Global Impact Awards

This award seeks to recognize alumni whose highly distinguished careers have featured significant work outside the United States that has resulted in outstanding contributions to their communities or professions in global contexts, and/or who have exemplified ideals of global citizenship through the promotion of inter-cultural communication and mutual understanding, international peace and security, or responsible and sustainable international development.

This award seeks to recognize UK faculty who demonstrate a commitment to global engagement through research and scholarship, with well-established and ongoing records of international research activities.

This award seeks to recognize UK faculty who demonstrate a commitment to global engagement and excellence in teaching through facilitating an education abroad program.

This award seeks to recognize UK faculty who demonstrate a commitment to global engagement through activities and leadership in internationalizing the curriculum, with well-established and ongoing records of incorporating significant global perspectives and intercultural components to educational activities taking place on the UK campus.

This award seeks to recognize UK non-academic staff who demonstrate outstanding commitment, support and service to international students, staff, or visiting scholars/researchers at UK, and/or to UK students, faculty and staff engaging in education abroad activities.

This award seeks to recognize organizations active in Kentucky that show exceptional commitment to promoting global awareness and cultural diversity in the Commonwealth, and have positive impact on the global engagement efforts of the University of Kentucky, our students, faculty, and staff. This may include charitable organizations and NGOs, public or private corporations, as well as local and state government agencies. The Community Partner Global Impact Award is also open to individuals who show exceptional commitment to promoting global awareness and cultural diversity in the Commonwealth, and have positive impact on the global engagement efforts of the University of Kentucky, our students, faculty, and staff.

UK Alumni Global Impact Award

The 2022 Alumni Global Impact Award recognizes the outstanding career and achievements of Dr. William H. Jansen II (B.A., Anthropology, 1971). After going on to earn his M.A. and Ph.D. in anthropology at the University of Wisconsin Madison, Bill Jansen devoted a long and distinguished career to applying the strengths of anthropological inquiry and deep understanding of cultural context on pressing global health issues around the world. His work with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) led to extended stays in the Canadian Arctic, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Jordan, Morocco, and Zimbabwe, as well as shorter tenures in Benin, Bolivia, Cambodia, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Paraguay, Rwanda, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, and Uganda. His work around the world addressed such critical issues as protection of indigenous ancestral lands, improving maternal and child health, controlling malaria and tuberculosis, and mitigating the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa.

UK Global Impact Award for Distinguished Faculty Achievement in International Research and Scholarship 

Dr. Nikiforos (“Nick”) Stamatiadis (Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering), has been selected as the recipient of the 2022 Global Impact Award for Distinguished Faculty Achievement in International Research and Scholarship. Dr. Stamatiadis first came to the United States as an international student pursuing graduate degrees at Michigan State University. He is as leading international expert on Context Sensitive Solutions (CSS), an approach to roadway design that emphasizes the importance of crafting holistic, participatory transportation solutions accommodated to the context in which they are built.

UK Global Impact Award for Distinguished Faculty Achievement in Education Abroad 

The 2022 Global Impact Award for Distinguished Faculty Achievements in Education Abroad recognizes the outstanding, career-spanning efforts of Dr. Beth Barnes (Integrated Strategic Communication, College of Communication and Information). Dr. Barnes has facilitated highly impactful education abroad experiences in multiple countries for UK students. In addition to serving as a faculty director for annual summer and winter education abroad experiences in London and South Africa for more than 15 years, Dr. Barnes has served as the Associate Dean for Undergraduate and International Studies for the College of Communication, as well as the University of Kentucky’s Interim Assistant Provost for Internationalization. She has been an active member of the campus-wide International Advisory Council, as well as the campus-wide Education Abroad Committee and International Health, Safety & Security Committee.

UK Global Impact Award for Distinguished Faculty Achievement in Internationalizing the Curriculum 

Dr. Ann Kingsolver (Anthropology, Appalachian Studies, College of Arts and Sciences) is recognized with the 2022 Global Impact Award for Distinguished Faculty Achievement in Internationalizing the Curriculum for her exceptional work in incorporating global perspectives in her teaching and mentoring. Dr. Kingsolver, an anthropologist of globalization, was recruited in 2011 to join UK’s College of Arts and Sciences specifically to bring a global perspective to the Appalachian Studies program and the Appalachian Center. She has developed the innovative “Global Appalachia” course, which she has taught for the past ten years. In this course, she has connected her classroom virtually with classrooms at partner universities in Sri Lanka, India, Ireland, and Italy. In 2019, Dr. Kingsolver reimagined the Global Dynamics Core Course “Cultural Diversity in the Modern World, with a redesigned syllabus and revised course description and learning objectives. She offered the course to more than 650 students to overwhelmingly positive student feedback.

UK Global Impact Award for Distinguished Staff Achievement in Campus Internationalization

Ms. Summer Eglinski, Director of Gatton Global Initiatives in the Gatton College of Business and Economics has been named the winner of the 2022 Global Impact Award for Distinguished Staff Achievements in Campus Internationalization. Ms. Eglinski has been passionate about international education since first studying abroad in Greece after her freshman year of college and later teaching English at a high school in France for an academic year. She has served as director of global initiatives for the Gatton College since 2015 and works closely with both domestic business students seeking education abroad and international business students pursuing UK degrees in the college.

Community Partner Global Impact Award

The University of Kentucky is pleased to confer the inaugural Community Partner Global Impact Award to the Kiwanis Club of Lexington. This valued community partner is the local chapter organization of Kiwanis International, a global community of clubs, members and partners dedicated to improving the lives of children one community at a time, with more than 550,000 members in 80 countries. Founded in 1920, the Kiwanis Club of Lexington has a long history of civic engagement and philanthropy.  Since their very beginning, this club has supported the University of Kentucky by establishing a scholarship fund to assist students pursuing higher education.