Lara Perez-Felkner Florida State University
The recipient of the 2026 Distinguished Contributions to Gender Equity in Education Research Award is Dr. Lara Perez-Felkner. A nationally respected scholar of higher education and sociology, her research demonstrates how identity and institutional contexts shape educational opportunity. Across her career, her scholarship has transformed the study of gender equity in STEM, pushing the field beyond one-size-fits-all frameworks to reveal discipline-specific patterns of participation and inequity, and offering compelling longitudinal evidence of how disparities emerge and compound across STEM pathways. Through sustained field-building service, generous mentorship, and leadership that consistently elevates others, she has helped set, and continually raise, the agenda for what gender equity research in education can and should accomplish.
Established in 2006, the Distinguished Contributions to Gender Equity in Education Research Award recognizes individuals within AERA for distinguished research, professional practice, and activities that advance public understanding of gender and/or sexuality at any level in the education community. This award will be presented to an individual whose professional career has been devoted in substantial part to the study of gender and/or sexuality in education, and who has significantly advanced the field through extraordinary leadership, scholarship, or professional practice. The AERA Committee on Scholars and Advocates for Gender Equity in Education is charged by AERA Council with serving as the selection committee for this award.
2025 - Deirdre L. Cobb-Roberts 2024 - Jennifer Esposito 2023 - Jackie Blount 2022 - Kimberly A. Scott 2021 - Elizabeth Meyer 2020 - Jessica Ringrose 2019 - sj Miller 2018 - Kristen A. Renn 2017 - Kathryn C. Scantlebury 2016 - James L. Moore III 2015 - Charol Shakeshaft 2013 - Geraldine J. Clifford 2012 - Cynthia B. Dillard 2011 - James Earl Davis 2010 - Valerie Polakow 2009 - Sandra Harding 2008 - Annette Henry 2007 - Aída Hurtado
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.