The Julie Allinson Award

The Award Selection Committee invites you to nominate a Samvera Community member for the Julie Allinson Award. 

The purpose of this award is to recognize an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the Samvera Community.  The award honors the late Julie Allinson, a beloved Samvera Community member who was an incredible mentor, teacher, contributor, and friend.

Scope

Individuals nominated should have made a demonstrable impact on the Community in the past 12 months, in any of the following ways:

• Outstanding support of individuals in the Samvera Community through mentoring or teaching;

• Meeting Community challenges through technical creativity;

• Fostering inclusivity and a welcoming Community;

• Championing Community contribution to meet shared challenges.

Members for 2024

• Chris Awre, University of Hull

• Alicia Morris, Tufts University

• Robin Ruggaber, University of Virginia

Members of the Award Selection Committee, previous awardees, and the Community Manager are ineligible for award nomination. Self-nominees are allowed.

Nomination Process

Write a one page letter that describes how the nominee has made a demonstrable impact on the Samvera Community and email to Heather Greer Klein, Community Manager, heather@samvera.org. The letter will be shared only with the Community Manager and members of the Award Selection Committee.

The Committee will review the nominations, select the recipient, and announce the award.  A plaque and US $200 will be presented to the award recipient.

Previous Award Winners

2024: Daniel Pierce

The recipient of the 202​4 Julie Allinson Award is Daniel Pierce from Indiana University.

​Daniel was nominated by Jim Halliday from Indiana University. In ​h​is nomination letter, ​Jim highlighted that in his two years serving as Hyrax Technical Lead, ​"Daniel has been an essential force for maintaining Hyrax and pushing it into the future. Over the last year he has made tremendous strides towards new initiatives, such as moving towards compatibility with Fedora 6. He’s also been very invested in improving the core code itself. I have seen him responding very quickly to various problems in the code base, and he has worked closely with many folks in the community to resolve bugs and issues.​ Daniel also is a good-natured and positive person. He has respect for others in the community, and he is quite liked in the community for his friendly spirit and willingness to work with everyone.​"

2023: Julie Hardesty

The recipient of the 202​3 Julie Allinson Award is ​Julie Hardesty from ​I​ndiana University. Julie ​was jointly nominated by Jon Dunn​ ​(Indiana University​), Jessica Hilt (University of California, San Diego), and Rebekah Kati​ (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill​). In their nomination letter, they ​nominated ​J​ulie for the award ​t​o celebrate her "exceptional technical leadership, invaluable mentorship, and relentless dedication to championing the vital cause of equity, diversity, and inclusion within our community.​"

​The nominators highlighted that even after finishing two years serving as the Hyrax Product Owner, "Julie tirelessly advocates for new developers and is a key founding member of the Developer Onboarding Working Group. In each Developer Congress that she has been involved in, she has created space and given her time to teach and guide new contributors in building their own local instances of Hyrax. In her interactions with novice contributors, she demonstrates unwavering patience, skillfully ushering them through uncharted waters while championing novel processes and testing methodologies. She is always willing to take the time to answer questions and help others. Her unwavering support and commitment to these educational initiatives have significantly enriched our community's growth trajectory.​"

​"Just as Julie Allinson herself exemplified the transformative power of one person's contributions, so too does Julie Hardesty embody this spirit. Her unwavering commitment, resolute leadership, and unflagging advocacy have undeniably left an indelible mark upon our community, aligning harmoniously with the values held dear by the Julie Allison Award.​"

2022: Tamsin Johnson

The recipient of the 2022 Julie Allinson Award was tamsin johnson from University of California, Santa Barbara. tamsin was jointly nominated by Julie Hardesty (Indiana University), Jessica Hilt (University of California, San Diego), and Chrissy Rissmeyer (University of California, Santa Barbara). In their nomination letter, they nominated tamsin for the award “in recognition of their outstanding technical leadership, mentorship, and tireless efforts in addressing and raising awareness about issues of equity, diversity, and inclusion in our community.” 

They also highlighted that tamsin is “generous with their knowledge, always willing to pair with new and existing members of the Samvera Community. They are patient with new contributors, encouraging members to take tickets that are outside their comfort zone with the offer of support and education throughout the process.”