May 20, 2024
APDesign's Virginia Brunner-Livingston earns IDEA Staff Excellence Award
Virginia Brunner-Livingston in the K-State College of Architecture, Planning & Design, or APDesign, has earned the 2024 IDEA Staff Excellence Award. Established in 2024, the Staff Excellence Award exists to spotlight the talents, dedication and professionalism that IDEA, formerly known as the Great Plains IDEA, staff bring to their work and to celebrate the rich diversity of contributions that are foundational to our excellence as an alliance.
Brunner-Livingston is currently the program coordinator for the community development graduate program in the department of landscape architecture and regional & community planning, or LARCP, a position she's held since September 2022.
"As program coordinator, she serves our students through advising and general problem-solving from first inquiring about the program through graduation and beyond," said Huston Gibson, department head. "Virginia is not only an expert problem-solver for our students but their friend and an expert on advice related to their scholarly and professional path. I can think of no one more deserving than Virginia for the inaugural IDEA Staff Excellence Award for the work she does with our online learner population."
Brunner-Livingston is originally from Omaha, Nebraska, but has spent most of her life in Kansas. While working on her master's degree, she created her own program combining usage-based linguistics and English courses to better serve international students and other non-native English speakers. After completing her degree, Virginia taught in K-State's English Language Program for 10 years and became the program's technology chair in 2017, technology coordinator in 2019 and tutoring coordinator in 2020. She said she's excited for the changes and new experiences that the community development program brings.
Brunner-Livingston is an asset to more than just the community development program in APDesign, working with LARCP faculty and students in multiple of our programs helping coordinate internship opportunities and special projects. Brunner-Livingston has also served as a grant editor, content developer, videographer/technology specialist and instructor for several online courses in partnership with the U.S. Department of State.
When she's not working, she enjoys reading, crocheting, baking and gardening with her husband, Clancey. She can also be found playing with their two cats, Potato and Gizmo.