Meet our 2024 Volunteer Award winners

Alumni Volunteer of the Year

Keith Burgess (Production Engineering, 1987)

Volunteer roles: Entrepreneur in Residence (Ingenuity Lab), Nottingham University Business School speaker, Entrepreneurship and Business Mentor, Career Mentor, Business Alumni Insight Series speaker.

"Keith deserves to win this award for his amazing contribution to our Haydn Green Institute, the Business School and wider university community. He is so generous with his time and has also provided support to the wider university community by introducing members of staff from outside the Business School to his network of contacts."

"Keith's long and continuous support to a wide range of calls for support which have included being a guest speaker, mentor, coach and also a co-designer and guest lecturer of executive education courses.

"Keith has given his insight, experience and his valuable time to support whenever asked by the university and to my knowledge has never declined a request. His support over many years is noteworthy especially when faced with requests from many other organisations."

International Volunteer of the Year

Surya (Nila) Nilasari (Education, 2020)

Volunteer role: International Alumni Ambassador.

Surya's nomination: "Nila is one of our international alumni ambassadors for Indonesia and has been instrumental in keeping the alumni community in Jakarta connected. Since her appointment last year, she has helped the university organise two formal alumni engagement events.

"Nila offered regional intelligence to the International Volunteering & Advocacy Team as to the expectations of local alumni, liaised directly with the venue to negotiate a contract and ensure the room set up fit our requirements, as well as helped us boost registration and attendance numbers by promoting the event amongst her own vast networks.

"Nila encompasses the university values and is a very enthusiastic and driven volunteer. She has been an excellent advocate for her alma mater, effectively helping us increase the university’s brand, reputation, recruitment numbers and alumni community spirit within Indonesia."

Community Volunteer of the Year

The Patient Café

The Pharmacy Patient Café project was established with Cascade funding during the Covid-19 pandemic to improve person-centered care by giving pharmacy students counselling practice and opportunities to interact with patients.

The group's nomination: "Many of our volunteers stepped in at short notice to ensure that students continued to have the opportunity to practise their communication skills with real-life patients.

"Positive feedback from students has led to these sessions now being embedded within the MPharm curriculum, and the commitment to student learning from our volunteer patients has really helped students across all years.

"They are a real asset to the programme and the sessions they provide make a huge difference to the student experience by providing students with real-life opportunities to interact with patients from all walks of life, helping to develop them in to caring, compassionate pharmacists of the future."