Honors and presentations

Gary Slutkin, executive director of Cure Violence, was appointed Goodwill Ambassador for the Golden Rule and received a National Statesman Award from iChange Nations.

Film

Thea Crum, director of the Neighborhoods Initiative at the Great Cities Institute at UIC, is among a group of Chicagoans featured in “Count Me In,” a new documentary movie about participatory budgeting (PB). Crum co-leads Participatory Budgeting Chicago, an initiative that works to expand PB processes throughout Chicago and provides technical assistance and training to residents as they work to implement the process.

The film, which is presented and produced by WTTW-TV (Channel 11), explores the participatory budgeting concept where local citizens get involved in their community and the government decision-making process for local projects. “Count Me In” debuted on WTTW-TV Nov. 3.

Grants

Yolanda Suarez-Balcazar, professor and head of occupational therapy, and Angela Odoms-Young, associate professor of kinesiology, are the recipients of $100,000 in competitive funding from the Chicago Community Trust for their research project titled, “Promoting healthy lifestyles among Latino youth with disabilities and their families.”

Honors

Biomedical visualization students Drew Fast and Ni-ka Ford are among the winners in life sciences category of this year’s UIC Abraham Lincoln Fellowship competition.

Disability and human development postdoctoral scholar Carli Friedman is the recipient of the Association of University Centers on Disabilities 2016 Trainee Research Award, which is presented annually to recognize outstanding research accomplishments by trainees in the association’s network.

Gary Slutkin, executive director of Cure Violence, was appointed Goodwill Ambassador for the Golden Rule and received a National Statesman Award from iChange Nations during a ceremony Oct. 14 at the School of Public Health. Fourteen other Cure Violence staff members and youth advocates were also honored during the ceremony.

Political Landscapes: Forests, Conservation, and Community in Mexico, by Christopher Boyer, professor and chair of history, received an honorable mention for the Bolton-Johnson Prize from the Conference on Latin American History. The prize is awarded annually for the “best English-language book on any aspect of Latin American History.” The book by Boyer, who is also in Latin American and Latino studies, previously won the prize for best book of social science awarded by the Mexico section of the Latin American Studies Association.

Presentations

Patricia Politano, clinical associate professor of disability and human development, presented two case analyses — “Accessing Augmentative and Alternative Communication Aids” and “Successful Communicators Use Multiple Communication Methods” — at the Assistive Technology and Communication Regional Conference in September in Zagreb, Croatia.