Three members of the Faculty of Arts community have received 2018 President’s Awards: Lindsay Marsh, Program and Communications Manager for the Policy School, received a community engagement award and Gordon Katic (MJ ’15) and Sam Fenn (MA ’16) received a creativity and innovation award for their work on Cited, an award-winning podcast about academic research. The President’s Staff Awards recognize the personal achievements and contributions that our staff make to UBC, and to the vision and goals of the university.
Lindsay Marsh, Program and Communications Manager for the Policy School.
Community Engagement
Lindsay Marsh embodies the work that the Policy School does to create global change-makers.
Lindsay encourages faculty to think big and design impactful events, and works dynamically with volunteers and students to deliver quality programming, symposia and community events to audiences.
When the Policy School was being formed, Lindsay met with key stakeholders from each unit, as well as across UBC and within the community, always modelling the importance of engaging a diverse range of stakeholders in order for the new School to become an expansive hub for policy and practice at UBC.
Lindsay also connects with the broader community to offer policy and innovation events beyond UBC. She held a critical role in founding the Refugee Symposium, and supported the Refugee & Migration Working Group, an interdisciplinary group of community members, policy-makers, researchers, settlement agencies, students, and refugees to tackle issues facing refugees in the research and learning communities.
Lindsay works tirelessly to nurture a healthy workplace environment, often volunteering to lead programs that bring our community together, such as bird watching events or serving as a Positive Space Resource Person. She has served on UBC’s United Way Steering Committee, and mentors students and coaches community members.
Creativity & Innovation
Sam Fenn, Media Producer, Cited podcast.
Together, Sam Fenn and Gordon Katic co-host and produce Cited, an award-winning, syndicated, long-form radio podcast series. Telling compelling stories about academic research, the podcast makes research accessible to large and diverse audiences.
Gordon Katic, Media Producer, Cited podcast.
Gordon and Sam have shown exceptional ability and passion in breaking down barriers separating researchers from the public in this innovative new format of community-engaged journalism.
Unlike traditional research-outreach initiatives, Gordon and Sam have taken an innovative approach in their collaboration with students, scholars, and major media organizations to co-create their episodes. This unique production model offers a new path for knowledge mobilization, public policy communications, and partnership between researchers and journalists.
From funding to journalistic independence, any challenges facing the podcast were addressed by the team with a high level of creativity. The team created new editorial and ethical guidelines allowing the collaborative model of journalism to flourish and formed new partnerships with other organizations to expand their reach.
Cited’s popularity and critical acclaim in the media and knowledge mobilization circles signals a possible way forward for UBC and for other universities to share research and enrich public discourse.
In 2015, Cited received funding from a SSHRC Partnership Development Grant, which was led by Political Science professor Allen Sens.
