Wendell Legacy Impact Award
Overview
The Wendell Legacy Impact Award is the Women & Planning Division's most prestigious honor. Awarded annually, the Wendell Award recognizes and celebrates Division members building a legacy through their practice, research, and service and exemplifying bold leadership, community impact, and sustained contributions advancing women in planning.
The Wendell Award:
- Celebrates and recognizes unsung heroes and the tireless work of women making an impact on their communities and the profession.
- Recognizes innovative ideas, passion projects, or initiatives advancing women in planning.
- Elevates equity-driven, values-based leadership rooted in legacy, celebration, and impact.
- Encourages women to recognize and celebrate their OWN self-worth, own the impacts of their contributions to the planning profession, and flex their success.
The Wendell Legacy Impact Award is not a scholarship, grant, or reimbursement. It is a celebration—an intentional act of naming, recognizing, and honoring sustained impacts advancing women in planning. The award provides a $3,000 honorarium and a commemorative glass award appropriate for display. There are no restrictions on the recipient's use of award funds.
WPD is accepting Wendell Legacy Impact Award nominations through June 2, 2025. Decision notifications will be sent via email by June 25, 2025.
Eligibility
- Applicants may self-nominate or submit a nomination on behalf of another WPD member (the Division will confirm acceptance of nomination prior to awarding recognition).
- Nominees must be a current member of the APA Women & Planning Division.
- Nominee may not be a sitting member of the WPD Executive Committee or a previous recipient of the Wendell Award.
How to Nominate
Nominations must be submitted by completing the online form linked below. Nominees/ applicants will be asked to provide the following:
- Nominee name and contact information.
- Applicant name and contact information, if applicable.
- Nominee's APA member number and confirmation.
- Confirmation of nominee's current Women & Planning Division membership.
- A brief (1,000-3,000 words) narrative identifying and describing recognition-worthy projects, research, programs, initiatives, ideas, or other efforts advancing women in planning and conceived, initiated, or led by the nominee. The application may describe an individual project/initiative or a group of activities or body of work. Submissions must address:
- The described effort's specific outcomes and impacts advancing women in planning, helping achieve gender parity in the profession, and/or dismantling systems and structures restricting women’s opportunities.
- Any challenges and barriers the applicant encountered and managed/overcame.
- Innovative solutions and creative problem solving applied.
- A brief description of the nominee's legacy (in progress or already accomplished!) and connections to the Division's mission and goals.
- A proposed final deliverable that will showcase the award’s impact on the nominee and celebrating the nominees contributions to advancing and supporting women in planning. This can be a written narrative summary, a visual or graphic product, a blog post, a short video, etc. that will be provided to the Division and published on the Division's website. Creativity is encouraged!
Review Criteria and Recipient Selection
Evaluation Criteria
Eligible nominations will be reviewed by a committee and scored based on the criteria described below:
- Demonstrated impacts on women in planning.
- Sustained commitment and/or legacy-building advancing the interests of women in planning.
- Alignment with WPD’s mission, values, and goals.
- Application of innovative ideas and creative problem solving.
- The narrative's overall quality, clarity, and authenticity.
Review Committee
The Wendell Award review committee will include:
- At least two (2) of the award's endowers; and/or
- Three (3) or more voting officers of WPD's Executive Committee.
Wendell Legacy Impact Award: Learn More
Too often, women’s transformative planning contributions go unrecognized. The Wendell Legacy Impact Award is the Division’s way of celebrating that work, elevating those voices, and creating space for joy, affirmation, and professional belonging. The Wendell Award is not a scholarship, grant, or reimbursement. It is a celebration—an intentional act of naming, recognizing, and honoring women whose contributions shape the present and future of our profession.
The Wendell Award is endowed by the generous contributions of APA Women & Planning Division leaders, past and present. These women - role models and tireless advocates for women in the planning profession - exemplify the ideals the Wendell Award seeks to celebrate and recognize.
Award Founder
Corrin Wendell, AICP | Past Division Chair 2019-2022
Award Sustainers
Caroline Dwyer, AICP | Division Chair, 2023-present