Clark Faculty Service Award

The Clark Faculty Service Award winners are Claire Horner, Dr. Esther Sampayo, Dr. Shweta Parmekar, Dr. Malvika Juneja, and Dr. Jessica Davila with Dr. Biykem Bozkurt and Dr. Stacey Rose.

About the Award

The Clark Faculty Service Award honors Baylor College of Medicine faculty members whose exemplary service contributions have not been recognized previously through an institution-level award by the College. Recipients of this prestigious award represent their professions and Baylor’s mission, vision, and values at the highest level. Award recipients consistently demonstrate service contributions through a single endeavor or multiple activities and demonstrate longstanding commitment to excellence, altruism, community, and Baylor’s mission, vision, and values.

All Clark Award honorees have made significant, enduring service contributions to the College. Each recipient, however, has exemplified service in a different and unique way. For this award, service is defined as contributions that go above and beyond a faculty member’s day-to-day responsibilities or job description. To be considered, a faculty member’s service activities may be conducted within Baylor and affiliated institutions or in local, national, or international contexts. However, the service must align with one or more of Baylor’s mission areas of patient care, research, education, and community.

Any Baylor faculty member may nominate a fellow faculty member for a Clark Faculty Service Award. Self-nominations are not accepted for this award. Up to five awards are granted each year, accompanied by an honorarium of $1,000 and a certificate.

Deadlines

Nomination form, letter, biosketch and CV (Baylor format) must be submitted to Deborah Fernandez (faced@bcm.edu) in the Office of Faculty Development by Monday, Dec. 8, 2025.

• The Selection Committee will meet and select the award finalists by Jan. 27, 2026.
• Finalists will be notified by Jan. 30, 2026.
• Finalists and nominators deadline to submit additional support materials by Feb. 23, 2026
• Award recipients will be notified by March 30, 2026
• Clark Faculty Service Awards will be recognized at Baylor’s annual Faculty Awards Ceremony in May 2026

Nomination Criteria 

To be considered, a nominee must:

• Have been appointed at least five years as a full-time, part-time, and/or voluntary faculty member at Baylor College of Medicine
• Serve the College through significant individual efforts leading to exceptional outcomes relevant to Baylor’s mission, vision, and values
• Have made service contributions through a single endeavor, or over multiple activities. Service may be defined in many ways, but generally reflects contributions that go beyond a faculty member’s primary role or roles at Baylor
• Demonstrate professionalism, ethical behavior, and integrity
• Exemplify excellence by consistently producing quality work, exceeding expectations, and going “above and beyond”
• Demonstrate cultural competency, respect, and inclusivity within the context of varying beliefs, behaviors, and backgrounds

Faculty members who have received major institutional awards are not eligible for the Clark Faculty Service Award. See below.

Recipients of the following awards are not eligible for the Clark Faculty Service Award.

• Barbara and Corbin J. Robertson, Jr. Presidential Award for Excellence in Education
• Master Clinician Award for Excellence in Patient Care
• Ben and Margaret Love Foundation Bobby Alford Award for Academic Clinical Professionalism
• Michael E. DeBakey Excellence in Research Award

Recipients of the following awards are eligible and may be nominated for a Clark Faculty Service Award

• Norton Rose Fulbright Faculty Excellence Awards in Education (formerly known as Fulbright & Jaworksi Faculty Excellence Awards)
• Early Career Award for Excellence in Patient Care
• Rising Star Award for Excellence in Patient Care (note: this award is no longer offered)
• Star Award for Excellence in Patient Care
• POP Award for Professionalism
• Woman of Excellence Award
• McGovern Outstanding Teaching Award

Nomination Process

Any Baylor faculty member may nominate a fellow faculty member for a Clark Faculty Service Award by submitting

1. Completed nomination form (download)
2. One letter of nomination (maximum of two pages)
3. CV of the nominee (must be in Baylor format, download the Baylor CV format here)
4. A two-page biosketch from the nominee (preferably NIH or NSF format) that describes the candidate’s history of service, with professionalism, to one or more of the Baylor mission areas.

This award is intended for individuals who have NOT be awarded any of the existing major awards at Baylor (see list above). 

Send the complete set of nomination materials to Deborah Fernandez (faced@bcm.edu) in the Office of Faculty Development. Letters should be addressed to the Clark Faculty Service Award Selection Committee, and should bring attention to the candidate’s history of service, with professionalism, to one or more Baylor mission areas.

Effective nomination letters will describe the scope and quality of a nominee’s service contributions; the impacts and/or significance of those contributions, relevance of the service to Baylor's mission, vision or values, and examples of professionalism, ethical behavior, commitment to excellence or respect and inclusivity. Please include examples of contributions by the nominee in the letter.

Effective nomination letters for this specific award should focus on the scope and quality of a nominee’s service contributions; the impacts and/or significance of those contributions, relevance of the service to Baylor's mission, vision or values, and examples of professionalism, ethical behavior, commitment to excellence or respect and inclusivity. Please include examples of contributions in these categories by the nominee in the letter.  Academic productivity in terms of publication record, grant procurement, etc are not considerations for this award and should not be included in the support letters. 

The Clark Faculty Service Award Selection Committee reviews all complete nominations and identifies each year’s finalists. Those candidates are then asked to provide letters of support, working with their nominators.

Selection Committee

The Clark Faculty Service Award is administered by the Office of Faculty Development. The Award Selection Committee, currently chaired by Dr. Ellen Friedman, comprises a minimum of four Baylor faculty members nominated by the Senior Dean of Faculty, four students (selected by their respective deans) representing each Baylor school, and the donor or donor’s representative (non-voting member).