Utah State University Honors Annual Diversity Award Recipients

Utah State University President Stan Albrecht recognized and honored the winners of the 16th Annual Utah State University Diversity Awards at a luncheon held in their honor April 9 at the Haight Alumni Center at USU.

 

Mary Doty, John Lackstrom, Kate Stephens, Krista Bustamante and Cleal Bradford were honored as the 2010 Diversity Award recipients. The awards recognize individuals on campus and in communities served by USU who have made significant contributions to affirmative action, equal opportunity and diversity.

 

Mary Doty was honored posthumously with the Administrator Award.

 

Prior to her tragic death in August 2009, she was the interim associate vice president for student services as well as the director of the USU Counseling Center. Doty was a licensed psychologist and began work in the USU Counseling Center in 1989 and became its director in 1991. On the USU campus, she was supportive of multicultural students and actively worked with the Multicultural Student Services, International Students and Scholars, Disability Resource Center, Women’s and Reentry Student Center and GLBTA (Gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and allied) Services to make sure the Counseling Center was responsive to the needs of all students.

 

In the 1980s, Doty was involved in providing counseling and other services for Vietnam veterans. More recently, she was involved in development of a new USU Veterans Service Office, providing training and leadership to USU staff to prepare for the arrival of a new generation of veterans.

 

She also touched the lives of many individuals with eating disorders. Because of her expertise in the treatment of eating disorders, body image disturbance, women’s issues and traumatic stress, she was the primary consultant involved in the founding and opening of Avalon Hills Residential Treatment Center.

 

At USU, Doty was a strong advocate in the creation of Allies and the GLBTA Services office.

 

In the community, she was supportive of many organizations and activities. Her success in the Scrabble Scramble for Bridgerland Literacy is legendary for bringing in the most money for the years 2005-2008 in support of this program. Over the years, her chocolate desserts raised hundreds (maybe thousands) of dollars in support of Planned Parenthood.

 

John Lackstrom, professor of linguistics and Spanish in the Department of Languages, Philosophy and Speech Communication, College of HASS, received the Faculty Award.

 

“John Lackstrom has worked tirelessly for decades to build cross-linguistic and intercultural understanding,” one of his nominators wrote. “In particular, John has dedicated much time and energy to language learning and language teaching, both of which are crucial elements in building understanding between diverse groups.”

 

Upon his arrival at USU in 1969, Lackstrom established the Intensive English Language Institute (IELI) which he directed and co-directed for more than 10 years. Because of this institute, several thousand international students have found a place on the USU campus where they can acquire the linguistic and cultural skills to enable them to succeed at USU. In 1985, along with other IELI faculty, he developed the International Teaching Assistant (ITA) workshops and directed or co-directed the workshops from 1985 to 1993. In the ITA workshops, international students are oriented to the cultural expectations of undergraduate teaching in America and are trained in the English language skills required for teaching undergraduate students.

 

Together with faculty from the University of Utah and Brigham Young University, Lackstrom organized the Intermountain affiliate of the international professional organization of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). Before the affiliate was established, Utah teachers of ESL had no organization to turn to for professional networking, training and advocacy.

 

In the late 1990s, Lackstrom, along with Al Smith, another language faculty member, developed the Master of Second Language Teaching (MSLT) program, using the slogan “Build Understanding.”

 

Kate Stephens, Utah Conservation Corps assistant director, received the Staff Award.

 

The UCC is dedicated to improving public lands and the communities that surround them through partnership projects, education and service.

 

In September 2005, Andy Zimmer had completed more than half of a year-long AmeriCorps term of service when he sustained a spinal cord injury in a bicycle accident. Stephens, working with Zimmer, conceptualized and then organized Access to Service, allowing Zimmer a meaningful way to finish his AmeriCorps term of service while still focusing on the natural resource issues UCC is involved in.

 

The pair created the model for the Access to Service program, integrating AmeriCorps members of all abilities to address accessibility issues on public lands and communities through service. Stephens, using her experience with UCC and as the founder of Common Ground Outdoor Adventures, created service projects with the USDA Forest Service to complete federally-mandated transition plans, making accessibility information available to the public.

 

Access to Service was launched in the summer of 2007 with a crew of eight AmeriCorps members and Zimmer as crew leader. The crew was integrated with members who had no physical disabilities and members who self-identified as having a physical or cognitive disability. Over the last several years they have surveyed trails and recreational sites throughout the Wasatch-Cache National Forest, constructed an improved boardwalk around Second Dam and surveyed recreational sites in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. AmeriCorps members from Access to Service have also been instrumental in the development of the accessible community garden in North Logan.

 

In February 2006, Zimmer received the Corpsmember of the Year award for his collaboration with Kate in developing Access to Service from The Corps Network, an organization that represents the nation’s 113 service and conservation corps. Access to Service received the National Service Project Award from the same organization in 2008.

 

Krista Bustamante is an undergraduate student with a dual major in political science and Spanish and is currently the ASUSU (Associated Student of Utah State University) diversity and organizations vice president. She is the recipient of the Student Award, presented for her many efforts prior to being elected to her current ASUSU position. 

 

As a high school student, Bustamante founded H.E.R.O. (Hispanic Education Recovery Organization), which works to improve teenagers’ ACT scores. She has tutored ESL students, both in high school and the university.

 

Highly competent in both English and Spanish, Bustamante was chosen from dozens of applicants to receive a leadership and first generation scholarship at USU. Since her first days on campus, she has been an active supporter and participant in numerous multicultural programs and activities. She has highlighted her many talents through dances as a member of the Latino Student Union, she is a member of ACES, a student leadership organization that carries out major programs such as opening and closing socials for hundreds of students, and she has participated in several panels at the request of faculty to educate fellow students on various multicultural issues.

 

At USU, Bustamante has supported several Multicultural Student Services organizations, working collectively with international Latino groups such as the Dominican Student Association. She is employed on campus as a resident assistant, and routinely is involved in educating her peers about human diversity and social issues.

 

Bustamante has volunteered building classrooms in Sonora, Mexico, and returned as a crew leader for the Youth Conservation Corps in association with Multicultural Adventures Outdoors.

 

Cleal Zemire Bradford is the diversity award recipient in the Community category.

 

His life-long passion has been to preserve diverse cultural resources in southeast Utah, develop educational opportunities for Native Americans and empower Native communities to shape their own political, social and economic destinies.

 

He has been among the foremost leaders in the promotion of empowerment and self-sufficiency among Native American communities in southeast Utah, as exemplified by his participation with a number of community-based organizations promoting Native American interests. Bradford served eight years as the executive director of the Utah Navajo Development Council, a top employer for his county. He served as the executive director of the White Mesa Ute Council for 30 years, wherein projects included the development of community infrastructure and services, such as paved roads, new housing units, enhanced police protection, improved health care, Ute language preservation, scholarship programs and other projects.

 

As the executive director for Blue Mountain Dine for more than 11 years, Bradford worked tirelessly to improve educational and economic opportunities for Navajo citizens of San Juan County who reside outside the boundaries of the Navajo Nation.

 

He has provided decades of service through the San Juan Foundation, which led to the realization of his life-long dream of developing a campus for higher education in the southeast part of Utah to better serve the local population, including Native American students from the Ute and Navajo reservations. This campus is used cooperatively by the USU Blanding Education Center and the College of Eastern Utah, now Utah State University-College of Eastern Utah. The Foundation has further developed Family Learning Centers in the communities of Monument Valley, Montezuma Creek and Monticello.

 

Bradford holds a passion for the preservation of diverse cultural settings and artifacts from the Four Corners area, and he has served as executive director of the Four Corners Heritage Council for the past 14 years. Additionally, in conjunction with the San Juan Foundation, the Nations of the Native West, a 60-acre cultural heritage site with replicas of Navajo, Ute, Spanish and early pioneer settlements and villages has been established.