The Curtis W. Miles Award recognizes faculty members who share their expertise with community groups and non-profit agencies. The Faculty Committee on Research, Service, and Faculty Development solicit nominations from JCU faculty, staff, administrators, and students and recommends candidates with support from the Center for Service and Social Action.

The award is a $1,000 cash award given to a full-time teaching or library faculty member who has made a significant contribution to the broader Cleveland community consistent with the University’s mission and goals. The award is presented during John Carroll University’s Ignatian Heritage Week in recognition of the role of service in the University’s mission.

Curtis W. Miles, a retired pharmaceutical salesperson, endowed the first faculty community service award in 1992 to encourage and recognize faculty members who reach out to the community and offer their skills and talents to agencies and community partners who need it most. Miles died February 15, 1994.

For more information about the award, contact Dr. Abdul Imam at aimam@jcu.edu.

The 2013 recipient of the Curtis W. Miles Faculty Award for Community Service is Dr. Linda Seiter.  Dr. Seiter, Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, has shown a dedication to community service both inside and outside of the classroom. She integrated service learning into multiiple computer science courses including a partnership with US Together, a refugee resettlement agency in Cleveland Heights. Dr. Seiter and her students conducted a series of Access Database classes to provide refugees with a marketable job skill. Outside of the classroom, she was dedicated her time to many groups in Cleveland providing workshops for the Cleveland Chapter of Black Data Processing Associates, for high school teachers, for school children, for teens, and for summer campers at University Settlement in Slavic Village and at John Carroll University.

Previous winners include:

  • 2012- Gloria Vaquera, Ph.D., Sociology and Criminology
  • 2011- Brent Brossmann, Ph.D., Communication and Theatre Arts
  • 2010- Paula Britton, Ph.D., Community Counseling
  • 2009- Ruth Fenske, Ph.D., Grasselli Library
  • 2008- Jeanne Colleran, Ph.D.,English
  • 2007- Rich Clark, Ph.D., Sociology
  • 2006- Margaret Finucane, Ph.D., Communication and Theatre Arts
  • 2005- Sharon Kaye, Ph.D., Philosophy
  • 2004- Gerald Weinstein, Ph.D., Accounting
  • 2003- Sally Wertheim, Ph.D., Education and Allied Studies/Graduate School
  • 2002- Wilhelm Bartsch, Ph.D., Classic Modern Languages and Cultures
  • 2001- Lauren Bowen, Ph.D., Political Science
  • 2000- Mark Diffenderfer, Ph.D., Sociology
  • 1999- John Soper, Ph.D., Economics