This award was established by the Governing Board in 2009 to celebrate the distinguished service and leadership of Mary Helen Callahan, Executive Director of the Urban Affairs Association (UAA) from 1980 until 2000.
The award is given periodically to an individual who has provided an outstanding record of service to UAA and/or the field of urban affairs.
DEADLINE: October 1, 2024 (11:59pm CDT) – Last day to submit a nomination
The award will be given on an annual basis to an individual(s) who has been inducted into the Distinguished Service Honor Roll and continued since their induction to fulfill meaningful service roles within UAA.
Selected recipients are individuals who have distinguished themselves in one or more of the following areas:
The award recipient receives:
The plaque will be presented at the Annual Awards Program held during the UAA conference. Following the conference, a press release will be prepared announcing the recipient.
Each year, the UAA Executive Office will identify a subset of the Distinguished Service Honor Roll inductees to be considered for this award based on their continuing service records.
The committee chair reports the decision to the UAA Executive Director. The UAA Executive Office notifies the recipient.
(2025) Sabina Deitrick
Sabina Deitrick is Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs and also Co-Director of the Urban and Regional Analysis research program at the University Center for Social and Urban Research (UCSUR) at the University of Pittsburgh. Professor Deitrick teaches courses and conducts research in the areas of economic and community development, urban planning, and regional policy, with an emphasis on regional restructuring, revitalization and brownfields redevelopment. She received her PhD in city and regional planning at the University of California at Berkeley.
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Edward Goetz
Edward Goetz is professor of urban and regional planning at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, and director of the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs at the University of Minnesota. Goetz’ research focus is on housing and community development as it relates to racial equity and social justice. He is the author of multiple books about housing policy in the U.S. Goetz received his PhD in Political Science from Northwestern University in 1987.
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Jill Simone Gross
Jill Simone Gross earned her PhD in Political Science at the CUNY Graduate Center and an MSc in British Government from the London School of Economics. She is a Professor of Urban Policy and Planning at Hunter College, City University of New York where she serves as the Director of Hunter’s graduate program in Urban Policy and Leadership. She has taught at Barnard College, Columbia University, New York University, Sciences Po Bordeaux, Brooklyn College and Queens College. Dr. Gross has served two terms as governing board chair at UAA and worked with countless committees taking a particular focus on internationalizing the UAA. She has served on the organizing and programming committees for UAA joint conferences with EURA, including UAA’s Conference in New York (2024) & City Futures Chicago (2004), Paris (2014), and Dublin (2019). As a Fulbright Schumann Scholar (2011), Dr. Gross researched urban governance in West European cities. Her more recent research and publications explore urban & regional governance of economic development and migration in North American, European and Chinese cities. As a community-facing scholar and educator, she has worked collaboratively with students, CBOs, city, and state governments in New York. In 2020 she joined UAA’s service honor roll.
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Michael Leo Owens
Michael Leo Owens earned his Ph.D. in Political Science from the State University of New York at Albany. He is Professorof Political Science at Emory University and the recipient of its 2023 Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award (Social Sciences). His books include Deadly Force: Police Shootings in Urban America and God and Government in the Ghetto: The Politics of Church-State Collaboration in Black America. His peer-reviewed articles appear in a range of journals (e.g., Journal of Politics, Nature Human Behaviour, Urban Studies, Journal of Urban Affairs, and Urban Affairs Review). Media (e.g., The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, National Public Radio, and Full Frontal with Samantha Bee) have shared his scholarly insights with global audiences. A former member, vice chair, and chair of the UAA governing board, his service record includes board memberships with the Georgia Justice Project, Prison Policy Initiative, and Foreverfamily (née Aid to Children of Imprisoned Mothers). He is an associate editor of the Journal of Urban Affairs, a corresponding editor of Urban Studies, and editorial board member of Politics, Groups, and Identities and the Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and the City. UAA placed his name on its Distinguished Service Honor Roll in 2020.
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Daphne Spain
Daphne Spain is the owner of 2nd Act Books, which she opened following her retirement from the University of Virginia after thirty years of teaching. She was the James M. Page Professor in the Department of Urban and Environmental Planning. Dr. Spain was the first woman to earn tenure in her department. Dr. Spain received her B.A. in sociology from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, followed by an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She served on the editorial board of the Journal of Planning Education and Research and the Journal of the American Planning Association. She became a Russell Sage Foundation Visiting Scholar in 1995 and was awarded the Cavalier’s Distinguished Teaching Professorship in 2013. Her books include Constructive Feminism: Building Women’s Rights into the City, Gendered Spaces, and How Women Saved the City.
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(2022) David Varady
David Varady is Emeritus Professor of Community Planning at the University of Cincinnati. He is author of twelve books, 75 journal articles and about 120 book reviews on neighborhood development, segregation, and low-income housing policies. Professor Varady has held Visiting Scholar positions at the University of Porto (Portugal), TU-Delft (Netherlands), City of Helsinki, Rutgers University, University of Glasgow, the National Association of Realtors, and the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. Since 2005, Varady has been Book Review Editor for the Journal of Urban Affairs.
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(2020) Margaret Wilder
Dr. Margaret Wilder began her involvement in UAA during her early faculty years in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University. She accepted the position at IU teaching land use planning and urban studies after completing her PhD in Geography and Planning in Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan. Prior to her Michigan days, she had spent all of her life in Texas and attained M.A. and B.A. degrees from University of Texas-Arlington. Her early work on state economic development strategies formed the basis for several UAA conference presentations that cemented her attachment to the organization. Her research garnered best paper awards from both UAA and the Journal of the American Planning Association. After accepting a position at Cornell University and attaining tenure there, Dr. Wilder served on several UAA committees and was elected to the Governing Board, eventually assuming the role of Board Chair. Subsequent professional positions at SUNY-Albany and University of Delaware led to administrative roles as department chair and graduate program director. In 2005 she became UAA’s fifth executive director. In 2013, she was inducted into the UAA Service Honor Roll.
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(2010) Mary Helen Callahan
Mary Helen Callahan was the Executive Director of UAA from 1980 until 2000. In 2010, Ms. Callahan became the first recipient of the award during the 40th Annual Meeting of the UAA held in Honolulu. As the first recipient, Ms. Callahan personified the purpose of the award. As administrative assistant (from 1975-1980) to the board chair of what was then the Council of University Institutes for Urban Affairs (later renamed the Urban Affairs Association), she played a central role in establishing the early operational infrastructure and board support that launched a new national professional organization. She was instrumental in building the core activities of the organization from its annual conference to the now well-respected Journal of Urban Affairs. As the guiding hand in UAA’s development for more than two decades, Ms. Callahan epitomizes the commitment and service to the field of urban affairs that this award seeks to honor.