:: CRD Awards

CRD Lifetime Service Award - Steven Budd, President,

River Valley Community College, NH

A deep and thoughtful thinker, Steve Budd epitomizes the entrepreneurial development officer. His keen intellect, ranging curiosity, and fearlessness provide the platform for his ability to pull disparate ideas and people together to create innovative programs and lasting partnerships. He’s done that successfully over and over throughout his career at community colleges: Greenfield Community College and Springfield Technical Community College in Massachusetts as a development officer, then River Valley Community College in New Hampshire as its president.  He has served his colleges’ students and communities well.

When he became a volunteer to CRD, we, too, were the beneficiaries of his considerable skills. Since 1998, Steve has served the CRD membership in numerous and significant capacities. He served two terms as Region I director, twice directed CRD’s Summer Symposium (1999 and 2005) and as immediate past-president, co-chaired the Symposium (2008)  - all exemplary occasions of partnership building. He hosted Specialist Training with Gail Carberry at Springfield Tech in 2004. And not the least, Steve was instrumental in securing grants from the National Science Foundation to present workshops to community college faculty in NSF grant writing techniques, serving as co-PI, then PI for successive grants. As president of CRD in 2007, he called for the membership survey, which resulted in the Swanson report , to determine membership needs, forged the partnership with Lumina Foundation that led to a highly successful Summer Symposium, and encourage further strategic partnerships to benefit our members.

Steve’s manifest thoughtfulness and thoroughness in action brought acclaim to the CRD programs in his charge. He attentively mentored  both staff and volunteers.  He attended every single regional conference held during his year, not only welcoming the group on behalf of the board, but making presentations -- in some cases several.  And in the midst of all his dedicated work on behalf of the organization, he accepted an appointment to the presidency of a community college.

CRD is pleased and proud to honor Steven Budd with our Lifetime Service Award.

CRD Congressional Award - Representative David Loebsack

Representative David Loebsack represents Iowa's 2nd District, which includes Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, and includes Kirkwood Community College. He is now in his second term of his first elective position. Prior to coming to Congress, the Congressman was a professor of political science.

Congressman Loebsack has demonstrated particularly strong leadership on behalf of community colleges. He has worked extremely closely with the strong community college system from his home state. His first move in support of community colleges was successfully seeking appointment to the House Education and Labor Committee, which jurisdiction over the programs that mean the most to community colleges--the Higher Education Act, the Workforce Investment Act, and the Carl D. Perkins Act.

In last year's reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, Congressman Loebsack successfully sponsored legislation to expand pending legislation to ensure that the new year round Pell Grant was available to part-time and certificate students. This was a top community college priority, since the original language would have rendered many community college students ineligible for the year-round grant. AACC has continued to work with the Congressman to ensure that the Department of Education was implementing this new law as intended. Also in last year’s reauthorization, the Congressman also helped ensure that the final legislation include the Business-Workforce Partnerships program, another program strongly supported by AACC.

Congressman Loebsack also played an active role in support of the American Graduation Initiative, which has now been passed by the House. In the Committee markup on the legislation, Rep. Loebsack supported an amendment that enhanced the role of the AGI in supporting workforce programs at community colleges.

Also, earlier this year Representative Loebsack introduced the SECTORS Act, H.R. 1855. The SECTORS Act would add to the Workforce Investment Act a new funding component that would, as the bill's title implies, provide federal funding for training initiatives focused in industry clusters that show particular promise in a given region. Community colleges can expect to be prime partners and beneficiaries in this program. The legislation emphasize the development of career ladders. another growing focus on our campuses.

Congressman Loebsack regularly conducts on-campus focus group sessions with Kirkwood Community College staff, students and job training participants to better understand the education and training needs of Iowans and the changes needed in federal policy and funding commitments to better serve their needs. He regularly seeks their input on proposed legislation in a very proactive way.

For this and other reasons, including our hope to work cooperatively with Rep. Loebsack for many years, the Council for Resource Development proudly extends to him the 2009 CRD Congressional Award.

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