The following is a press release written by Jeni Water for IU Center for Rural Engagement.
At the 2026 IU Rural Conference on May 19, the IU Center for Rural Engagement honored five individuals and partnerships whose work has made a meaningful impact in rural communities across Indiana.
The awards recognize excellence in student engagement, community partnership, faculty-engaged teaching, faculty-community engagement, and collaborative partnership.
Chosen through a nomination process led by IU Center for Rural Engagement staff, this year’s honorees reflect a shared commitment to collaboration, innovation, and strengthening rural Indiana communities.
The 2026 awardees are:
- Kristina Kokot, Student Community Engagement Award
- Judy Johnson, Community Partner Award
- Trent Engbers, Faculty Engaged Teaching Award
- Priscilla Barnes, Faculty Community Engagement Award
- Odon Historical Marker Project, Partnership Award
Kristina Kokot | Student Community Engagement Award
Kristina Kokot, a Creative Arts for Vets (CAV) intern and student in the College of Arts and Sciences and the Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, received the Student Community Engagement Award for her leadership as part of the CAV intern team.
For more than two years, Kokot has helped lead the national program dedicated to enhancing social connectedness and well-being for veterans and military-connected populations. She has coordinated events, presented on CAV at academic conferences, and developed arts-based wellness programming for veterans across Brown, Greene, Monroe, Orange, Owen, and Steuben counties.
Kokot also helped expand distribution of the CAV Book, a therapeutic guidebook with art supplies, to more than 17,000 veterans and service providers across all 50 states and international locations.
She also mentored fellow student employees and collaborated with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, veterans, community partners, and service providers to support veterans through arts-based wellness initiatives.
Judy Johnson | Community Partner Award
Judy Johnson, executive director of the Washington County Community Foundation, received the Community Partner Award for her longstanding partnership with the IU Center for Rural Engagement.
Since the center’s launch in 2018, Johnson has collaborated on numerous community initiatives in Washington County. She championed the creation of Heritage Park in Salem, transforming a parking lot into a pedestrian corridor honoring local history, including Sarah Parke Morrison, IU’s first female graduate.
Johnson also served as the community lead for the Sustaining Hoosier Communities (SHC) committee during the COVID-19 pandemic, helping launch more than 30 community-identified projects focused on economic revitalization, youth programming, and community wellness.
In 2025, Johnson presented alongside IU partners when SHC was named a finalist for the C. Peter Magrath Community Engagement Scholarship Award.
Trent Engbers | Faculty Engaged Teaching Award
Trent Engbers, adjunct instructor at the Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs and professor and director of the Master of Public Administration program at the University of Southern Indiana, received the Faculty Engaged Teaching Award for integrating community engagement into his curriculum and developing partnerships that address challenges facing rural Indiana communities.
Since joining SHC in 2018, Engbers has led students in projects addressing issues including early childhood education shortages, community trail development, nonprofit strategic planning, and the sustainability of volunteer fire services in Washington County.
Among these partnerships was a 2022 collaboration with Asociación Latinoamericana del Sur de Indiana (ALASI) in Dubois County. Working alongside ALASI leadership, Engbers’ students developed a strategic playbook that helped the organization open a brick-and-mortar resource center serving the region’s growing Latino population.
His community-engaged teaching projects have produced plans, strategies, and partnerships that communities continue to use long after the courses conclude.
Priscilla Barnes | Faculty Community Engagement Award
Priscilla Barnes, associate professor at the IU School of Public Health-Bloomington and founding director of the Center for Community Engaged Dissemination and Implementation Research (CCEDIR), received the Faculty Community Engagement Award for her leadership in community-engaged public health initiatives in rural communities.
Barnes has led Community Health Needs Assessments and Community Health Improvement Plans across southern Indiana while building long-term partnerships with local organizations and residents.
In 2021, Barnes partnered with community organizations in Daviess County to secure a U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration grant supporting recovery organizations across the county. She also launched Hoosier Health Check, a collaborative mobile health initiative that partners with communities to provide preventive health screenings conducted by students.
Her work includes partnerships with Kabarak and Kenyatta universities in Kenya to support community health planning and asset-based public health initiatives.
Odon Historical Marker Project | Partnership Award
The Odon Historical Marker Project, an SHC partnership between the Town of Odon and the IU College of Arts and Sciences Department of Art History, received the Partnership Award for its collaborative effort to uncover and preserve the legacy of sculptor Ira A. Correll.
The project partnered the Town of Odon with Associate Professor Melody Deusner’s fall 2025 art history course. Students worked alongside community members and the Daviess County Museum to research Correll’s ten-foot limestone Abraham Lincoln statue in Odon Park and strengthen a future application for a state historical marker.
The collaboration helped reconnect Correll’s living descendants, uncover previously unknown records, and inspire the proclamation of Ira A. Correll Day in Odon. Research conducted by students and community members, including the sculptor’s descendants, revealed Correll’s work on projects across the country.
The award was accepted by Deusner and Debbie Pike, great-great-granddaughter of Correll. Pike's family archive and collaboration with students played an integral role in the project’s success.
The expanded research and archival materials gathered through the partnership will support a new application for a state historical marker as well as educational panels and resources for the Daviess County Museum.
