2024 NCHC Founders Award Recipient

The National Collegiate Honors Council would not be the organization it is today without the contributions of Elizabeth Beck.

In 2003, the then named Executive Committee (now Board of Directors) voted to move from a volunteer organization to a professional one with a permanent national office headquarters. At the time of the vote, Ms. Beck (or Liz, as she was called by colleagues) served as the Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the Committee, then stepped into the role of Interim Executive Director of the fledging professional organization not just once, but twice to help guide its path toward success.

Dr. Jeffrey Portnoy, 2020 Founders Award recpient and Professor Emeritus of English at Georgia State University Perimeter College shares, “Liz has gifted the organization with her expertise at some of its most critical and transformative moments. In particular, she served as Executive Director of NCHC during difficult and fraught days as it transformed itself from virtually a mom-and-pop operation into a professional not-for-profit organization with a permanent staff and national office. In essence, she was one of its founders, architects, midwifes. A Founder indeed.”

Liz was at the center of establishing the national office at the University of Nebraska— Lincoln (UNL). She was involved with site selection, negotiating the details concerning the office space and the financial arrangements with UNL, handling the intricacies making NCHC a legal entity in the state of Nebraska, and creating the policies and documents to establish the relationships and practices of the national office vis-a-vis the Board of Directors as well as the membership. Because of Liz’s diplomatic skills, vision, and leadership, she was able to build consensus within the organization and a foundation that was strong enough to withstand the struggles and missteps that all reconstituted organizations must endure.

As the Interim Executive Director, Liz led the organization with the NCHC Board to include a clear vision and mission, effective leadership, open communication, employee empowerment, strong teamwork, customer focus, agility and adaptability, operational excellence, social responsibility, and innovation. The governance infrastructure that resulted from her guidance and expertise has had a high impact on NCHC’s organizational development.

Beyond Liz’s service as Interim Executive Director, Liz served as Director of the University Honors Program at Iowa State University for over 25 years. The unique nature of the Iowa State Honors Program, established in 1960, is that it has always been a university-wide endeavor, including all undergraduate colleges, including Engineering, Agriculture, Human Science, Liberal Arts and Sciences, and Veterinary Medicine, then later adding the colleges of Design, Education, and Business as they became colleges.

Director Beck’s Honors Program was among the first in the nation to open an Honors House, to which all program members had a key and perpetual access. Her campus remained active in NCHC when most large midwestern state universities withdrew, complaining about sharing space and time with “small schools” and “community colleges”. Her program provided leadership in Ames in part because its director herself tied the campus to its local community.

Her students co-taught, co-researched, travelled, sought and earned highly competitive international and national awards. Honors faculty at Iowa State University benefitted from her commitment to support them when they participated in professional development opportunities.

Dr. Rosalie Otero, 2023 Founders award recipient and long-time colleague of Director Beck, shares:

I cannot express within the limits of this nomination all the attributes that Liz Beck possesses to qualify this nomination for the NCHC Founders Award. Rest assured that the list would be too exhaustive [....] Liz made significant contributions to the organization’s governance while leading her home Honors Program as a model for dissemination. Such dedication and [these] many contributions are deserving of Founders Award’s recognition. NCHC is a prominent, strong organization due to the extraordinary contributions of members like Elizabeth Beck.

It is with great gratitude that we recognize Elizabeth Beck as a recipient of the 2024 NCHC Founders Award.