UNO Faculty, Former Nebraska Corrections Director Awarded Prestigious Criminal Justice Award

The University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) and The Association of State Correctional Administrators (ASCA) are proud to announce that Robert (Bob) P. Houston is the recipient of the 2018 Louie L. Wainwright Award. This distinguished Award will be presented to Bob at ASCA’s summer conference in Minneapolis this August.

The Louie Wainwright Award was created to recognize past State Directors and who have demonstrated outstanding leadership, exhibited the highest of ethical standards and made significant contributions to the field of corrections and ASCA after leaving their leadership posts as director.

Houston is currently a Senior Community Research Associate for UNO’s School of Criminology and Criminal Justice. His connection to UNO was inspired by a news article he happened across during his senior year of high school. The article was written about UNO’s then-newly-created law enforcement program.

“Although I did not know the program would blossom into what it is today, I knew that this Program could lead to employment in some aspect of criminal justice as my chosen career,” Houston said, “I liked the thought of working in criminal justice because I admired those that protect others and wanted to do the same.”

Houston served 37 years in the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services (NDCS) including eight years as Director. During this time, he also served as the Agency’s deputy director and as a prison warden of three Nebraska prisons for eleven years. Immediately before becoming State Director, Houston served as Director of the Douglas County Department of Correctional for two years.

During his time at NDCS, Houston also was an adjunct faculty member for two decades before joining UNO 2014 as a .8 employee. Bob now serves as a Federal Court Monitor of the Los Angeles County Jail and a trainer and consultant to the U.S. Departments of State and Justice.

He claims the past four years at UNO are really the reason he received the award, crediting several faculty and the many opportunities UNO has given him.

“Receiving the award is humbling in that the recognition was decided by the handful of men and women who run our nation's state and federal prison systems. My trajectory into corrections was inspired and enabled by UNO,” Houston says. “This Award is a result of my 2014 UNO appointment and my love of UNO, its administrators, faculty, students, and staff.”