This column offers a sampling of honors recently awarded to UC Davis faculty, staff and units:

Government and Community Relations recently won a gold medal award of excellence from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education in the Public and Community Relations Projects category for its work on Davis Neighbors Night Out. This annual event aims to increase familiarity and communication among neighbors by way of block parties and potlucks. This year Davis Neighbors Night Out set a new record with 143 individual block parties taking place throughout Davis.

Also winning an award from CASE was the Office of Advancement Services, which received a CASE silver medal award for excellence for establishing a secure and fully automated credit card payment process for the annual and special gifts telephone outreach program.

Elsewhere, the Graduate School of Management won the CASE bronze medal in video fundraising for its alumni relations and annual fund video. GSM also won a CASE Silver in the External Tabloids and Newsletters competition, for its Innovator magazine.

The College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences received four CASE awards of excellence for its Outlook alumni magazines and its Impact statements. Awards were for special issues, writing, design, and institutional magazines. Members of the CA&ES Dean’s Office that participated in these projects include Ann Filmer, Robin DeRieux, Elisabeth Kauffman, Eric Rohr and John Stumbos.

Robin Hansen, director of clinical programs at the UC Davis MIND Institute, was honored at the 16th Annual Supported Life Institute’s Inclusion Celebration on Oct. 7, as an outstanding role model in supporting community inclusion of all people, including people with developmental disabilities. Hansen is the chief of the Division of Behavioral and Developmental Pediatrics in the Department of Pediatrics.

Julian Alston, an agricultural and resource economics professor, was one of six people recently honored with the Distinguished Scholar Award by the Western Agricultural Economics Association. Alston was commended for research in government policy, the demand for farm commodities, and the economics of agricultural productivity.

Professors Michael Carter and Richard Howitt have been selected as fellows of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, the AAEA’s most prestigious honor. Both are faculty members in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics. AAEA fellows are selected for outstanding contributions in agricultural or applied economics.

— Dateline staff