Kirstin Frescoln, a doctoral student in city and regional planning, has received the 2017 Boka W. Hadzija Award for Distinguished University Service by a Graduate or Professional Student.
The Boka W. Hadzija Award recognizes a UNC-Chapel Hill graduate or professional student with outstanding character, scholarship, leadership and service to the university.
Frescoln and other award recipients were recognized at the Chancellor’s Awards Ceremony on April 18. The Graduate School recognized Frescoln at the 19th Annual Graduate Student Recognition Celebration, held April 20.
Frescoln works as a research assistant at the UNC Center for Urban and Regional Studies, where she evaluates programs related to housing and community development. She received a GEAB Impact Award for her evaluation of Charlotte Housing Authority’s work requirements for non-elderly and non-disabled residents and the policy’s effect on family well-being. Her findings indicate that Charlotte’s public housing work policy largely fulfills the housing authority’s goal of enhancing family economic mobility while not harming family well-being. Included in the many stakeholders Frescoln interviewed were residents subject to the Charlotte policy. She interviewed them three times and shared her reports with interviewees to ensure accuracy and gain their perspective on additional questions she should ask.
Frescoln developed and taught a course titled Race, Poverty and Planning, which will be added to the city and regional planning department’s course offerings. She is involved with Plan for All, a student group that strives to increase awareness of social justice issues within the department and the planning profession.
“Kirstin’s research is dedicated to better understanding the barriers to effective social policies that reduce poverty and empower communities,” her nominator said.
She has received certificates in health disparities and in participatory research and is certified in community mediation and meeting facilitation.
Frescoln served in public service positions for more than 16 years before beginning her doctoral studies. She volunteers for the Orange County Dispute Settlement Center and Orange County Justice United.
“She is steadfast in her dedication to social justice,” her nominator wrote. “Her academic research, professional career, volunteerism, church service and obligation to public service all reflect her personal charge to further social justice outcomes. There are few doctoral students who could so passionately pursue real-world impacts both through their research and their everyday engagement with policy and program challenges that affect the lives of their fellow students and fellow North Carolinians.”
Boka W. Hadzija was an award-winning professor in the Eshelman School of Pharmacy; she established the award in 2000 in honor of her students. Hadzija, who died in 2013, is remembered by students and faculty for her strong mentorship, her generous support of students and her outstanding leadership.