Sarah Chilenski, senior research associate and associate research professor at the Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center, along with Ashley Knapp, research assistant professor with the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University; and Keryn Pasch, associate professor in the department of kinesiology and health education at The University of Texas at Austin, were honored with the ‘Service to SPR’ award at a June 3 virtual awards ceremony held at the 2021 Annual Meeting of the Society for Prevention Research (SPR).

SPR, a professional organization of approximately 700 members, is “dedicated to advancing scientific investigation on the etiology and prevention of social, physical and mental health, and academic problems and on the translation of that information to promote health and well being,” according to their mission statement.

The award recipients were recognized for their work in co-chairing the SPR Training Needs Assessment Task Force in 2015-2019, which culminated in a report on SPR member training needs and a peer-reviewed article published in 2020 in the journal Prevention Science, on which Chilenski, Knapp, and Pasch are lead authors.

“I want to thank Sarah for her tremendous leadership,” said Pasch.

“It was really wonderful to work with Keryn and Ashley, but it wasn’t just the three of us. We had a really strong team that worked well together — from the data collection to data review to publication,” Chilenski said. “We hope our work is helpful to the society.”