Beverly Nance, a 25-year employee at Illinois State University, has been named the recipient of the 2011 David Strand Diversity Achievement Award.
Nance is the 18th recipient of the award, which was established and endowed by President Emeritus David Strand to honor a faculty or staff member whose efforts result in heightened sensitivity to diversity on campus.
Nance will be honored at the Founders Day Convocation and will receive a check and her name on the Strand Diversity Achievement Award plaque on the Wall of Fame in Bone Student Center.
Nance has held the positions of director of the High Potential Students Program, coordinator of the Minority Student Academic Centre and is currently the coordinator of Targeted Retention Services for the Julia N. Visor Academic Center. She started at Illinois State in 1986 as an academic coordinator for the Minority Professional Opportunities program and also held positions in the Summer Enrichment Program for Academically Talented Minorities and the University College Academic Enrichment Center.
In one of the nomination letters for the award, Nance was praised for her entire career focus on “assisting students, especially students from underrepresented backgrounds,” and “ensuring that students had a welcoming place to call home.” Her “direct one-on-one impact with students” was described as “the hallmark of Nance’s career at Illinois State,” which led to students saying the impact Nance made on their lives was instrumental in their academic success. Another nominator said Nance “has supervised many graduate assistants and young minority professionals, providing mentoring, support and guidance.”
Past recipients of the Strand Diversity Achievement Award are Alison Bailey, Nancy Tolson, Christopher Horvath, Kim Pereira, Marilyn Boyd, Maria Canabal, Madeleine Hoss, Ming-Gon John Lian, Maura Toro-Morn, Louis Perez, Ron Strickland, Julia Visor, Savario Mungo, Paula Ressler, Ronald Swan, Ricardo Cortez Cruz and Rick Lewis.
