NCSEA Now Accepting Nominations for 2025 Leadership Awards through Friday, May 9
NCSEA is now accepting nominations for the 2025 Leadership Awards recognizing the outstanding contributions of individuals and/or organizations to the child support program through extraordinary management, leadership, collaboration, and messaging.
The Leadership Awards will be presented at the NCSEA 2025 Leadership Symposium, August 11-14, 2025, in Atlanta, Georgia.
Recipients of the Leadership Awards reflect and embody the mission and values of NCSEA; enhancing the financial, medical and emotional support parents provide for their children and increasing public awareness of the child support program’s contribution to the best interests of the families and children served. The accomplishments of award winners serve to inspire current and future child support leaders, professionals and program collaborators, further advancing and improving the child support program’s mission and goals.
The 2025 NCSEA Leadership Awards are open to a broad range of individuals, agencies, and organizations including, but not limited to, county, state, tribal, federal or international level, from a foreign country, those that serve in the judicial or legislative branch, or in the non-profit, public or private sector. They will be awarded in the following categories (click on the award name to begin the nomination process. Nominations must be made through the online process. Self-nominations are accepted.):
NEW THIS YEAR! Ann Marie Ruskin Child Support Leadership Award – honors a National Child Support Engagement Association (NCSEA) member from either the public or private sector who has made significant contributions to NCSEA. Ann Marie Ruskin, former Executive Director of NCSEA, was a trailblazer whose work profoundly impacted child support professionals across the nation. Her leadership in directing professional development programs, promoting legislation to improve the IV-D Program, and establishing innovative initiatives like NCSEA-U and the Leadership Symposium set a high standard for excellence. This award recognizes individuals who have demonstrated Ann Marie’s spirit of innovation, collaboration, and dedication to NCSEA’s impact on the child support program through committee and volunteer work. The award honors those who, like Ann Marie, have left an indelible mark on NCSEA through their leadership and unwavering commitment. This award celebrates the legacy of Ann Marie Ruskin and encourages child support professionals to continue NCSEA’ s mission of promoting and influencing child support policy and services, and to educate, connect, and inspire those who work in child support. (reference form here)
- Program Awareness Award – recognizes an individual or organization that has developed an innovative and effective approach and strategy to increase public awareness of the child support program or how child support enhances the well-being of children and families. Empirical evidence should be provided, if possible, to support the applicant’s case that their program/strategy has had a positive impact on the awareness and use of the child support program (reference form here)
- Innovative Partnership/Collaboration Award – recognizes innovation in partnerships between a child support agency and any other group(s) that assists families. This includes, but is not limited to, collaborations between a child support agency and court or another agency, organization, or program serving parents, families or children (reference form here).
- Outstanding Leader Award – recognizes an individual who has demonstrated long-term outstanding management and leadership of an organization, team, project or initiative that has demonstrably impacted the child support program and inspired others, over the course of several years, to improve the child support program, serving the best interest of children (reference form here).
- Emerging Leader Award – recognizes an emerging leader or manager (fewer than 3 years in a leadership position) who has improved a child support program or has enhanced the child support program in its mission in the last year. This improvement is recognized as exemplary; that is, one to be emulated by others (reference form here).
The deadline for all award nominations is Friday, May 9, 2025. For more information on the awards program, please contact Christopher Wood, NCSEA Executive Director, at christopher.wood@ncsea.org.
