extra-mural funding, and pursuing academic promotion.\u201d Another said that thanks in part to Paarz, the section is reputed \u201cas one of the strongest and most academically productive GIM units nationally.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis honor represents the collaboration of my dedicated central administration team, getting the job done over the years,\u201d Paarz says. \u201cA typical day could consist of troubleshooting specific areas that need attention and then working with the admin team to efficiently deliver a positive outcome for all involved. I am grateful to work with such a great group of people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This <em>BU Today<\/em> story was written by Rich Barlow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Debra Paarz, who supports BUSM&#8217;s general internal medicine section as its administrator, was one of three winners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":903,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[89,91,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83271"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/903"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83271"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83283,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83271\/revisions\/83283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}