Honors & Awards

The American Historical Association has awarded Dr. Joe Trotter with the John Lewis Award for History and Social Justice. Dr. Trotter currently serves as a professor and founding director of the Center for Africanamerican Urban Studies and the Economy at Carnegie Mellon University.

As an endowed professor at Boston College and scholar at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Dr. Bullock's new award honors her dedication to improving care for underrepresented patient populations in hospice and palliative medicine.

“Through her leadership and scholarship, Dr. White-Smith inspires a new generation of teachers to serve students and approach their work with equity, compassion, and respect,” said Gail F. Baker, provost and senior vice president at the University of San Diego. 

“I am indeed honored to receive this prestigious award named for a person who meant so much to the study of Communication," said Dr. Johnson. “My aim is to continue to serve and work in ways that not only highlight and center Africana communication but also to continue to build on the legacy of Dr. Orlando Taylor.”

Scotty Barnhart, professor of jazz trumpet at Florida State University, secured his third career Grammy Award for "Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album,"

Ozzie Abaye, the Thomas B. Hutcheson Jr. Professor of Agronomy at Virginia Tech, has received with the 2023 Excellence in College and University Teaching Award for Food and Agricultural Sciences. Dr. Abaye states, "Teaching is not what I do for a living, but what I do to live."

Maurice Cox has been named the 2024 laureate of the Henry Hope Reed Award at the University of Notre Dame for his dedication to education and public service.

Morgan State University professor and dean, Oscar Barton, is the first African American recipient of the Edwin F. Church Medal from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. As part of the award, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers will establish an endowed scholarship in his name at Morgan State University.

Colleen Jennings-Roggensack, vice president for cultural affairs at Arizona State University and executive director of ASU Gammage, a multipurpose performing arts center on the campus of the university in Tempe, is the recipient of the 2023 Broadway League Leadership Award.

The association's C. Clyde Ferguson, Jr. Award honors a legal educator who has provided support, encouragement, and mentoring to colleagues, students, and aspiring educators, and has achieved excellence in the areas of public service, teaching, and scholarship.

The award, presented by the Houston Academy of Medicine, seeks to identify and recognize multi-accomplished physicians who have enriched the field of medicine with excellence and humaneness. Dr. Laurencin is a University Professor and former dean of the medical school at the University of Connecticut.

Dr. Mensah was honored for her development of the service-learning designated course, "Communicating Body Image." Dr. Mensah's course aims to identify hidden assumptions about body image as it relates to the intersections of race, class, gender, and body image in America.

Lekelia Jenkins, an associate professor in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society at Arizona State University, has been named a fellow of the International Science Council, the highest honor that can be conferred on an individual by the council.

Julius B. Fleming, Jr., assistant professor of English at the University of Maryland, College Park, is the winner of the Hooks National Book Award from the Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change at the University of Memphis.

Dr. Young is associate dean for academics and land-grant programs at Tennessee State University. The award recognizes excellence in agricultural sciences teaching and student engagement.

The Black Authors Matter Children’s Book Awards were established to honor excellence in African American literature. A panel of award-winning and/or award-nominated authors evaluated more than 150 entries. Frank X Walker is the first African American writer to be named Kentucky Poet Laureate. He is a professor of English and African American and Africana studies at the University of Kentucky.

The Modern Language Association of America announced it is awarding its first annual Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for African Studies to Belinda Edmondson, Distinguished Professor in the departments of English and Africana studies at Rutgers University-Newark.

Tina Post, an assistant professor of English at the University of Chicago, recently received the Best Book Prize from the Association for the Study of the Arts of the Present.

Dorothy Butler Gilliam was the first African American woman reporter at the Washington Post. She taught at Howard University, American University, and the George Washington University School of Media and Public Affairs.

K.C. Mmeje is vice president for student affairs at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. The NASPA Pillars of the Profession Award acknowledges remarkable individuals within the student affairs and higher education community who demonstrate exceptional contributions to both the profession and the organization.