Juli Parrish, Director of the University of Denver (UD) Writing Center was awarded the 2024 Ron Maxwell Distinguished Leadership Award at the National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing in Tacoma, Washington on October 18. Parrish, who was unable to attend the conference, has directed the UD Writing Center scine 2015 and has a long history of engagement with NCPTW. The Maxwell Award selection committee (composed of former award recipients) recognized how her values around peer writing tutoring and collaborative learning extend throughout her work with NCPTW. Especially noteworthy has been her investment in mentoring peer tutors’ attendance and presentation at NCPTW and beyond. One nominator noted that she has “guided and mentored at least 70 undergraduate and graduate peer tutors to present at national and regional writing center conferences,” including NCPTW. This nominator went on to identify her impact on “countless undergraduate adn graduate consultants as they develop leadership positions within the writing center and beyond in their chosen professions.”
Those who nominated her for this award described with admiration Dr. Parrish’s history of supporting and mentoring peer writing tutors across a number of contexts, including the peer observation model she and her staff implemented during the Pandemic, the collaboratively developed asynchronous feedback model that increased accessibility particularly for neurodivergent students, and her leadership roles with Center Moves and the Rocky Mountain Writing Centers Association.