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Retailing and Consumer Science lecturer Blake Mudd was recently honored with the New Achiever Award at this year's American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences Texas (AAFCS-TX) Annual Conference.

This recognition comes hot on the heels of Mudd's installation as the conference's Vice President of Membership at last year's conference. Mudd stated it "was quite the honor" to be nominated by Human Development and Consumer Sciences Department Chair Barbara Stewart, who holds esteemed standing with AAFCS.

“Dr. Stewart is so supportive of all of us. She's our champion,” Mudd said. “She says, 'I'm going to nominate y'all for every single thing, and when I do it, I'm going to send you what I wrote and why I'm nominating you,' and that's always such sweet motivation.”

Mudd's predecessor as Vice President of Membership won this very same New Achiever award herself 25 years ago.

“That really drove home that I'm following in a lot of great footsteps here. So many of our members have been members for 30, 40, even 50 years, so in a way, this award feels like real evidence of their support and approval,” he said. “This award is almost like the reassurance that I'm doing the right thing. It's endorsement to keep going down this path, and to consider my legacy to encourage the next person who wins this award. It's not necessarily about opening new doors for me, but for me to help keep the doors open for those following me.”

Called "full-throttle" in his pursuits by Stewart in her nomination letter, Mudd cites the importance of service and connection as key to his success.

“I'm really lucky that I have a lecturer position, which sounds ironic, because most people want to go tenure-track,” he said. “That's the goal when I get my Ph.D., but right now, I get to work with students all day, every day, and 100 percent of my workload is student-facing. When I think about every step I do, whether it's a conference presentation or answering administrative emails, I always keep in mind that I'm doing this for students. I really enjoy just the student experience and that's what I find rewarding even though it's a bit less tangible than some other outcomes. That's what I'm contributing to the field – I hope – in addition to students' education.”

He added, “We are teachers and researchers first and all of these other things second. The reason that we have our jobs is because of students. That's special. When I think about AAFCS specifically, we have people who work in extension, and people who work in high schools and universities, and people who sometimes work in non-profits, but the overall idea is that we are all serving somebody. I'm lucky that the people I serve are students. Whether our students or people in the local community, we are all passing along knowledge to others to make them better people, and I think that's important.”

“There was not one single moment that led to this award for me. This is recognition of years of involvement and service in our field.”