The NIRSA Honor Award Committee is excited to announce the selection of Juliette Moore, CRSS as the recipient of the 2012 NIRSA Honor Award. A NIRSA member for over 35 years, Juliette's service to both the profession and our Association has been lauded as "incredibly deep, incredibly broad, incredibly diverse, and of the highest quality."

The NIRSA Honor Award is the most prestigious honor bestowed by our Association; each year, through the presentation of the Honor Award, NIRSA recognizes and celebrates one member for outstanding achievements in the field of collegiate recreation and exemplary service to the Association.

For more than thirty years Juliette Moore has demonstrated an incredible capacity and an inspired willingness to make a difference in NIRSA. Her selfless service, contemporary leadership, and commitment to preserving the history of our esteemed association make her deserving of this distinction.

Her involvement with NIRSA is both broad and deep: in addition to creating the People of Color Social and serving as NIRSA's President (1998, First African-American female President), Juliette has also served as a member of the Governance Commission Peer Advisory Group and of the National School of Recreational Sports Management faculty, as well as a Past Presidents’ Representative for the NIRSA Board of Directors. Since 1979, Juliette has served on or chaired various committees, including the Conference Program Committee, the Student Professional Development Committee, Honor Award Committee, and the Emerging Recreational Sports Leaders Conference Committee. She recently co-chaired the Task Force for the 40th Anniversary of Women in NIRSA, celebrating the rich history of women in NIRSA. She also served as State Director in various states (AZ and FL) and was awarded the NIRSA Service Award in 1989 and 1996. Her contributions to NIRSA publications, especially her chapter in Managing the Collegiate Recreation Facility, have been influential for a generation of emerging leaders.

Juliette has assumed the role of mentor and pioneer to so many in the profession. Passionately committed to advancing the field of collegiate recreation and to the well-being of all members of her university community, she created and led an annual University of Arizona event called Wildcat Welcome and was a founding member of the Well University initiative, a grass roots effort at the UA that seeks to impact the health and wellness of everyone who lives, works, and studies at the University of Arizona. She has worked tirelessly at the institutional, state, regional, and national levels to educate and inspire others, provide quality programs, advocate on behalf of students, as well as to advance the field of collegiate recreation, higher education, and NIRSA.

NIRSA has Juliette to thank for re-introducing Dr. William Wasson (NIRSA Founder) to the organization, when she invited him to the Region VI Conference in 1988 in Tempe AZ as the guest of honor. His involvement in NIRSA and that of his wife Lee Wasson continued every year after that conference until his death. Lee attends NIRSA each year and is an integral part of the NIRSA thanks to Juliette’s persistence.

She was also active in both her church and community and was awarded "2006 Heroes in our Midst" National Award for the month of October, 2006 and Big Sister of the Year 2005-06 for Tucson and the State of Arizona, for her involvement in the Big Brother Big Sister program. She also served as Director or Music Ministry at the St. Thomas More Newman Center at the UA (2001-2010) and produced a CD for the church and co-wrote the title song "Heart Speaks to Heart." She was selected as an Alumni Honoree (one of 40 Alumni) for the University of West Florida (UWF) 40th Anniversary Celebration, September 25, 2007, honoring distinguished alumni. She was also recognized by the Recreation and Sports Department at UWF as Outstanding Alumni in 1995.

Since her retirement from the University of Arizona in 2010, she has been playing percussion and congas with her brother’s Rhythm and Blues band Deacon John and the Ivories in New Orleans, LA, where she has played various gigs including the Jazz and Heritage Festival. She currently resides in Pensacola, FL and works with kids of various ages in an extended care program in the afternoons at one of the local elementary schools. She still sings and plays bongos in her local church.

NIRSA invites you to join your colleagues at the Honor Award Banquet to congratulate Juliette. Join us for the NIRSA Annual Conference and share in this unique opportunity to recognize her important contributions to the profession and our Association.

If you haven't yet registered for the 2012 NIRSA Annual Conference & Recreational Sports Expo in Tampa, FL, don't wait any longer: register today! Join us for fun in the sun as our Association navigates the ever-changing world of collegiate recreation and moves "From Ideas to Innovation."

You can reserve your seat at the 2012 Honor Award Banquet as soon as you have registered for the conference; the reservation link is on your registration confirmation receipt, or you can download it here. Table reservations will still be available onsite at the NIRSA Registration Booth. For more information about the Honor Award Banquet, visit the click here.