About Our Excellence Awards

THIS COMMUNITY NEEDS YOU.
NEEDS YOUR IDEAS.

As part of Northeastern University’s commitment to excellence, we are proud to present the Excellence Awards, recognizing the outstanding achievements of our talented staff. Every staff member plays a crucial role in helping Northeastern reach its organizational goals, but Excellence Award recipients go above and beyond, championing our communities and advancing the university’s mission.

Historically, the Excellence Awards at Northeastern have celebrated service, innovation, and teamwork. For 2025, these awards were reimagined to better align with our employee engagement philosophy. This new approach emphasizes not only recognition but also building community and empowering employees to succeed.

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Staff members at Northeastern who fall into any of the following categories are eligible for nomination:

  • Administrative Support
  • Management
  • Professional
  • Research Staff
  • Service Staff
  • Full-time, part-time, and fixed-term staff
  • Salaried and hourly staff
  • Main campus staff and global/regional campus staff

Any Northeastern faculty or staff member can nominate someone to an Excellence Award. A group may collectively nominate someone or a team for an award, in which case letters of recommendation may come from an external community member or faculty, staff, or student. However, they must be somehow affiliated with Northeastern through research or a project related to the university. The submission of the nomination must come from an individual with a Northeastern email address.

Yes. The award nomination or receipt should be noted in their nomination.

Nominations will be submitted via form, which will be sent out in a university-wide email when the nomination process opens. You may also submit a ticket to the Learning & Engagement Team at the HR Service Center to request the link during the nomination timeframe.

The nomination call is planned to go out in September and planned to close later in the Fall. This timeline may shift if any unforeseeable circumstances arise.

Nomination review teams will be made up of Northeastern staff members who are experienced in a field related to the award. These teams will put forth recommendations for review of the Senior Leadership Team.
The process will be overseen by the Learning & Engagement team.

Award winners plan to be announced in April. This timeline may shift if any unforeseeable circumstances arise.
Award winners and their divisions will be directly notified and be announced on HR Happenings. At a later date, they may also be featured in the Northeastern Global News.