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The Judith Rothbaum
Indicators Award
Recognizing excellence in using social indicators
for community
action
Given in memory of Judith Rothbaum
by NAPC and the United Way of Central Oklahoma
More about
Judith Rothbaum and the Award
2010 criteria and nomination process
(Deadline:
February 10, 2010)
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2009 Award
presented to
Jan Figart
March 3, 2009
Jan Figart with Karen Wulfkuhle,
Chair of the Awards Committee, and with
Phil
Dessauer, Executive Director, Community Service Council (Tulsa,
Oklahoma)
Awards
Committee Chair Karen Wulfkuhle presented the award:
If you’ve been
to NAPC’s website, this language will be familiar — “Today’s
councils are guided by an informed perspective on their
communities’ social assets, resources, and needs. This
perspective comes from their wide and varied research and
information gathering activities — the unique council asset
which guides all their other actions.”
Often that
research takes the form of social indicators. Many of us have
learned about the importance of social indicators from our
colleagues at NAPC member organizations.
Judith Rothbaum
was one of our colleagues who set the standard for social
indicator work. Judith passed away in 2007. To honor her
passion for community service and leadership in the social
indicator movement, the United Way of Central Oklahoma partners
with NAPC to recognize annually an individual who exemplifies
professionalism and dedication to the use of social indicators
for community action. Thank you to United Way for providing the
funding for this award. Blair Schoeb and Heather Elmenhorst are
here representing the United Way.
2008 was the
inaugural year for the Judith Rothbaum Award. The first
recipient was Katrina Middleton, Vice-President, Information,
Research and Planning at the Community Services Planning Council
in Sacramento. Katrina was unable to be here this year — but
like Judith, Katrina demonstrates individual excellence that not
only benefits her community, but serves as an example to all of
us.
For 2009, NAPC
solicited nominations from member organizations. The award
committee was greatly impressed by the accomplishments of all
the nominees. NAPC is fortunate to have such outstanding
individuals among our membership. It was a difficult decision
to select just one person to honor this year.
But, after
collecting and analyzing the data available to us — we selected
a nominee who we believe exemplifies all of the award criteria.
The selection
has been a secret until this moment, when it’s my pleasure to
announce that this year’s recipient of the Judith Rothbaum Award
is Jan Figart. Jan is Associate Director and Senior
Maternal-Child Health Planner at the Community Service Council
of Greater Tulsa. Many of you are familiar with her work on The
Perfect Storm. This work is just one example of Jan’s
vision and skills for how to engage and empower people to
understand and use indicator data.
Jan was
nominated by Phil Dessauer, Executive Director of the Community
Service Council – and I’d like to read from the section of the
nomination form where he discusses why he believes Jan should
receive the award…..
Jan’s work has been characterized by her
commitment to the importance of this work, her intelligence and
analytical skills, her strong work ethic and high level of
productivity in completing projects, and her ability to
motivate, lead and manage teams to accomplish results.
Along with technical expertise related to
identifying, collecting, analyzing, and presenting social
indicator data, Jan also excels in using data as a tool to
stimulate and inform positive community action.
Another thing
which sets Jan apart is her ability to see the big picture of
the convergence and interrelatedness of many complex factors,
and how one indicator needs to be understood in a broader
context involving several other indicators. She has the ability
to explain this in such a way that even non-data people see the
patterns and can grasp the importance.
I believe Jan Figart’s combination of
perspectives, skills, and accomplishments exemplifies the unique
contribution that planning councils can make in the social
indicators field. She is well qualified to be honored with the
Judith Rothbaum Social Indicators Award.
The selection
committee agreed; Jan is well qualified to be honored with the
Judith Rothbaum Award.
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2008 Award
presented to
Katrina Middleton
May 8, 2008

Pictured above:
Ed Pulido - United Way of Central Oklahoma (sponsor of the
award)
Nancy Findeisen - Executive Director, Community Services
Planning Council
Ben Warner - President, National Association of Planning
Councils
Katrina Middleton - the 2008 Judith Rothbaum Award Honoree
Ed Pulido spoke about Judith Rothbaum, long-time indicators leader and creator of
Choosing Our Future, one of the nation's first community
indicators reports, leading to Oklahoma City's Vital Signs.
"Judith
started our indicators movement, establishing a legacy for our
community and for the country on the importance of measuring
indicators and planning and acting together to address them.
She was a beacon of light, in our community and nationally."
In memory of her life and work, the United Way of Central
Oklahoma has underwritten an award which NAPC will present each
year to honor Judith's memory and to recognize outstanding
achievements
in using indicators as a tool for community improvement.
Katrina Middleton described Judith's valuable contributions to
NAPC's indicators initiatives in the early years, resulting in
the identification of a set of leading indicators and stories of
how they have shaped communities' actions to address social and
health problems effectively. Katrina spoke of Judith as a
long-time colleague and friend.
"She was bold. She stood tall. She was
intelligent...extremely practical...clear, direct, and
fearless…and had the most delightful wry sense of humor.
Judith understood that indicators are about people and their
collective story. Her leadership allowed people [doing
indicators work in many communities] to understand what they had
in common, and work together to make change happen."

Then NAPC President Ben Warner
surprised Katrina with the announcement that she had been
selected to receive the first annual Judith Rothbaum Award, in
recognition of her years of excellent work on social indicators
in the Sacramento region as a staff member of the Community
Services Planning Council (CSPC), and through NAPC as leader of
NAPC's indicators initiative and author of NAPC's community
indicators report, "From the Bottom Up." An
engraved crystal vase and a cash award were presented.

Katrina received congratulations
from Nancy Findeisen, CSPC Executive Director (above), who spoke
about her fine work in Sacramento. "Her
focus is on making sure that data is used in a
constructive and positive way. It is not about the data
itself, but about using the data in a productive and rewarding
way--taking data from dull to changing the fabric of the work of
a community."
Katrina was congratulated by many long-time
NAPC colleagues and friends, including (below) Ed Pulido, David
Swain, Ben Warner, (Katrina), Nancy Findeisen, and Caroline
Swain.

Coming soon: an
online library of articles
by Judith Rothbaum
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