Honors & Awards

G. Marcus Cole Honored by the American Academy of Sciences and Letters

G. Marcus Cole, the Joseph A. Matson Dean and Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, was one of 10 recipients of the Barry Prize from the American Academy of Sciences and Letters.

April Lavette Jones Receives National Award for Contributions to Social Work Education

Dr. Jones has influenced social work education at Bellevue University, Talladega College, Tuskegee University, and Alabama A&M University, where she currently serves as director of director of strategic innovation and distance social work education in the department of social work.

Avis Proctor Awarded for Leadership in Community College Education

Dr. Proctor has served as the sixth president of Harper College in Illinois for the past seven years. She was recently honored by the Association of Community College Trustees for her leadership in advancing student success, institutional innovation, and community college education.

Professor Cynthia Oliver Awarded for Her Career in Choreography

Cynthia Oliver has been a professor of dance at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for more than 25 years. As a choreographer, she creates experimental dance-theater works that explore Blackness, feminism, Black masculinity, and Afro-Caribbean cultures.

Hilary Beckles Named a Distinguished Scholar by New York University

New York University's Center for the Study of Africa and African Diaspora has named Hilary Beckles, vice chancellor of the University of the West Indies, a 2026–2027 Distinguished Scholar. Dr. Beckles previously conducted research at NYU more than three decades ago.

Yale’s David Knight Wins Early Career Award in Sociology

The American Sociological Association has presented its inaugural Early Career Award for Community-Engaged Scholarship to Yale's David Knight in recognition of “his visionary leadership in documenting the history of political mobilization within U.S. prisons.”

Emory University’s Tayari Jones Receives Award for Her Latest Novel

Tayari Jones, an endowed professor at Emory University, has received the 2026 Kirkus Prize for Fiction for her latest novel, Kin. The book is Professor Jones' fifth novel.

Zophia Edwards Receives National Book Award in Sociology

Dr. Edwards is an assistant professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. She was recently honored by the American Sociological Association for her latest book, Fueling Development: How Black Radical Trade Unionism Transformed Trinidad and Tobago.

Keisha Rogers Receives Black Mental Health Educator of the Year Award

The Black Mental Health Symposium has honored Dr. Rogers, professor of rehabilitation counseling at Winston-Salem State University, for her contributions to counselor education, mentorship, and advocacy.

Prudence Carter Receives Career Award From the American Sociological Association

A leading sociologist of education, Dr. Carter currently serves as an endowed professor and director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

Tomikia LeGrande Honored by the Thurgood Marshall College Fund

Dr. LeGrande became the ninth president of Prairie View A&M University in June 2023. Earlier in her career, she held key leadership roles in enrollment management at Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Houston-Downtown.

UNC-Chapel Hill to Name New Residence Hall After Pioneering Black Faculty

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's new Jackson Hall honors two of the university's earliest Black professors. Blyden Jackson was the university's first tenured Black faculty member and his wife Roberta was the first Black tenure-track faculty member in the School of Education.

UCLA’s E. Dale Abel Receives Prestigious Honor from the Government of Jamaica

E. Dale Abel of the University of California, Los Angles has been awarded the Order of Distinction in the Rank of Commander by the Government of Jamaica. The award is one of the nation's highest honors.

Deborah Willis Selected to Receive an American Book Award

Deborah Willis is a University Professor and chair of the department of photography and imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. She will be presented with an American Book Award on September 28.

Brittany Suggs Receives Emerging Leader Award From the American Counseling Association

The American Counseling Association has presented its Robert H. Rencken Emerging Professor Leader Award to Brittany Suggs, an assistant professor and graduate clinical coordinator in the department of counseling and human services at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.

Yale’s Mae-ling Lokko Recognized for Her Work in Architectural Design

Dr. Lokko focuses her work on the intersectoral design and research of bio-based materials to drive ecological health and generative justice goals. She currently serves as an assistant professor in the School of Architecture and assistant director of the Center for Ecosystems in Architecture at Yale University.

Nwando Achebe Elected to the Royal Historical Society

Dr. Achebe, an endowed professor at Michigan State University, is known for her research on the study of women, gender, sexuality, and oral history in Nigeria.

NACUBO Presents Its Highest Honor to Dawn Rhodes

The National Association of College and University Business Officers is honoring Dawn Rhodes, chief business and finance officer and senior vice president at the University of Maryland, Baltimore.

Shatema Threadcraft Receives Book Awards From the American Political Science Association

Dr. Threadcraft is a member of the Vanderbilt University faculty. Her new book, The Labors of Resurrection: Black Women, Necromancy, and Morrisonian Democracy, has received two book awards from the American Political Science Association.

Four Professors Receive the 2026 Trailblazer Award From the National Black Nurses Association

Among this year's recipients of the National Black Nurses Association's Trailblazer Awards are four Black scholars currently teaching at universities: Angela Frederick Amar of New York University, Felesia Bowen of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Stephan Davis of Georgetown University, and Selena Ann Gilles of the University of Pennsylvania.

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