UCCS professor, community advocate wins service award

Abby Ferber, professor, Sociology and Women’s and Ethnic Studies, was recently awarded the 2009 Chase Faculty Community Service.

She will receive the System-wide award at Tuesday’s annual Campus Awards ceremony.

“The selection committee was highly impressed by your lengthy involvement with many community-based projects,” Michael Poliakoff, vice president, Academic Affairs and Research, CU System, wrote. “But it was your dedicated commitment to and important work with the Smart-Girl organization that earned you the Chase Award for faculty community service.

Smart-Girl is a Denver-based non-profit organization that organizes activities and programs to help adolescent girls develop attitudes, skills and behaviors that lead to success and self-sufficiency.

“I became interested in Smart-Girl because I felt the work of the organization was widely and urgently needed,” Ferber said. “As a woman, I wished I had a program like Smart Girl when I was an adolescent. As a mother, I would like to see this program grow and become more widely available to girls like my daughter.”

Ferber served on Smart-Girl’s board of directors since 2002 and built a partnership between the organization and UCCS, providing opportunities for students to intern at Smart Girl.

“Abby has been a driving force in the success of Smart Girl, an inspiring board member to others, and an unflaggingly cheerful volunteer,” Nicky Marone, chief executive officer, Smart Girl, said. “I can’t think of anyone more deserving to win this award.”

The Chase Faculty Community Service Award is funded by an endowment from the Chase Corporation through the CU Foundation, established with a 1991 gift of $100,000. The endowment provides an award of $10,000 annually to a full-time faculty member at the University of Colorado who has rendered exceptional service in his or her community.

Founded in 1967, the nonprofit CU Foundation partners with the University of Colorado to raise, manage, and invest private support for the university’s benefit.