Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier announced the establishment of a new faculty honor, the Chancellor’s Award for University Service, at the Vanderbilt University Spring Faculty Assembly on April 1, and the first recipient was VUSN’s Pam Jones, BSN’81, MSN’92, DNP’13, senior associate dean for clinical and community partnerships.
“It goes without saying that the past year has demonstrated how profoundly the university relies on the tireless service and leadership of faculty who dedicate their expertise and talent to the mission of the university as a whole—and thereby to every faculty member within it,” Diermeier said. “This year, the Chancellor’s Award for University Service will be given to recognize a faculty member’s truly exceptional and selfless service to benefit the entire university community. It will be the first award that recognizes faculty service at the university level beyond service through the senate or other faculty governmental body.”
Jones received the award for her work as co-commander of Vanderbilt’s Public Health Central Command Center, set up in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the direction of Jones and her co-commander, Andrea George, director of environmental health and safety for the university, they applied their scholarly expertise and hard work to the careful orchestration of all processes—including managing patient profiles, contact tracing, isolation planning, quarantine notifications, cluster analysis, data management and psychological assistance for all on-campus students, faculty and staff. The university said that without Jones’ leadership, “a successful return to campus would not have been possible. Moreover, she has helped to create a state-of-the-art emergency response model that can be employed at Vanderbilt and beyond in unforeseen challenging times to come.”