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September 15, 2022

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 15, 2022

Libby Roderick receives 2022 Bullock Prize in recognition of service to the UA system

(Anchorage, AK ) - The ̽����ѡ Foundation Board of Directors has awarded the 2022 Edith R. Bullock Prize for Excellence to Libby Roderick. Roderick, who has been a UAA staff member since 2006, is the director of the Difficult Dialogues Initiative and associate director of the Center for Advancing Faculty Excellence. Roderick received the award Wednesday during the Foundation’s board meeting in Fairbanks.

The Bullock Prize is awarded annually to a member of the university community in recognition that a truly great university grows as a result of personal commitments to excellence. The Prize includes an unrestricted $20,000 award, and is the most prestigious award presented by the UA Foundation each year.

“Libby’s extraordinary contributions to the ̽����ѡ – especially through the development, delivery and promotion of UAA’s internationally-renowned Difficult Dialogues Initiative – reinforce that institutions of higher education are essential venues where the free exchange of ideas can take place,” said Laura Bruce, UA Foundation chair. “Civil discourse can be modeled and practiced, and individuals can encounter different ways of thinking and living on our college campuses.” 

“Libby’s work is a critical keystone in the university’s service to students and to Alaska,” said Sean Parnell, UAA Chancellor. “The democracy-threatening polarization of the American public, social media’s influence on our inability to find common ground, and the difficult but necessary discussions related to human dignity and educational access have combined to make her leadership paramount to meeting the mission of the university.”

Roderick’s work extends beyond Anchorage and across cultures; she has been a noted presenter on Difficult Dialogues across the U.S.; she is a working partner at the Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice and the Center for Teaching and Learning at University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa; and she developed the Warriors for a New Era series that brought elders, scholars, and Alaska Native youth together for intense discussions and knowledge sharing.

Roderick is a renowned singer songwriter and performer whose work has been heard on 60 Minutes, CNN, and CBC, and used by NASA as a musical score to the Mars Rover. Roderick was recognized by the Alaska Legislature for her work as an international activist and artist.

The Bullock Prize was established with a generous gift from the late , whose 30 years of service to the university included terms on the UA Board of Regents and the UA Foundation Board of Directors. The Prize has been awarded to  since 1990. Faculty, administrators, students, and volunteers are eligible, and nominations are due Dec. 1 each year. 

The ̽����ѡ Foundation is an independent, nonprofit corporation established in 1974 to work in partnership with Alaska’s three universities to seek, secure and steward philanthropic support. For more information on the foundation and how to contribute, please visit .

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Correction - Roderick is a staff member at UAA, not on the faculty as was stated in the original release.

For more information, contact Cassandra Stalzer, APR CAP, manager of public relations, at 907-786-7729.

Photo via .