Northwest's University Police Department on Friday honored local licensed clinical social workers Jen Gentry, Cali Lloyd and Trenton Mooney with its Monica C. McCollough University Police Department Service Award. (Photos by Lauren Adams/Northwest Missouri State University)

The Northwest Missouri State University Police Department, during the institution’s fall All-Employee Meeting on Friday, recognized four community members with its Monica C. McCollough University Police Department Service Award and inaugural Raymond L. Ottman University Police Department Community Service Award.

The University Police Department honored local licensed clinical social workers Jen Gentry, Cali Lloyd and Trenton Mooney with the McCollough Award for their assistance with responding to traumatic events at Northwest. Additionally, they have collaborated with Horace Mann Laboratory School staff, students and parents on safety plans and assisting students in crisis.

University Police honored Nodaway County Associate Circuit Judge Robert Rice with the Ottman Award in recognition of his work to increase access and close gaps related to mental health resources in the northwest Missouri. He also led efforts to organize the Northwest Missouri Cooperative Mental Health Board of Trustees this summer.

The McCollough Award recognizes Northwest students or employees who are not members of the Police Department but have aided the department and its officers by offering solutions to prevent and solve crime, assisting an officer in the field or assisting the department in achieving its goals.

It is named for Monica McCollough, who served the Police Department as a student dispatcher, full-time dispatcher and office manager from 2002 to 2014. She improved department processes and implemented programs that continue to serve the Northwest community, including the Safe Ride Home program, which provides safe and timely transportation to students, and the Santa Cops program to assist families in Nodaway County with Christmas gifts.

The Ottman Award recognizes an individual who demonstrates ongoing community leadership through contributions to building a sense of unity and purpose. The recipient must be involved in volunteer programs, social groups or outreach centers. The recipient also demonstrates positive values and behaviors that aspire others to emulate and affect positive changes.

It is named for Raymond Ottman, a member of the University Police Department for 15 years. Ottman implemented resources and programs – such as Pizza and Police, CoCo with the PoPo, Bobby Palooza and Partners in Prevention, among others – that continue to serve the Northwest community. He resigned from the University Police Department in 2015 as a lieutenant of operations and serves as police chief at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith.