Joan Racki is the 2008 SCUP Distinguished Service Award recipient. This award usually goes to an individual or group who has played a visible role within the society. Yet, there are many less visible volunteers who are vital to the society’s success.

Joan Racki epitomizes those who serve in this way. She has never held a highly visible position in SCUP, but she has been committed to SCUP’s vision mission and goals for over 20 years.

Racki first volunteered on the SCUP’s Rocky Mountain Regional Council in the mid-’80s and was the communications coordinator. She managed SCUP’s annual student paper competition and served on the Publications Advisory Committee.

She was a proposal reviewer for SCUP-38, -39, -40, and -41; a member of the SCUP Institutional Decision Making and Resource Planning Academy in 2003 and 2004, and pre-conference workshop chair in 2005 and 2006.

Racki has been a member of the Professional Development Committee since 2004 and her insights into the needs of higher education planners have been of great benefit to the committee’s work.