NCPH Excellence in Consulting Award

Up to two $500 awards recognize outstanding work and contributions by consultants or contractors.

2024 group Winner

AAHRC – African American Historical Research and Consulting, LLC, represented by Brandon A. Owens, Sr.

2024 Individual Winner

Katherine Hobbs, Independent Contractor, Mina’s Place of Business

Individual Award Honorable Mention

Mi’Jan Celie Tho-Biaz, Independent Public Historian, California BIPOC Liberation Stories


2024 SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

The NCPH Excellence in Consulting Award recognizes outstanding contribution to the field of public history through consulting or contract work by recognizing professionals whose primary engagement with public history in the past five years is through consulting.  Up to two (2) $500 prizes in two categories (individual and group) will be awarded. Award winners will receive complimentary registration for the awards breakfast.

ELIGIBILITY

To be considered for the award, the applicant/nominee should submit a resume, synopses of consulting/contract projects in which the applicant/nominee played a significant role, and a sample of work to which the applicant made substantial contributions (such as a written work, public program, exhibit, or media project). Contract work sponsored or funded by NCPH is not eligible for consideration.

AWARD CRITERIA

Nominations and supporting materials should specifically address these criteria:

  • value of contributions to a project’s intended public audience(s)
  • ability to serve client needs effectively
  • best practices in public history
  • contribution to the public’s understanding of history
  • intellectual rigor
  • originality and creativity

Submission Process

  1. Applications/nominations should include a resume, synopses of consulting contract projects, describe each contributor’s contribution, and a sample of work to which the applicant/nominee made substantial contributions.
  2. Examples of feedback from clients or the public (such as newspaper articles) are encouraged but not required.
  3. At the committee’s discretion, it may choose, in any given year, not to make an award in one or both categories if it feels that none of the applications/nominations rise to the level of excellence expected for this award.
  4. Winners are ineligible to apply or to be nominated for the three subsequent years after receiving the award.
  5. Fill out the form with the nominee’s information. (Nominations are closed for 2024; a link will be provided when nominations open for 2025).
    The form includes a file upload for the CV or resume and a file upload for supplemental material (synopsis of work and feedback); all supplemental materials must be uploaded in one Word document or PDF. The completed form will be sent to each of the Excellence in Consulting Award Committee members and to the NCPH executive office. If you have any physical material that must be sent (such as a book, DVD, etc.) please mention it in the “Shipping Information” section of the form and send it to each of the committee members and the NCPH executive office at:
    NCPH
    127 Cavanaugh Hall – IUPUI
    425 University Blvd.
    Indianapolis, IN 46202
    [email protected]

Nominations must be received (not postmarked) by December 1, 2023.

Questions?  (317) 274-2716; [email protected]

A challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities makes possible our expanding awards program and other uses of earned income on the NCPH endowment. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this website do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.


 

Past Consulting Award Winners

2023
Group Award Winner
  • Ethos Preservation and Landmark Preservation, Georgia B. Williams Nursing Home Preservation Plan
    • Honorable Mention – Guy Hermann, Sara Zarrelli, and Jacques Brunswick, Museum Insights, Connecticut Landmarks Portfolio Assessment
Individual Award Winner
  • Delia Hagen, Hagen Historical Consulting, Black Montana’s Heritage Places
2022
Group Award Winner
  • Anne Mitchell Whisnant and David E. Whisnant, Primary Source History Services, Black Lives and Whitened Stories: From the Lowcountry to the Mountains (A Historic Resource Study of Black History at Rock Hill/Connemara, Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site, National Park Service)
Individual Award Winner
  • Joan M. Zenzen, Independent Historian, Using Oral History to Affect Community Change: Action in Montgomery at its 20th Anniversary
    • Honorable Mention – Laura Miller, Independent Historical Consultant, with Angela Sirna, National Park Service, “An Island Apart”: The Job Corps at Acadia National Park, 1966-1969
2021
Individual Award Winner
  • Ian Smith, Historical Research Associates, Inc., Expert Witness Reports and Testimony re: Native American Land and Water Rights
    • Honorable Mention – Sarah Marsom, Heritage Resource Consultant, Crafting Herstory and Dismantle Preservation
2020
Group Award Winner
  • Tom Van Dewark, Todd Brown, and Courtney Vaughan, Know History Inc., The Métis Nation of Ontario Historic Métis Communities Video Project
Individual Winner
  • Abby Schreiber, William & Mary, National Institute of American History & Democracy, Enslaved at Homewood
    • Janie Campbell, Rogers Lewis Jackson Mann & Quinn LLC
2019
Group Award Winner
  • Jackie Gonzales, Emily Greenwald, Dawn Vogel, Jessi Frank, Kayla Blackman, and Nick Kryloff, Historical Research Associates, Inc., Commemoration and Collaboration: An Administrative History of the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail
Individual Winner
  • Josh Howard, Passel Historical Consulting, “Our Only Alma Mater:” The Civilian Conservation Corps and the C&O Canal
    • Honorable Mention – Paul Sadin, Historical Research Associates, Inc., A History of the Cushman Hydroelectric Project: Tacoma Power, the Skokomish Tribe, and the Skokomish River, 1910-2016 
2018
  • Delia Hagen, Hagen Historical Consulting, African-American Heritage Resources in Helena, Montana
    • Honorable Mention – Ryan Shackleton, Know History, Métis Nation of Ontario
2017
  • Jennifer Stevens, Stevens Historical Research Associates, “Idaho Power Centennial Project”
  • Alicia Barber, Stories in Place, LLC.
2016
  • Eric John Abrahamson and Lois Facer, Vantage Point Historical Services, Inc., Rockefeller Foundation Centennial Book Series
  • Morgen Young, Alder, LLC, “Uprooted: Japanese American Farm Labor Camps During WWII”
2015
  • The Excellence in Consulting Award was not awarded in 2015.
2014
  • Matthew Godfrey, Paul J. Sadin, et al., Historical Research Associates, Inc., Privatizing Military Family Housing: A History of the U.S. Army’s Residential Communities Initiative, 1995-2010
2013
  • Cathy Stanton, “Plant Yourself in My Neighborhood,” special ethnographic report for Martin Van Buren National Historic Site, National Park Service
  • Marla Miller, Anne Mitchell Whisnant, Gary Nash, and David Thelen, Imperiled Promise: The State of History in the National Park Service (Produced by the Organization of American Historians)
    • Honorable Mention-Jennifer A. Stevens, Historical Research Associates, Voices of Courage, Champions of Excellence: The Story of the Idaho Educational Association Since 1892
    • Honorable Mention-Virginia Adams, Kristen Heitert, Laura Kline, Stephen Olausen, Jenny Scofield, Public Archaeology Laboratory, Inc., National Historic Register Nominations
2012
  • Morgen Young, Alder, LLC and William Green, Heather Jones, and Kimberly Nagle, S&ME, Inc.
    • Honorable Mention-John Durel and Anita Durel, Durel Consulting Partners
2011
  • Patrick O’Bannon, Gray & Pape, Inc. – “Working in the Dry: Cofferdams, In-River Construction, and the United States Army Corps of Engineers”
  • Carl A. Merry, Marlin R. Ingalls, and Maria F. Schroeder, Office of the State Archaeologist, University of Iowa – “Iowa’s Historic Roads: A National Register Study of Pre-1948 Arterial Highways”
2010
  • Christine Baron, Baron Educational Consulting
    • Honorable Mention – Susan Kline, Independent Scholar and Preservation Consultant
2009
  • Manon Parry, National Library of Medicine
  • James Steely, SWCA Environmental Consultants
2008
  • Douglas Littlefield, Littlefield Historical Research and Marya McQuirter, Independent Consultant