And a West Louisville community center working with faculty and students in UofL’s nursing, education, social work and music schools to improve the quality of life for families.
All four are 2014 winners of UofL Community Engagement Awards, an honor presented each fall to those who set an outstanding example of UofL’s close relationship with its community. Each honoree receives a cash award of $2,500 and a crystal plaque.
“As a metropolitan research university, our ties to the community are vital both to our faculty, staff and students and to the city,” said Provost Shirley Willihnganz.
“This year’s Community Engagement Award recipients represent the very best of the many good works the university community is doing each and every day to make Louisville and the commonwealth a better place.”
This year’s winners are:
Student – Stephanie Dooper, a junior majoring in Spanish, Latin Anerican and Latino Studies and Liberal Studies (International Relations)
Dooper began working with Habitat for Humanity as a high school sophomore, co-sponsoring two homes and raising more than $20,000. She was named a Habitat for Humanity Youth Scholar, attended Clinton Global Initiative University and organized a student service trip to build homes in Tucker, Ga. The founder of UofL’s first Habitat for Humanity student chapter, she is now coordinating a student effort to raise $44,000 to build a house by 2016.
Faculty – Karen Robinson, School of Nursing gerontology professor emerita and executive director, Caregivers Program of Research
Robinson launched the Memory Café, Louisville’s first social group for people with Alzheimer’s disease or other type of dementia and their caregivers. The group, cosponsored by the Greater Kentucky and Southern Indiana chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association, has led to new research by UofL nursing, social work and psychology students.
Staff – Kimberly Goughler, coordinator, Cardiovascular Innovation Institute
Goughler, a member of the Junior ROTC Parents Committee at Jeffersontown High School, led efforts to expand training facilities for 230 Marine cadets at the school. She helped raise $17,000 to transform an outdated shooting range into a multipurpose room for the school’s growing JROTC program. She also spent more than 500 hours helping cadets as a chaperone, job counselor and yearbook advisor.
Community partner – Neighborhood House
Neighborhood House, a non-profit community center in Portland that traces its roots to 1896, helps more than 200 families in need each year. It partners with many UofL departments to offer a wide range of services to adults and children, including nutrition, early childhood learning, senior health, music, sports and financial planning. Faculty and students who do volunteer work at the center gain real-world learning and research opportunities.