Awards Committee

The NCSPA Jim Deni Lifetime Achievement Award

The Purpose: 
The North Carolina School Psychology Association shall present the NCSPA Lifetime Achievement Award to provide public and professional recognition to individuals for a lifetime career committed to advancing the practice and profession of school psychology.  This award is to recognize the recipient’s significant contribution of energy, knowledge, the dedicated provision of psychological services to children, parents and educators in educational settings and the advancement of these services with fellow professionals.  The NCSPA Lifetime Achievement Award is to recognize and honor individuals who through their dedication, effort and labor have made a significant contribution to advancing the practice of school psychology and who through those efforts have enhanced the profession.

Eligibility Criteria:
To be eligible for this award the individual must be a resident of the State of North Carolina and have functioned as a school psychologist or worked in a position that directly affected the profession of school psychology.  Individuals may have engaged in such activities as research, training, mentoring, administration, or social/political advocacy in addition to traditional and general school psychology practice.  Individuals to be considered for nomination should present a history of involvement in such fields for a lengthy period of time and for a significant portion of their career.

To be eligible a nominee does not have to be a member of the North Carolina School Psychology Association.  A nominee does not have to be a certified school psychologist, but should function in a position that is considered school psychological in nature.

Contributions to the advancement of the practice or profession of school psychology might include any of the following:

1. Development of or contribution to the knowledge base of school psychology principles and practices.
2. Defining, refining, and expanding the scope, role, and functions of school psychologists.
3. Establishment of or refinement of standards of professional practice.
4. Facilitating through advocacy or program development the provision of school psychological services to meet the social, emotional, cognitive and learning needs of students.
5. Contributing to the transmission of the highest levels of standards of practice and ethics of the profession through the training of school psychologists and the role model they provide.

The contributions made by the individual considered in nomination should be shown to have made a significant contribution to promoting the rights, welfare, education and mental health of children and youth and an impact upon the practice and profession of school psychology within the State of North Carolina. 

Nomination and Selection Process:
Nominations are not solicited through nomination applications provided through the newsletter as this award category is reserved as special. The membership will be informed of the availability of this award by announcement in the newsletter, written communication to the membership, and general communication between the Executive Board members and members at large.

An individual can only be nominated by a North Carolina School Psychology Association Executive Board member.  Recommendations for nominations submitted by members at large are to be submitted through their respective Regional Representative.

Individuals submitting nominees for consideration should provide in writing their reasons for nominating the individual. The nominating individual should address the issues of lifetime career involvement, activities the individual has engaged in throughout his/her career and the significant contribution these have made to the practice and profession of school psychology within the State of North Carolina.  It will be the responsibility of the nominating individual to provide sufficient supporting documentation to justify the nomination for consideration.

The Regional Representative, upon receipt of a nomination, will present the nomination to the Executive Board in the form of a motion to accept the nomination for further consideration. The Executive Board has the following options:

1. vote not to consider the nomination further,
2. return the nomination to the Regional Representative to gather further information to support the nomination, or
3. vote to refer the nomination to the Awards Committee for further consideration.

The vote by the Executive Board will be by secret ballot. With a quorum present a two-thirds majority vote will be required to pass the motion for further consideration to the Awards Committee. 

Upon the vote of the Executive Board to refer a nomination to the Awards Committee, the nomination will be forwarded to the Awards Committee.  

Upon a two-thirds positive vote by the Awards Committee, the Awards Committee Chair/Co-Chairs will return a recommendation to the Executive Board regarding presentation of the Award to the nominee.  The decision to present the Award will be made by vote of the Executive Board.  Voting will be by secret ballot and a two-thirds majority of the Executive Board will be required to present the Award to the nominee.

In the case of multiple nominations for a given year, the nominations will not remain in an active file.  For a given nomination to be reconsidered during another year, the nomination will need to be re-submitted through a member of the Executive Board and approved for re-consideration by a two-thirds vote of the Executive Board. The Award will be presented at the Presidential Banquet during the Fall Conference on those years for which there is a nominee meeting the criteria and judged worthy of receipt.