2022

2022 Dave Reese Distinguished Service Award Recipient

Jim Stewart, Chief Technology Officer at the Utah Education and Telehealth Network (UETN), received this year’s Dave Reese Distinguished Service Award.

The Dave Reese Distinguished Service Award was created to honor individuals who have provided extraordinary leadership, support, and service to The Quilt community and its stakeholders. The award is named in honor of Dave Reese (1958-2019), who was a founding member of The Quilt and served in a number of leadership roles for the organization including chairman of the board and treasurer.

“This award recognizes individuals who appreciate the diverse set of organizations that comprise The Quilt membership, embody the belief that collaboration makes the whole cloth of The Quilt stronger, and dedicate their time to supporting initiatives that broadly impact member organizations,” said Jen Leasure, president and CEO of The Quilt. “Jim’s contributions to The Quilt over many years have been invaluable and so are his contributions to the broader R&E networking community.”

Stewart has more than 40 years of experience working in the technology profession and has been working the past 22 years to support technology for all higher education, public schools, and health care organizations in the State of Utah. He also has served on The Quilt Board of Directors for more than two decades.

“Jim embodies the spirit of this award,” commented David C. Marble, president and CEO of OSHEAN in Rhode Island and member of The Quilt Board of Directors. “He has been selfless in his constant availability to help with so many activities, engaging with expertise, support resources and a wonderful sense of humor.”

This award was first introduced last year with technology pioneer Marla Meehl as the inaugural recipient.

“I was incredibly honored and feel privileged to be the inaugural awardee for The Dave Reese Distinguished Service Award,” said Meehl. “Dave was such a wonderful friend, colleague and mentor for me. It is very meaningful to me that Jim Stewart is being awarded this year, since Jim is also my great friend, colleague and mentor, and Jim is such an influential, passionate, and committed leader in our community.”

Stewart received this recognition at The Quilt Winter Member Meeting on March 9, 2022.

2021

2021 Dave Reese Distinguished Service Award Recipient

Marla Meehl, a veteran technology leader and one of the world’s pioneering women in the field of advanced networking, received the inaugural Dave Reese Quilt Distinguished Service Award.

For more than 30 years, Meehl has provided leadership, service and support to the Quilt and the national R&E networking community. From the onset of her career through her current position as Head of the Network Engineering and Telecommunications Section (NETS) in the Computational and Information Systems Laboratory (CISL) at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), she continues to provide to provide vision and leadership for the Quilt and the national R&E networking community.

“Since early in her career, as a network engineer at time when few women were entering this field, Marla has demonstrated her tireless and passionate commitment to diversity, support and mentorship of other women seeking IT careers,” said Sherilyn Evans, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC), where Dave Reese held the position of Vice President for Regional and International Initiatives before his passing. “Over the span of a storied career … Marla Meehl may be the finest exemplar of one deserving to be honored with the Dave Reese Distinguished Service Award.”

“Throughout her groundbreaking career as a woman in network engineering, Marla has worked to raise awareness and close the gender gap in information technology,” said Wendy Huntoon, past executive director of KINBER in Pennsylvania, co-principal investigator for Women in IT Networking at SC, or WINS (sharing the duty with Meehl), and one of the founding members of The Quilt. “While Marla’s professional contributions and accomplishments exemplify the characteristics associated with the Dave Reese Distinguished Service Award, it is her personal commitment to the people in the community that merits the award.”

“Her recent effort with the WINS program and longer-term efforts for diversity in the R&E community has provided opportunities for young women to grow in engineering, software and management that would have not existed otherwise,” said Dave Jent, Associate Vice President at Indiana University. “I believe Marla exhibits exactly the traits this award intends to highlight – dedication to community, dedication to increase awareness of the need, and advantages, of a diverse workforce, dedication to creating a greater sense of community in our small part of the world.”

“Marla’s long career in networking, cyberinfrastructure, and numerous technology projects regionally and nationally is exemplary not only for its many accomplishments but also for her collaborative leadership style that has enabled generations of researchers and technologists to thrive,” added Laurie Burns McRobbie with Indiana University and co-chair of the Internet2 Inclusivity Initiative.

“There are certain people that we meet over the course of the years that stand out from the background of life. Whether this is from their larger-than-life personality, or their clearly over-the-top level of intelligence, or other reasons. These people impact us as well as others around us in ways that become clear and important over time,” said Ron Hutchins, Vice Provost for Academic Technologies at University of Virginia. “Marla Meehl is one of these people … her impact on this community is one that will be felt for many years.”

Meehl received this recognition at The Quilt Winter Member Meeting on Feb. 11, 2021.

Nominations

Nominations Deadline – Jan. 20, 2023
Committee Decision – Feb. 17, 2023
Award Ceremony – March 2023 at Winter Member Meeting

In order to nominate someone, please submit letters of recommendation illustrating the nominee’s contributions to the goals of The Quilt to Jen Leasure at jen@thequilt.net no later than Jan. 20, 2023. We encourage a broad representation of supporting letters (up to five per candidate) from peers and colleagues.

Your remarks should be organized and detailed in a way that allows the Review Committee to easily identify the judging attributes of commitment, collaboration, and support of The Quilt community. In your nomination, please consider including information such as:

How has this person demonstrated a commitment to collectively advancing regional research and education networking and related initiatives through The Quilt?

How has this person demonstrated a commitment to collectively advancing research and education through other organizations?

What types of relevant leadership roles has this individual held in The Quilt community and beyond?

Is this person recognized for leadership qualities and active sharing and learning across The Quilt community? Please provide several examples.

Has this individual contributed substantially to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts related to Quilt activities? If so, how?

Award Review Committee

The award review committee will consist of the president, the chair, the vice chair, and up to three additional individuals who represent Quilt member organizations as well as being active in The Quilt community as evidenced by participation in one or more of The Quilt’s communities of practice. The membership of the review committee will be announced prior to the opening of nominations for the award.

Recipients of the award are announced as part of The Quilt Winter Member Meeting each year.