Nominations are now open! Submit by November 20!
The Earl Whitfield Regional Outreach Award celebrates region’s within ACUI for their innovative communication campaigns. It acknowledges and promotes marketing ideas that satisfy a need for regional outreach regarding conferences, educational programs, and volunteer opportunities to inspire member engagement.
2025 Recipient: Region VII Newsletter, Region VII
The Region VII Newsletter is a timely and innovative avenue for providing accessible, relevant, and inspiring content that resonates with the region’s diverse audience. Led by Regional Communications Director Zac Lomas, Rutgers University–New Brunswick, Region VII volunteers used clear and visually appealing messaging to increase engagement and foster community. This award celebrates a region’s innovative communication campaigns.
About Earl Whitfield
The Earl Whitfield Award was created to promote excellence in regional newsletters and to recognize those volunteer leaders who produced them. Through Whitfield’s involvement, he worked hard to ensure that member institutions in ACUI were provided services, support, and communications on a regional basis long before we had websites, email, social media, and all the technology of today. He believed that regional support and communication were the foundation for member engagement and service. Whitfield was a professional that believed in one of the most basic core values of our Association: providing the opportunity and the structure for learning.
Whitfield learned what the union was all about from his days as the president of the student government at California State University–Fresno. As he often said, “the skills I learned from the out of class experience prepared me to become the first union director at Fresno” and later, for his engagement with ACUI. From serving as a regional representative to being selected as the Association’s president in 1983, he was a mentor for many. His vision for strong regions that impact institutional communities enhanced the path to where we are today. Sincerity, warmth, and patience were Whitfield’s mark on all of us—and his sense of humor and humility were among his exemplary traits.
