Our annual Volunteer Awards, which began in 2016, celebrate volunteers from across our campuses in the UK, China and Malaysia. The awards recognise people who have made outstanding contributions to the university and its community, showing exceptional dedication, creativity, innovation or leadership.
Congratulations to our 2022 winners!
Alumni Volunteer of the Year
Winner: Tobi Ruth Adebekun (French and International Media with Communications, 2014)
Volunteer roles: Ask a Graduate Ambassador, Attainment Gap Advisor, Career Mentor, Languages alumni speaker, BAME speaker.
Nominated by: Wayne Crawford – Volunteer and Advocacy Manager and Suzanne McGregor – Faculty Careers and Employability Consultant.
Tobi's nomination: Tobi has given her time to an extraordinary array of student experience, employability and highly strategic EDI projects at the university since early 2017. She shows a demonstrable commitment to EDI, something she has also done outside of her university volunteering as an Advisory Board member for BME PR Pros. We heartily recommend Tobi Ruth as she is a fantastic, positive and inspiring graduate who has a great attitude towards supporting current Nottingham students and being extremely generous with her time.
Meet Tobi: Like many students out there, I went to university with no idea what I wanted to do. Despite that uncertainty, I took a lot away from my time at the university both professionally and personally, so I am always more than happy to give back.
There is no one route into a career and there are new businesses being founded every single day – countless opportunities if students remain open, flexible and curious about the world. I hope my career journey helps them to see that. Finally, I have benefitted from the most amazing mentors and coaches in every job I’ve had and know how vital that support has been to my progression and success. As a Black woman working in predominantly white (and often male) spaces, it’s very important to me to be visible and approachable to young Black women so I can support them as they take the first steps in their career.
Highly commended: Erin Connelly (Medieval English, 2008)
Community Volunteer of the Year
Winner: Marko Voẞ
Volunteer role: HealthScout app creator and developer.
Nominated by: Joanne Stocks – Senior Research Fellow.
Marko's nomination: In March 2020, university colleagues wanted to commission the development of an app to monitor health changes during the pandemic. Unfortunately, all research fund spending was blocked. An international hackathon met in April 2020, creating solutions to problems arising due to Covid-19. I joined as a research scientist and Marko, a German developer, was assigned to help with my request to develop a study app.
Marko worked free for over 18 months, for a foreign university he had no previous connection with. We now have an invaluable resource for future research studies and collaborations which would not have been possible without Marko’s tireless work.
Highly commended: Paul Dunnery (Summer Placement Host), John Birkill (Manager for Phoenix Aspirational Learning)
Longstanding Volunteers
This award recognises individuals who have shown sustained and substantial commitment to the university for a period of at least four years. In 2022 we're delighted to share this award with the following volunteers:
Abigail Seager • Adebowale Dairo AKA Hakeem • Alastair Perry • Amanda Ferguson • Amanda Riddle • Amanda Howard-Sneyd (Horton Mastin) • Amy Prosser • Anastasia Makeeva • Andrew McNaughton • Anju Okhandiar • Carl Mundy • Carmen B Swanwick-Roa • Charles Pollard • Choong Hiong D Lee • Christopher Yim • Ciara Deall • Corinne Leighton • Craig Coulson • Dale Gilbert • David Clarke • Donna Omovbude • Eleri Davies • Elizabeth Tallett Wavle • Fernando De Barros Smye Frances O'Donnell • Giles Woodhouse • Gordon Lindsay • Graham Kill • Ian Sadler • Imran Rahman-Jones • James Hewlett • Jennifer Evans • Jerome Fielder • Jing Tang • Jingyi Fu • Jo McPhail • Jonathan Hughes • Karen Schrader • Karrish Devan • Keith Bound • Keith Spriggs • Kiri Madhani • Marianna Laviola • Martin Cooper • Martin Wolf • Matthew Lawson • Michael Harriott • Mohamed Hameed Sadurdeen AKA Ismail • Paul Kitchen • Peter Johnstone • Philip Pickard • Robert Clift • Roy Chambers • Rupert Hough • Sameen Barabhuiya • Samuel Uziel Rivero Prado • Sara Holland • Siaka Suma • Stephanie Dizon • Sudipta Mohanty • Thomas Lansdowne • Tim Calderhead • Ursula Edgington
Our previous recipients
2021 winners
Alumni Volunteer of the Year: Michael Olatokun (Law, 2014)
Exceptional Contribution Award: Yinka Adegbenle (Industiral Economics, 2001)
Individual Community Volunteer of the Year: Paul Corcoran
Group Community Volunteer of the Year: PROTECT-CH Trial, Val Leyland and Maureen Godfrey
Longstanding Volunteer Award:
- Michael Olatokun (Law, 2014)
- Aparajita (Ivy) Roy (Economic Development and Policy, 2016)
- Alison Isherwood (Chemical Engineering, 1997)
- Shash Patel (Mathematics with Engineering, 1983)
Volunteer Co-ordinator of the Year (Careers and Employability): Alex Owusu
Volunteer Co-ordinator of the Year (Engineering): Vince Pizzoni
2019 winners
Alumni Volunteer of the Year: Emily Seto (Clinical Microbiology, 2016)
University of Nottingham Volunteers of the Year: Martin Austin and Steven Hadfield
Community Volunteers of the Year Group Award: The Music and Memories Choir
Community Volunteer of the Year: Valentine Nkoyo
Special Recognition Award: Emily Smith
Longstanding Volunteer Awards:
- Yasmin Ali (Chemical Engineering, 2010)
- Ed Tarlton (Psychology, 2011)
- Aymun Khan (Mechanical Engineering, 2019)
- Jenny Ireland
- Jan Perrett MBE
- Jo Horsey
- Friends for Impact
- David Waldram
Volunteer Co-ordinator of the Year: Martha Jones
2018 winners
Alumni Volunteer of the Year: Hugh Jaques (Chemistry, 2000)
University of Nottingham Volunteer of the Year: Natalie Hayden-Yeung (Law, 2012)
Exceptional Contribution Award: Lisa Johnson
Community Volunteer of the Year: John Charles-Jones
Longstanding Volunteer Award:
- Mel Berry
- Rob Johnson
- MacJay Makinde-Ojo
- Barry Moody
- Laura Outhwaite
- Tom Preece
- Daphne Priestly OBE
- Kate Sartain
- Jeremy Stanyard
- Nottingham Slave Trade Legacies Group
- John Williams
- Ed Wright
2017 winners
UK Alumni Volunteer of the Year: Dr Amy Prosser
International Alumni Volunteer of the Year: Jingyi Fu
University of Nottingham Volunteer of the Year, Community Volunteer of the Year and Longstanding Volunteer: Emeritus Professor David Brailsford
Exceptional Contribution Award: Paul Barrett and Steve Wright – Lifecycle Superheroes
Longstanding Volunteer Award:
- Kate Hodgett and Maureen Godfrey
- Shirley Priest, Jim Priest, Louise Clarke, Dr Alaa Alrawaibah
- Andy Boston
- Christine Humfrey and Keith Redfern
- Colin Jones, Janet Jones, David Henson, David Pinney, Janet Kemp, Mary Chivers and Pam Brown
- Daniel Slater
- David Pearson
- Candy Wright, Dominic Chan, Aster Lee, Albert Poon, Natalie Chiu, Lavinia Wong and Vincent Wong
- Peter Hubberstey
- Roger Lewis
- Professor Julian Wiseman
2016 winners
Alumni Volunteer of the Year: Mark Bullock
University of Nottingham Volunteer of the Year: Jo Horsey
Staff Volunteer of the Year: Drew Shearsmith
Community Volunteer of the Year: Pam and Mike White
Longstanding Volunteer Awards:
- Mal Davies
- Alison Robinson
- Jim Gamble
- Sheila Leeds, Peter Reddish, Anne Reddish, Pauline Chettle and Jim Chettle
- David Pinney
- Ann and Brian Peters
- Lesley Parkinson
- Pat Smith
- Sumeet Shah
- Ossie Newell
- Malcolm Jones
- Jo Horsey
- Mark Bullock
- Tim Smith
- Dr Chanikul Chutrakul
- Benjamin Ma
- Hien Chi Nguyen