Distinguished Career Contribution Award William Perez Loyola Marymount University
The recipient of the 2026 Scholars of Color in Education Distinguished Career Contribution Award is Dr. William Perez. Dr. Perez’s scholarship focuses on the civic and educational experiences of immigrant, undocumented, indigenous, and deported youth in the U.S. and Mexico. His scholarship illuminates how immigration status, biculturalism, and marginalization shape identity development and civic engagement. Through his pioneering work, Dr. Perez challenges deficit narratives and advances frameworks for equitable schooling in K–22 contexts. His work is also nationally recognized. Dr. Perez’s insights have been featured in major media outlets, and he regularly engages policymakers, educators, and community members through judicial advocacy and institutional reform efforts. His distinguished career is further characterized by his extensive mentorship of students of color, first-generation, and undocumented scholars, helping to build pathways for the next generation of equity-driven scholars.
The Scholars of Color Distinguished Career Contribution Award is awarded to a senior-level scholar, usually 20 years or more after their receipt of the doctoral degree. Scholars of Color Mid-Career Contribution Award Chezare A. Warren Vanderbilt University
The recipient of the 2026 Scholars of Color in Education Mid-Career Contribution Award is Dr. Chezare Warren. Dr. Warren is an acclaimed scholar of race and intersectional justice who examines the conditions that facilitate Black students’ educational success and well-being in urban schools. His innovative scholarship centers the role of empathy in student-teacher interactions and elevates approaches that can better humanize the educational experiences of Black youth. Through his work, Dr. Warren translates his research into actional insights, developing cutting-edge methodologies, frameworks, and practice-based instruments for strengthening culturally responsive practice. He also engages in community-engaged scholarship, as evidenced by his collaboration with policymakers, practitioners, and researchers via an arts-informed knowledge hub and his widely viewed TED Talk that extends his research to global audiences.
The Scholars of Color Mid-Career Contribution Award is awarded to a scholar who is beyond the first level of professional appointment and for whom at least 10 years have passed since receipt of the doctoral degree. Scholars of Color Early Career Contribution Award Terrell R. Morton University of Illinois Chicago
The recipient of the 2026 Scholars of Color in Education Early Career Contribution Award is Dr. Terrell R. Morton. His scholarship at the intersection of educational psychology, STEM education, and critical theory has advanced significant understandings of the educational experiences of Black students and other racially minoritized youth in STEM settings. His interdisciplinary research examines how students’ intersectional identities inform engagement in postsecondary STEM education and reimagines how STEM learning environments can be centers of Black joy, resistance, and liberation. Dr. Morton is also a community-engaged scholar and collaborator, demonstrating equity-focused leadership within research and professional organizations and working across institutions to cultivate empowering STEM learning experiences for minoritized students. The Scholars of Color Early Career Contribution Award is awarded to a scholar who is within the first ten (10) years of their career after receipt of the doctoral degree. These three awards are intended to recognize (1) scholars at different stages in their careers who have made significant contributions to the understanding of issues which disproportionately affect minority populations, and (2) minority scholars who have made a significant contribution to educational research and development. The AERA Committee on Scholars of Color in Education is charged by AERA Council with serving as the selection committee for these awards.
Distinguished Career Contribution Award 2025 - Valerie Kinloch 2024 - Felicia Moore Mensah 2023 - William A. Smith 2022 - Alfredo J. Artiles 2021 - Zeus Leonardo 2020 - María Estela Brisk 2019 - Patricia A. Edwards 2018 - Rubén Donato 2017 - Antonia Darder 2016 - Walter R. Allen 2015 - Patricia C. Gándara 2014 - Award not given 2013 - Jo-ann Archibald 2012 - Celia S. Genishi 2011-Henry T. Frierson 2010 - Carol Camp Yeakey 2009 - Caroline Sotello Viernes Turner 2008 - James D. Anderson 2007 - Karen Swisher 2006 - Sonia Nieto 2005 - Donna Ford 2004 - Enrique "Henry" T. Trueba 2003 - Okhee Lee 2002 - Samuel S. Peng 2001 - Richard R. Valencia 2000 - Joyce King 1999 - Flora Rodriguez Brown 1998 - Walter G. Secada 1997 - Valerie Ooka Pang 1996 - James Banks 1995 - Ronald Takaki 1994 - Edmund Gordon 1993 - Carl Grant
Mid-Career Contribution Award 2025 - Tisha Lewis Ellison 2024 - Francesca Lopez 2023 - Thandeka K. Chapman 2022 - Sonya Douglass Horsford 2021 - Megan Bang 2020 - Adrienne Dixson 2019 - Karolyn Tyson 2018 - Kakali Bhattacharya 2017 - James L. Moore III 2016 - Sherick A. Hughes 2015 - Kevin K. Kumashiro 2014 - Janelle T. Scott 2013 - Sharon Nelson-Barber 2012 - Christine Jean Yeh 2011 - Jerlando F. L. Jackson 2010 - Dolores Delgado Bernal 2009 - Cynthia Hudley 2008 - Carol D. Lee and Francisco A. Rios 2007 - Kris Gutierrez 2006 - Madonna G. Constantine 2005 - Maria E. Franquiz 2004 - Michèle L. Foster 2003 - No award presented 2002 - No award presented 2001 - Christian J. Faltis 2000 - Lin Goodwin 1999 - Kofi Lomotey 1998 - Asa G. Hilliard III 1997 - Jacqueline Jordan Irvine 1996 - Celia Genishi 1995 - Christine Sleeter 1994 - Kenji Hakuta 1993 - Concepcion M. Valadez
Early Career Contribution Award 2025 - Roderick L. Carey 2024 - Nichole Margarita Garcia 2023 - Mildred Boveda 2022 - Krystal L. Williams 2021 - Bianca Baldridge 2020 - Jessica Harris 2019 - Aydin Bal 2018 - Nicole M. Joseph 2017 - María C. Ledesma 2016 - Roberto G. Gonzales 2015 - Ebony O. McGee 2014 - Dorinda Carter Andrews and Eve Tuck 2013 - Vichet Chhuon 2012 - Brendesha M. Tynes 2011 - Bic H. Ngo 2010 - Valerie Kinloch 2009 - Bryan McKinley Jones Brayboy 2008 - Lamont A. Flowers 2007 - Tyrone C. Howard & Michele S. Moses 2006 - Rich Milner 2006 - Gregory Tanaka 2005 - Cornel D. Pewewardy 2004 - Linda C. Tillman 2003 - Xin Ma 2002 - M. Christopher Brown II 2001 - Alfredo J. Artiles 2000 - William F. Tate 1999 - John W. Young 1998 - Vivian L. Gadsden 1997 - Oscar Kawagley 1996 - Donna Yvette Ford 1995 - Gloria Ladson-Billings 1994 - Ana Maria Villegas 1993 - Violet Harris
The nomination deadline for the 2026 AERA Awards has now passed. Award winners will be announced in early 2026 prior to the AERA Annual Meeting.