Honoring faculty, staff, and partners advancing campus and community impact

At the annual Celebration of Faculty and Staff Excellence, IU Indianapolis recognizes individuals who exemplify the campus’ mission through exceptional contributions in teaching, research, service, and leadership. Among the many honors presented, several awards specifically celebrate outstanding community-engaged work, highlighting those who build meaningful partnerships, foster student learning beyond the classroom, and help improve quality of life in Central Indiana and beyond.

The 2025 recipients of community engagement awards, recognized at the Celebration of Faculty and Staff Excellence held this past spring, are highlighted below. Honored for their commitment to collaborative partnerships, public service, and community impact, these individuals and organizations demonstrate the many ways IU Indianapolis partners with communities to advance shared goals and create positive change.

2025 IU Indianapolis Community Engagement Award Recipients:

Mary Ciccarelli and Katharina Weber (Charles Bantz Community Fellowship Award)
The Charles R. Bantz Community Fellowship Award includes a $40,000 grant to support a year-long, community-engaged research initiative that addresses pressing community issues through collaborative university-community partnerships.

Dr. Mary Ciccarelli and Dr. Katharina Weber, both faculty with joint appointments in the Departments of Pediatrics and Internal Medicine at the IU School of Medicine, received the 2025 Bantz Community Fellowship Award for their project, Indiana Complex Care Coordination Collaborative – Preventive Care for People with Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities (IDD). Their initiative brings together IU Indianapolis faculty, students, and community partners to expand access to preventive care and improve healthcare navigation for people with IDD.

This work builds on a collaboration between the IU School of Medicine and Special Olympics Indiana to develop 4ourhealth.org, a website designed to help individuals with IDD better understand preventive care, self-management, and healthcare navigation. With support from the Bantz Fellowship, the team will partner with clinicians, students, and self-advocates from Special Olympics Indiana and the Village of Merici to evaluate and refine the site’s usability before broader dissemination.

“This next step afforded by the Bantz award will help us refine what we have done to date, fueling our aspirations for better usability and long-term health improvements,” says Dr. Ciccarelli.

Dr. Weber adds, “Thanks to the support from the Bantz Fellowship award, we have the means to partner with intended users in our community to discover areas for improvement, make changes, and confirm that we are optimizing their experience on the website.”

Dr. D. Wade Clapp, Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the IU School of Medicine, praised both faculty members for their contributions to medicine and the community. “Dr. Mary Ciccarelli is the Morris Green Professor of Pediatrics and Professor of Clinical Medicine-Pediatrics with a long history of significant and successful contributions to our department in medical education and to our statewide community in innovations of care for care coordination, early autism diagnosis, and transition to adult care,” he shared.

“Dr. Katie Weber is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine-Pediatrics. She has been an outstanding advocate for persons with disabilities in primary care through IU Health, and has helped build disability curricula in medical education, engage in community collaborations with Damar and Special Olympics, and lead clinical innovations related to disability services.

“I am always impressed by the work of Drs. Ciccarelli and Weber. They are true allies for persons with disabilities. They are creative, hardworking, and enthusiastic. Students who have the benefit of working with them grow in clinical and research skills, and also in humanism,” he concluded.

Kathleen Unroe ­(Bantz-Petronio Translating Research Into Practice (TRIP) Award)
The Bantz-Petronio TRIP Faculty Award, established in 2013 by Chancellor Emeritus Charles Bantz and Professor Sandra Petronio, honors IU Indianapolis faculty who transform interdisciplinary or cross-disciplinary research into innovative practices or solutions that improve lives across Indiana and beyond.

Dr. Kathleen Unroe, professor of medicine at the IU School of Medicine, research scientist at the IU Center for Aging Research, and a geriatrician and nursing home physician, received this award for her leadership in improving nursing home care through research, clinical innovation, and policy change.

Widely recognized for her leadership in geriatric care, she has translated research into practices that are improving how care is delivered in nursing homes across Indiana and beyond. She has led several major initiatives—including OPTIMISTIC, a $30.3 million demonstration project funded by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that improved care and reduced avoidable hospitalizations in 40 Indiana nursing homes. She currently leads NEXT STEPs, a $16 million NIH-funded initiative to increase the quality and number of clinical trials in nursing homes, and co-leads UPLIFT, a multi-state trial testing of a new palliative care model.

Dr. Unroe shared, “I am passionate about understanding how we can best support people with long-term care needs and serious illness and then advocating for that care.”

To extend the reach of her work, Dr. Unroe founded Probari, a woman-owned Indiana-based business helping implement the OPTIMISTIC care model in nursing homes across multiple states. Her contributions have improved outcomes for older adults while influencing care delivery, staffing practices, and national policy conversations.

“I see research as a pathway to a stronger, more person-centered system of care,” she said. “That requires close partnerships in the community. Without community and industry partnerships, we can’t recruit facility leaders, staff, residents, and families to participate in research, and critically, we don’t have pathways to put into action the best practices we collaboratively discover. I am grateful for this honor.”

Edward Curtis (Chancellor’s Faculty Award for Excellence in Civic Engagement)
The Chancellor’s Faculty Award for Excellence in Civic Engagement, which includes a $3,000 base salary increase, honors faculty whose teaching, research, and service enhance the quality of life in the greater community.

Dr. Edward Curtis, director of the IU Indianapolis Arabic and Islamic Studies Program and Gail M. and William M. Plater Chair of the Liberal Arts, received this award for creating and leading the Arab Indianapolis community history project, highlighting the rich heritage and contributions of Arab Americans in greater Indianapolis.

From 2020 to 2023, the Arab Indianapolis project engaged student researchers and community partners to produce a thrice Emmy Award-winning PBS documentary (Arab Indianapolis: A Hidden History), a published book (Arab Indianapolis, Belt Publishing, 2022), an interactive website accessed by over 48,000 people, and a virtual Heritage Trail tour. The work also led to an official State of Indiana historical marker at Lucas Oil Stadium, K–12 workshops for educators, PBS LearningMedia lesson plans and videos, a community blog, and 20 statewide community dialogues supported by Indiana Humanities.

The project contributed to Arab American public history scholarship and elevated recognition of Arab Hoosiers by commemorating their stories at key sites across the city, including the Indianapolis Cultural Trail, Millennium Plaza, Riverside Park Promenade, the Indiana Historical Bureau, and the Indiana Historical Society.

A nominator highlighted the project’s emotional and civic impact, recounting an event at the dedication of the South Street Extension of the Indianapolis Cultural Trail in October 2024. After Dr. Curtis spoke about the city’s historic Syrian Quarter and the cultural vibrancy of South Street in 1900, Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett—who followed him at the podium—remarked that Dr. Curtis was one of the toughest acts he’d ever had to follow. The Mayor shared that he was deeply moved by Dr. Curtis’s reminder that the true identity of Indianapolis has always been one of ethnic, religious, racial, and linguistic diversity.

This initiative exemplifies the integration of service, teaching, and research, creating meaningful learning opportunities for students, faculty, and community partners. “Tens of thousands of people participated in some way, which showed both IU Indianapolis student researchers and Arab American community members that their work matters and is having an impact,” a nominator wrote.

The initiative gave students, many of them Arab American, opportunities to participate in historical research and storytelling featured in local and national media. As a nominator shared, the project gave many Arab American community members “a new sense of belonging.”

Curtis’s nomination received broad support from colleagues and community leaders, highlighting the value of university–community collaboration and the project’s role in deepening historical knowledge about the history and contributions of Arab American communities in greater Indianapolis and across Indiana.

Nine13 Logistics (Chancellor’s Community Award for Excellence in Civic Engagement)
The Chancellor’s Community Award for Excellence in Civic Engagement recognizes community organizations that collaborate with faculty, staff, and students to deepen student learning, advance academic and professional work, and improve community outcomes through teaching, research, or service.

Nine13 Logistics, a valued community partner, received this award for its meaningful and sustained collaboration with IU Indianapolis students, faculty, and staff across multiple schools. Through joint research and operational projects, IU Indianapolis students have helped Nine13 Logistics address food insecurity in Marion County, gaining real-world experience while contributing to a stronger community.

Founded as Nine13 Sports in 2012 by former professional cyclist Tom Hanley, the nonprofit began by introducing youth from under-resourced communities to fitness and city exploration through cycling and hands-on bike building. When the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted school-based programming, the organization quickly pivoted to meet an urgent community need – supporting food pantry logistics across Indianapolis. That shift was so critical that Nine13 could not simply return to “business as usual” when schools reopened. Instead, this essential work evolved into Nine13 Logistics, which now operates alongside its youth programming, using revenue from logistics services to support its educational mission.

IU Indianapolis partners with Nine13 Logistics through the Optimizing Food Pantry Deliveries Project, funded by a University Center grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration. Students from the Herron School of Art and Design, Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering, O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, and Purdue School of Engineering and Technology collaborated with Nine13 on logistics research, process improvement, and operational expansion, deepening their learning while contributing to a critical effort to reduce food insecurity in the community.

As a working partner, Nine13 has provided IU Indianapolis students with real-world insights into third-party logistics in the local food pantry ecosystem. The organization hosted site visits, engaged students in in-depth discussions, and shared operational data. Student teams have documented current processes, identified opportunities to improve efficiency, and helped chart a path for growth.

“In 2024, 31% of Marion County residents experienced food insecurity, which is a 50% higher rate than before the pandemic,” said Youngbok Hong, professor in the Herron School of Art and Design. To help address this, IU Indianapolis students are working with Nine13 to optimize food pantry delivery systems and increase the organization’s capacity. These improvements will help local food pantries access and distribute food more efficiently to those in need.

“Tom Hanley has taught our students a master class in what it means to be nimble, to be willing to learn new things, and to have a humble spirit,” she added. “He’s been an example of professionalism, accessibility, and kindness, and shown students and staff alike what it means to serve others.”

Kim Sarver­ (Nan Bohan Community Engagement Award)
The Nan Bohan Community Engagement Staff Award honors IU employees whose exceptional service—whether through their professional roles, committee work, or volunteerism— strengthens the culture of service and civic engagement on campus and in the community.

Kim Sarver, project manager at The Polis Center at IU Indianapolis and advisor to Women in Technology (WiT), received this award in recognition of her extensive commitment to community service and her impactful civic engagement on and off campus. Sarver exemplifies leadership rooted in service and dedication to uplifting others through her work in mentorship, K–12 STEM outreach, food drives, health forums, and student advocacy.

Her dedication to service began early, shaped by her parents and her experiences at St. John’s Missionary Baptist Church under the leadership of Rev. Andrew J. Brown, a prominent civic leader and pastor in Indianapolis. “My love for community and philanthropy began in my teens,” she shared. “That upbringing motivated me to give back and help those less fortunate.”

At The Polis Center, Sarver helps communities access quality tools and understand meaningful data that can guide decision-making and influence policy, especially in the areas of public health and senior wellbeing. Her contributions include organizing community forums, making data more accessible, and helping shape conversations that impact lives.

Beyond her professional role, Sarver serves as an advisor to Women in Technology (WiT), where she mentors women and students pursuing careers in high-tech fields. Through WiT, she helps provide STEM education experiences for K–12 students by partnering with local schools and participating in community events throughout Indianapolis.

She also volunteers with campus and alumni initiatives, including efforts led by the IU Indianapolis Black Faculty and Staff Council (BFSC) and the Tennessee State University Alumni Association (TSUAA) chapter. Through these groups, she helps coordinate canned food drives and supports college students through outreach and engagement. Sarver has also represented IU Indianapolis at community events such as Indiana Black Expo, where she shares information about educational resources and scholarship opportunities with local students.

“Being involved with IU Indianapolis has been a great way for me to express this love I have for our community,” Sarver shares.

Sarver’s work embodies the spirit of the Nan Bohan Award, grounded in service, leadership, and a deep commitment to uplifting others. Through her mentorship, volunteerism, and advocacy, she continues to champion a more connected, informed, and empowered community.

The Celebration of Faculty and Staff Excellence also awarded achievements in teaching, mentoring, research, staff leadership, intercultural engagement, and sustainability. View the full list of 2025 honorees. Congratulations to all recipients! Their lasting contributions continue to strengthen IU Indianapolis and communities across Indiana and beyond.