At the annual Celebrate! CSU Awards ceremony on April 29, the Office of International Programs presented three awards in recognition of the outstanding international service of campus and community members Diana Wall, Brett Bruyere, and Bob and Nancy Sturtevant. Recipients of the Office of International Programs Distinguished Service Award were honored alongside other distinguished campus and community award recipients at the Lory Student Center.
Diana Wall
Diana Wall is one of CSU’s most outstanding and internationally oriented faculty members. She is a University Distinguished Professor and Director of the School of Global Environmental Sustainability.
Diana is the global guru on soil biodiversity, and her work includes more than twenty years of research in the Antarctic Dry Valleys examining how climate change affects soil biodiversity and ecosystem processes. Wall Valley, in Antarctica, was named for her achievements.
Diana has been a champion of expanding campus internationalization throughout CSU. Her work is helping to create long-term environmental sustainability, while meeting the needs of people around the world.
Brett Bruyere
Brett Bruyere is an Associate Professor in the Department of Human Dimensions of Natural Resources in the Warner College of Natural Resources. His teaching and research address environmental communication and community-based conservation, often in a context of developing world settings.
The Office of International Programs has long recognized Brett’s many contributions to CSU, its students, and its research base. Likewise, many International Programs staff members have had the privilege of working with Brett through his numerous leadership roles in Education Abroad programming. Brett helps dozens of students each year have an international experience through his involvement in the Kenyan Alternative Winter Break program, the Conservation Leadership through Learning Program, and the Integrated Social and Ecological Field Methods course in Kenya. And on the side, Brett also directs a small non-profit to support education access in the northern region of Kenya.
Bob & Nancy Sturtevant
For more than two decades, Bob and Nancy Sturtevant have dedicated countless hours of services to CSU’s International Programs. Bob and Nancy have been very active in the Fort Collins International Center (FCIC), an organization that provides outreach and hospitality to international students. They have led student trips to the Great Sand Dunes and Mesa Verde, served as FCIC President, and hosted hundreds of students in their home.
Bob and Nancy recently served as Peace Corps Volunteers in Ethiopia. There, in addition to their Peace Corps projects and being “Mom and Dad” to the other volunteers, the Sturtevants forged a strong relationship between Hawassa University and Colorado State University, which culminated in a visit by a CSU delegation led by President Tony Frank in November 2012.
The Sturtevants are true pillars of our community who serve others in a devoted, effective and loving way.