Donna Burnette honored with Dancy Duffus Award for Outstanding Citizenship

Donna Burnette, executive director of the K-12 University Center at Rochester Institute of Technology, was honored during a ceremony on March 22 at Ingle Auditorium with the Dancy Duffus Award for Outstanding Citizenship. Burnette is also director of Army Educational Outreach Program Apprenticeships and Fellowships that is administered by the K-12 center on behalf of the U.S. Army.

According to committee members who help organize the annual RIT Presidential Awards, the recognition is named in honor of Duffus, a former RIT trustee described as “an independent thinker and activist well ahead of her time.” She worked for Planned Parenthood and the Community Chest, and chaired the boards of the Lewis Street Center and Junior League of Rochester. Recognized for her service with the Forman Flair Award in 1980, Duffus observed, "you don't live in a community, you live for a community” and reportedly felt the same passion for the RIT community. In 1982, she was elected to the board of trustees where she “enthusiastically advocated to the board for the establishment of the original Staff Recognition Awards.” In 2006, RIT honored her service by naming the Outstanding Citizenship Award for her.

The outline below highlights Burnette’s accomplishments and eligibility for the distinction, as described at the ceremony.

“The Duffus Award is given to a staff member of the utmost integrity, who consistently shows imagination, creativity and innovation, as well as a deep commitment to RIT. … The K-12 program has been a part of the RIT framework for the (past) twenty years. However, it is only in the past six that it has come to be a prominent campus department and Donna Burnette is the key to its success. Donna had been asked by leadership to transform this university program, and align goals and objectives with the university’s strategic plan, as well as the Action Plan for Race and Ethnicity. It is her belief that this precollege and informal education space should be a transformative experience for all who partake, and that drive has elevated grant management, summer camps and all campus experiences for youth participants.

One of Donna’s many accomplishments includes the successfully securing of the largest grant in RIT history: $14 million. The Army Educational Outreach Program apprenticeships grant, otherwise known as AEOP, serves approximately 500 participants per year, nationwide, and has provided RIT with Department of Defense STEM funding to build fellowship programming. The AEOP program, like many others, faced potential setbacks during COVID, but Donna was determined to not let talent be left on the table. Donna quickly worked to develop a credit-bearing, web-based course through RIT and recruited 100 high school students from across the (country) to participate. With the help of RIT faculty, this intensive four-week experience would teach the basics of research and STEM. This program exposed RIT to all participants and even resulted in the matriculation of students, allowing these underserved high school students the opportunity for amazing postsecondary education and career opportunities post-graduation.

As principal investigator and program lead for AEOP, Donna consistently looks for ways to improve the program offerings to both students and Army stakeholders, leveraging best practices to provide the best operations. According to one reference, Donna respects the importance of college completion and is a staunch advocate to do whatever is needed to maximize the probability that her clientele will graduate successfully from RIT. She always maintains that students who participate in K-12 maintain their connection with the program after enrolling at RIT. These students act as a pipeline to RIT, (and) the department continually provides comprehensive support to those that need it.

Donna is always looking to increase efficiencies and has recently helped to spearhead a program to implement a campus-wide registration system for all youth programs. This process will enable centralized tracking, provide support and risk minimization regarding youth protection on campus. It is estimated that this program will replace up to 300 independently operated registration platforms.

Donna’s ability to creatively solve problems is exceptional. It has been mentioned that it can be both a blessing and curse for Donna to always say ‘yes,’ but she is committed to the larger picture and the strategic direction that her work takes. Her understanding of these transformational opportunities is helping to shape RIT, as well as the nation’s future of the STEM workforce. Donna is always framing obstacles as new opportunities for finding the potential in all.”