2026 Director of the Year Awards Program
Call For Entries
Do you know a hospital, school, or university campus police chief, director of public safety and security, emergency manager, or another administrator responsible for campus protection who surpasses the call of duty with their outstanding leadership skills, inventiveness, and selflessness? Then we encourage you to submit their (or even your own) nomination for the 19th annual Campus Safety Director of the Year Award!
The winner of this prestigious award receives:
- A feature article on CampusSafetyMagazine.com.
- Widespread recognition within the campus public safety and security community.
- A custom-made trophy to commemorate their achievement.
- Free admission to the awards ceremony at the 2026 Campus Safety Conference.
- A deeply discounted full conference pass for the 2026 Campus Safety Conference
- Complimentary admission to the 2027 Campus Safety Conference, including a two-night hotel stay.
In addition, many finalists are featured in editorial coverage in the months leading up to the winner announcements, providing further opportunities for professional recognition. To review our coverage of past winners, click here.
Judging, Deadlines, & Eligibility
Nomination Submission: Please attach a document (MS-Word, Text, PDF, or other textual file types) explaining why you or your nominee should be chosen for this award. Please explain how your entry meets or exceeds the judging criteria. Include examples showing why you or the person you are nominating is worthy of this award. Please limit the number of pages of your explanation to 10. If you include references, which are highly recommended, the total number of pages of your nomination should be no more than 15. Please combine all of your documents into one file before uploading your entry.
Please note judges score each criterion using a 1-5 scale. Not including information on one or several of the criteria will likely impact your chances of being named a winner (e.g., if the nomination material doesn't provide any example(s) of how the nominee fosters excellent community relations, a 1 scoring would be applied and bring down the average).
To view the judging criteria, click here.
Entry Deadline: January 26, 2026. There is no entry fee. All submissions become the property of Campus Safety and cannot be returned.
Eligibility: Nominee must have the title of “Campus Police Chief” or “Director of Public Safety & Security,” “Director of Emergency Management,” “Vice President of Campus Security and Safety," or the equivalent. The campus the nominee oversees must be located and operated in the United States or Canada and must be a hospital, university, college, K-12 school, or school district.