This year’s awardees include student winner Priscila Poliana, a graduate student in urban and regional planning; faculty award winner Dr. Arti Prasad, division chief for the Department of Internal Medicine and executive medical director of Center for Life; and staff award winner Ashley Taylor, senior academic advisor at Anderson School of Management.
“These outstanding individuals exemplify UNM’s commitment to community service,” Frank said in a release. “They have gone above and beyond to help those in need and inspire change for the best.”
The Sarah Belle Brown awards’ funding has been donated by former Anderson School of Management dean Doug Brown and his wife, Sarah Brown, to recognize the volunteer service work done by members of the UNM community, according to UNM’s website.
Poliana, who was the previous president of the UNM Graduate and Professional Students Association, currently works as a project planner for the STEM UP Cooperative, which works toward facilitating the transfer of STEM students from CNM to UNM, she said.
“Knowing of the importance of Sarah Brown’s work and of the many qualified nominees, I feel honored and privileged to have been chosen as this year’s recipient,” Poliana said. “I would like to thank Sarah Belle Brown and Dean Doug Brown for their continued support of education and lifelong commitment leveraging our community.”
As GPSA president, Poliana sought to increase transparency in fees and tuition costs and helped to enact a tuition freeze in 2013-14, the first in many years, according to a UNM press release.
Prasad, professor of medicine and chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine, has routinely contributed a significant amount of time and knowledge to community service activities including serving on the medical advisory board of the Cancer Services of New Mexico since early 2000, according to the press release.
“I am truly honored to be receiving this award,” Prasad said. “I feel joyful that someone noticed this hard work and that the decision-makers acknowledged the unique value of this health education work that it brings to UNM.”
She plans to expand her work in preventive and integrative health throughout New Mexico and wants to have a healthy New Mexico community by 2025.
“This may seem like an ambitious goal, but can we think of any less than this for UNM’s community outreach efforts through an integrative health approach?” Prasad said.
Taylor, the third recipient, who has bachelor’s degrees in Spanish and psychology, is highly involved in the community as a volunteer at Crossroads for Women, an Albuquerque organization that provides support for women who are homeless or suffer from mental illness or drug addiction, according the statement.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
“I feel honored to receive this award and it solidifies what is important to me, and that is volunteering and advocating in the community,” Taylor said.
Volunteer work is central to Taylor’s interaction with the community, she said.
“Eventually, I would like to open a free mental health clinic with a holistic approach focusing on variety of areas such as career development, grief, trauma, family, marriage and addiction counseling,” she said.
According to the website, the faculty and staff recipients each receive $1,500, while the student recipient receives a $1,000 scholarship.
Sayyed Shah is the assistant news editor at the Daily Lobo. He can be contacted at assistant-news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @mianfawadshah.
