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Robert E. Layne, MEd |
Robert E. Layne, MEd, director of outreach programs, was honored with the Chancellor’s Award for Advancing the UMMS Mission at the 38th Annual Employee Service Awards Dinner on Wednesday, Oct. 26.
The Chancellor’s Award for Advancing the UMMS Mission recognizes an individual staff member or team whose actions make a substantial impact in advancing the mission of the institution through public service, research, teaching or health care delivery. The honorees do so with a commitment to the vision and mission of UMMS; dedication to always supporting what is in the best interest of UMMS; initiative to accomplish goals using new and improved methods; vision to see opportunities for change and develop innovative solutions; and passion for achieving UMMS goals and mission.
Chancellor Michael F. Collins said Layne, who is celebrating 20 years of service at UMMS, is the “chief representative, liaison and connection to the Worcester community,” in his role overseeing the Summer Enrichment Program, the High School Health Careers Program and the Worcester Pipeline Collaborative.
“You have been a leading force in transforming how we partner with the City of Worcester and interact with schools and students representing the full continuum of our educational system,” Chancellor Collins told Layne. “You have made our educational outreach programs—the Worcester Pipeline Collaborative, the High School Health Careers Program and the Summer Enrichment Program—the hallmark of the school’s community engagement strategy.
“These pipeline and enrichment programs, thanks to your passionate and steadfast engagement, leverage the unique expertise that exists at our medical school to expose school-age students, many of whom come from underrepresented groups, to STEM education and, more importantly, to a whole new world of opportunity.”
Collins said Layne has affectionately become known as “Mr. UMMS” in the schools and neighborhoods of Worcester as “the face of UMass Medical School.”
“In each and every encounter—be it with a student, a parent, a teacher, an administrator, a partner or a community leader—you unfailingly espouse the values at the heart of our mission,” Collins said. “As the medical school’s ambassador to our local communities, you have profoundly advanced, enhanced and enriched our public mission.”
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