Kate Baxter, a graduate student at the Romney Institute for Public Management at Brigham Young University, will be receiving the Xining International Friendship Contribution Award from Xining City, the capital of Qinghai, China.
The award, which is approved by local Chinese governments, promotes public and private partnership as well as citizen diplomacy and recognizes Baxter’s efforts to foster stronger relations between the state of Utah and Qinghai province.
Her work includes the establishment of official cultural exchange and training programs, student-exchange programs and continuing the ongoing efforts of the Utah-Qinghai EcoPartnership to establish green technology cooperation between the United States and China.
“This award announcement is a wonderful recognition of the effort Kate has devoted to building this critical relationship,” said Diana Bao, deputy secretary general of the Utah-Qinghai EcoPartnership. “Kate has made a lasting impact on both sides of this relationship and has been instrumental in the success of the programs coming from Xining City.”
Baxter is the first recipient of this award, which was described by Xining city officials as similar recognition to a lifetime achievement award.
“Kate Baxter’s efforts and contributions have earned recognition for the state of Utah, as well as promoted exchanges between China and the U.S.,” said Utah Governor Gary Herbert, after hearing of Baxter’s nomination for the award. “Utahans like Kate Baxter are committed to international service and outreach. Her work is a symbol of trust that we have built and hope to continue to build.”
An award ceremony will be held in November at BYU.
For more information, contact Iris Zhang at utah.qinghaiecopartnership@gmail.com.
Writer: Preston Wittwer
