History
The Distinguished Service Award was established in 1982, when PPN was still known as Bookbuilders West. This honor went to individuals who supported the ideals and goals of BBW while also maintaining the highest personal standards of craftmanship and devotion to their work. Nominations and selections were made by a group consisting of the current and former BBW presidents.
In 2021, PPN revised the criteria and selection processes to more fully recognize the contributions of those across the industry who work toward promoting excellence through education, career development, and community building.
Selection Criteria
Candidates for the DSA are individuals who demonstrate some combination of the following:
- exemplification of the PPN mission to provide support, educational resources, and opportunities to all individuals involved in or interested in joining book-related publishing
- devotion to, and support of, the highest possible standards for developing and crafting books and book-related publications
- recognition for something extra that they have brought to the publishing community, whether it be unusual talent, brilliance, innovation, integrity, devotion, or helpfulness to others
Selection Process
- PPN invites nominations from the broad publishing community through email blasts and social media.
- Nominations can include brief essays and supporting information as available.
- PPN’s DSA committee members review all entries and determine the recipient based on the selection criteria.
- PPN encourages nominations that foster a more diverse, equitable, inclusive, and accessible publishing ecosystem.
The honoree is named at the PPN Conference.
Recipients
| 1983 | Lon Driggers | 1984 | Al Lindenbaum | 1985 | Charles Goehring |
| 1986 | Bill Ralph | 1987 | Fran Mitchell | 1988 | Roy Wallace |
| 1989 | Patricia Brewer | 1990 | Karen Judd | 1991 | Bill Ketron |
| 1992 | Casimira Kostecki | 1993 | Elliott Derman | 1994 | Jonathan Peck |
| 1995 | Gordon Johnson | 1996 | Chet Grycz | 1997 | Detta Penna |
| 1998 | Paul Butzler | 1999 | Gary Head | 2000 | Arlene Cowan |
| 2001 | Don Smith | 2002 | Tony Crouch | 2003 | Karen Richardson |
| 2004 | Rebecca Swee | 2005 | Michele Bisson Savoy | 2006 | Michael O’Brien |
| 2007 | Stephen Thomas | 2008 | Mary Lou Goforth | 2009 | Sandy D’Amato |
| 2010 | Leslie Austin | 2011 | Elise Gochberg | 2012 | Andrea Helmbolt |
| 2013 | Mike Johnson | 2014 | David Zielonka | 2016 | Duncan McCallum |
| 2017 | Tona Pearce Myers | 2018 | Scott Norton | 2019 | Brenda Ginty |
| 2021 | Johanna Vondeling | 2022 | Raya Rahman | 2024 | Brooke Warner |
| 2025 | Becky Parker Geist |