2026 William J. Harris Equal Opportunity Award Nomination

DISCLAIMER

This nomination information will be shared with other states on the Workforce Innovation Awards Nominations website. This public website contains Innovation Award nominations from previous years and indexes them by topic as a shared resource for all states.

Description

The William J. Harris Award honors a state or partnership involving a state for an innovative workforce-related program, project, or initiative which results in significant contributions towards the achievement of equal opportunity and nondiscrimination.

Criteria (choose one as primary focus)

Innovative Program Design: clearly defining ways to include individuals in protected groups; monitoring techniques to ensure equal opportunity and non-discrimination within programs; and achieving successful outcomes for protected groups
Broad Scope and High Impact: of the program on internal and external customers, as well as on local, regional, statewide, or national stakeholders, exhibiting best practices that can be replicated; and
EO Strategies that advance Continuous Improvement (Enhancement): and show documented steps in planning, execution, review and evaluation process/methods.

Eligible Nominees

The State or a partnership or initiative involving the State must be named as the nominee of the award. The award may recognize specific individuals or agencies within the nomination, such as, but not limited to: the governor, elected official, state administrator, state equal opportunity officer or director, state staff member(s), business owner or representative, workforce partner, or advocacy group.

Nomination Requirements

Must be submitted by 5:00 pm ET, December 12, 2025
Submit a completed award nomination;
Contain answers to the questions listed on the nomination form within the prescribed word limit;
Include a statement of approval from the agency administrator; and,
Be the single nomination for that state in this category.

Selection Process

The NASWA Equal Opportunity Committee’s William J. Harris Award Subcommittee will review all applications.

After the rankings are determined, the Subcommittee will report to the Chair of the Equal Opportunity Committee on the results of the review. The EO Committee Chair will forward the recommendation to the NASWA President, prior to the final selection being made by the NASWA Equal Opportunity Harris Award Subcommittee.