Earl Whitfield Regional Outreach Award

The Earl Whitfield Award was created to promote excellence in regional newsletters and to recognize those volunteer leaders who produced them. Through Whitfield’s involvement, he worked hard to ensure that member institutions in ACUI were provided services, support, and communications on a regional basis long before we had websites, email, social media, and all the technology of today. He believed that regional support and communication were the foundation for member engagement and service. Whitfield was a professional that believed in one of the most basic core values of our Association: providing the opportunity and the structure for learning.

Whitfield learned what the union was all about from his days as the president of the student government at California State University–Fresno. As he often said, “the skills I learned from the out of class experience prepared me to become the first union director at Fresno” and later, for his engagement with ACUI. From serving as a regional representative to being selected as the Association’s president in 1983, he was a mentor for many. His vision for strong regions that impact institutional communities enhanced the path to where we are today. Sincerity, warmth, and patience were Whitfield's mark on all of us—and his sense of humor and humility were among his exemplary traits.