GPA President's Award - Grant Professionals Association

GPA President's Award

Share |

The GPA President’s Award acknowledges the profound appreciation for the recipient’s efforts to advance the Grant Professional Association, grants profession, and the community through their outstanding dedication and leadership during the president’s term. The President’s Award bestows special recognition to a person, who in the course of their work and service, has demonstrated high ethical standards and remarkable contributions to the grant profession.

2024 GPA President's Award Recipient - Melody Hernandez

This year, the GPA President’s Award has a new spin. Recreated as an unsung hero award, this year’s award recognizes a chapter member who has made extraordinary contributions to their local chapter, gone above and beyond for their fellow chapter members, and set a new standard of what it means to be a GPA member.

As an unsung hero award, the awardee must have never been recognized for their work. This award shines a light on those who work to keep the heartbeat of GPA going strong—our chapters.

You may be wondering how someone would be selected for this award. Well, candidates are recommended by their peers. There is no greater honor than being recommended by one’s peers and those that you work shoulder to shoulder with, year after year.
Without further ado, the 2024 President’s Award recipient is ……Melody Hernandez of the Greater Bay Area Chapter in San Francisco, California.

As a founding member and current president of the Greater Bay Area Chapter, to say Melody has had a phenomenal impact on the chapter is an understatement.

Under Melody’s leadership, the Greater Bay Area Chapter, known as GBA, was recognized as the fastest-growing small chapter. Melody contributes to GBA’s growth by ensuring that all members feel included, welcomed, and that their professional development needs and interests are met.

You may be wondering what this looks like on a chapter level.

Well, Melody successfully maintains an open, sharing, and supportive environment.

She structures each chapter meeting as a well-prepared educational experience for each member, advancing our profession.
Melody created a biweekly coffee connect for any grant professional to join and share successes, and challenges, and bounce ideas off of each other. This is a cost-free service to GPA members and non-members alike. She gives up 1 hour every other week to host these with the core goal of creating community.

She has formally and informally mentored both new and veteran grant professionals. She keeps current on developments in the grant profession and generously shares this information with chapter members and other grant professionals whom she encourages to join GPA.

As a member, Melody has also been active in GPA at the national level. She has presented at conferences, where she always receives top scores in the evaluations. After the conferences, she brings ideas and learnings back to share with our local chapter, so the full chapter benefits.

She serves on the ethics committee, bringing her Native American heritage to the discussion. Melody intertwines her experience serving on the ethics committee into the chapter's governance and discussions among members. She is also an avid advocate for social justice.

Melody has given so much more to her chapter and GPA as a whole. Way more than can be summed up during this presentation.

In conclusion, on behalf of the Grant Professionals Association and her outstanding colleagues who nominated her, please join me in presenting Melody Hernandez with the 2024 Presidents Award.