From old-growth forests to first-grade classrooms, regional campus partners honored at Engage OHIO

The Southern Wayne Advocacy Council was named Ohio University's Community Partner of the Year on Nov. 5, and regional campus partners, faculty and staff took home seven of the evening's 10 honors.

The Community Engagement Awards opened Engage OHIO 2026: Community and Place-Based Engagement Symposium at the Ridges Auditorium in Athens. Each Ohio University campus honors one Outstanding Community Partner a year, and one is selected as the university-wide Partner of the Year. This year's honorees included partners from all five regional campuses, along with a faculty member from OHIO Lancaster and a staff member from OHIO Southern.

Dr. Lewatis McNeal, vice provost for Regional Higher Education, opened the evening. He said attending the ceremony for the first time last year moved him to produce an impact report for Regional Higher Education.

"It inspired me to think about how we tell our story," McNeal said. "How do we talk about the wonderful things that are happening in our communities? How do we uplift people?"

OHIO Southern

The Southern Wayne Advocacy Council (SWAC) has worked alongside OHIO Southern since May 2023, when the partnership took root through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Recreation Economy for Rural Communities program in Lawrence County. The council connects Lawrence County residents, schools and civic groups with the Wayne National Forest and with the campus.

With the Ironton Rotary Club and more than 50 volunteers, SWAC turned a grassy patch at the end of the Ironton floodwall trail into the Pocket Pollinator Garden and Buddy Bench at Storms Creek Park. The learning and gathering space now serves an estimated 250 to 500 walkers and cyclists each month. The council has also connected OHIO Southern biology faculty with hundreds of fourth graders at the Wayne National Forest's Forestry Fair and teamed with the University to bring about 100 Lawrence County high school students into riverfront and forest cleanups.

SWAC board members Judy Dumke and Jill McCleese accepted the award on behalf of Tim Dickens and the council.

OHIO Southern's Sarah Simmons, communications and external relations manager, received a Community Engaged Administrator Award. The selection committee usually names one recipient, but two nominees finished in a tie this year, so Simmons shares the honor with Larry Hayman, director of legal engagement and pre-law programs at the Center for Law, Justice and Culture.

Hayman was nominated for his outstanding work in the community and on campus with the Center for Law, Justice and Culture.

Simmons serves on Ironton City Council, the boards of the Ironton Council for the Arts and the Greater Lawrence County Chamber of Commerce, and the OSU Extension Advisory Board. She works with organizations across the region, such as Rotary, Lions and Elks. In the community, she helps organize events such as the Tuesday night concert series. On campus, she has supported programs such as Bobcat Academy, the Culture and Heritage Festival, and the Community Mental Health Awareness Conference, and she has helped grow Community Work Study across Regional Higher Education. In her nomination, Dean Deborah Marinski wrote that Simmons's work "truly touches every dimension of community life."

Courtney Lefebvre, interim executive director of the Center for Community Impact, presented the award and noted that the center doesn't yet have staff on the regional campuses.

"When Sarah comes up in conversations with colleagues, I often say she's about as close as it gets," Lefebvre said.

OHIO Lancaster

Dr. Pamela Kaylor, professor of instruction in communication studies, received the Community Engaged Faculty Award. Kaylor first brought service-learning into her courses in 2006 and founded the Celebrate Women Conference, which has grown from about 60 attendees to more than 450.

Her students have supported newly arrived refugee families through Community Refugee and Immigration Services, worked with survivors through The Lighthouse domestic violence shelter, and designed restorative justice campaigns with the Fairfield County Juvenile Court. Her reach extends overseas, too. She pioneered Collaborative Online International Learning with partners in Mexico, China, and the Netherlands, and she leads study abroad programs in Thailand, London, and Paris.

Kaylor also nominated OHIO Lancaster's Outstanding Community Partner: the Fairfield County Common Pleas and Juvenile Court team of Judge Terre Vandervoort; Kim Hoover, restorative justice specialist; Bridget Moore, behavioral health and family engagement specialist; and Jennifer Beckley-Watson, deputy director of behavioral health services.

The partnership began more than four years ago during Social Justice Week in the Communication Advocacy Program and has grown across multiple courses and semesters. Each semester, the court team leads a Community Resilience Model workshop that teaches students practical skills for managing stress and trauma. Students have also taken part in restorative justice simulations, designed public education campaigns, and hosted a family fun night for court-involved youth and their families.

OHIO Chillicothe

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Hopewell Culture National Historical Park and the Friends of Hopewell Culture National Historical Park were honored for a partnership that connects OHIO Chillicothe students and the community with one of North America's most significant Indigenous cultural landscapes. The park's earthworks are part of the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks, Ohio's first UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Since 2022, the Bruce Lombardo Internship has placed an OHIO Chillicothe student at the park each summer in a paid role, mentored by park staff and an Ohio University faculty advisor. The internship is funded through a National Park Service cooperative agreement and a gift fund at the Ohio University Foundation. The Friends group also brings public programming to campus, including author talks that have drawn more than 70 people.

Nominator Michael Lafreniere described the collaboration as reciprocal: students gain career-shaping experience, the park gains capacity to serve the public, and the community gains a stronger champion for a heritage site of international importance.

OHIO Eastern

Captina Conservancy has partnered with OHIO Eastern since 2021, and since spring 2024 it has been the primary community partner for the campus's Rural Teacher Corps, hosting field trips, workshops, and volunteer opportunities.

In the 2025-26 academic year alone, Corps members collected 14 oral histories at the Conservancy's Creekin' Festival and co-hosted a Smokey Bear Family Hike that brought more than 80 children and family members to Dysart Woods, one of Ohio's last remaining old-growth forests.

Nominator Dr. Jacqueline Yahn said the partnership gives Corps members a chance to celebrate the place where they live, learn and teach while giving back to the community.

Captina Conservance Executive Director Turner Provost accepted the award.

OHIO Zanesville

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Principal Stephanie Hilliard and the first-grade team at Zane Grey Elementary School were honored for a literacy partnership with OHIO Zanesville. Hilliard is a 2016 OHIO Lancaster graduate.

In fall 2025, the school and campus piloted the partnership through ECEE 3120: Using Reading Assessment to Inform Instruction. Senior education majors assessed 21 first graders, analyzed their data and delivered targeted reading interventions grounded in UFLI routines, while Zane Grey teachers, literacy coaches and administrators served as mentors.

Nominators Dr. Teri Peasley and Dr. Jen Lisy said the collaboration built a bridge between University preparation and classroom practice that benefited everyone involved. Building on a relationship of more than 25 years, the partnership expanded this fall.

Across Ohio University

The Athens campus honored Legal Aid of Southeast and Central Ohio, a partner of the Center for Law, Justice and Culture since 2016. With Hayman also recognized, both sides of the partnership were honored on the same night. Honors Tutorial College student Ava Wood received the Campus Community Coalition's Charles J. Ping Student Service Award.

The evening closed with a plenary by Joe Brehm and Bryn Sowash, co-CEOs of Rural Action, who described the asset-based approach behind the organization's work across Appalachian Ohio and the faculty relationships that have powered its partnerships with the university.

"It's all about the people," Sowash said. "We all work for institutions and organizations, but it's the individuals that have those relationships."