2021 Award Recipients

Vanessa Siddle Walker
Emory University 

This presidential citation is an acknowledgement of Dr. Vanessa Siddle Walker’s more than four decades of contributions to the field of education, including having taught at the desegregated Cummings High School in Burlington, North Carolina. One of the most highly respected and influential historians in the history of the American Educational Research Association, Dr. Walker has written, spoken, and taught brilliantly about the history of Black educators and leaders in the American South, school desegregation, and other topics that center the lives of Black schoolchildren during Jim Crow and beyond. Her books include Their Highest Potential: An African American School Community in the Segregated South (University of North Carolina Press), Hello Professor: A Black Principal and Professional Leadership in the Segregated South (University of North Carolina Press), Race-ing Moral Formation: African American Perspectives on Care and Justice (Teachers College Press), Living the Legacy of African American Education: A Model for University and School Engagement (Rowman and Littlefield), and The Lost Education of Horace Tate: Uncovering the Hidden Heroes Who Fought for Justice in Schools (The New Press). Dr. Walker is an AERA Fellow, recipient of numerous AERA awards, and a member of the National Academy of Education. Our field benefited tremendously from her extraordinary service as AERA’s 104th president, the ninth Black scholar elected to lead the Association. For all she has done for Black children and for her inspiring leadership of the largest organization of education researchers, this presidential citation is awarded to AERA Immediate Past President Dr. Vanessa Siddle Walker.

Past Recipients

2020 - Jackie Irvine and James Anderson by AERA President Vanessa Siddle Walker 

2019- Jeannie Oakes and Vanessa Siddle Walker by AERA President Amy Stuart Wells

2018 - Sharon Feiman-Nemser and Carol D. Lee by AERA President Deborah Ball

2017 - Alfredo J. Artiles, Henry T. Frierson and Gloria J. Ladson-Billings by AERA President Vivian L. Gadsden

2016 - Amy Stuart Wells and John S. Rogers by AERA President Jeannie Oakes

2015 - Etta R. Hollins and Adelaide L. Sanford by AERA President Joyce E. King

2014 - Larry V. Hedges and Felice J. Levine by AERA President Barbara Schneider

2013 - Shirley Brice Heath, Yvonne Sessions Lincoln, and John Brooks Slaughter by AERA President William G. Tierney

2012 - Kofi Lomotey, Cynthia A. Tyson and Rick R. McCown by AERA President Arnetha Ball

2011 -  Linda Darling-Hammond, Patricia Gandara and Mike Rose by AERA President Kris D. Gutiérrez

2010 - Luis C. Moll, Geoffrey B. Saxe, and William F. Tate by AERA President Carol D. Lee

2009 - Richard J. Shavelson and Carol H. Weiss by AERA President Lorraine M. McDonnell

2008 - Walter R. Allen, Patricia F. Campbell, and John Q. Easton by AERA President William F. Tate

2007 - Edmund W. Gordon and Robert E. Stake by AERA President Eva L. Baker

2006 - Beverly M. Gordon by AERA President Gloria Ladson-Billings

2005 - Ann Lieberman by AERA President Marilyn Cochran-Smith

2004 - Ralph J. Putnam by AERA President Hilda Borko

2003 - Robert Glaser by AERA President Robert L. Linn

2002 - Fred Neumann, Lloyd Bond, and Mike Smith by AERA President Andrew C. Porter

2000 - Pat Graham by AERA President Lorrie A. Shepard

1998 - Elizabeth Cohen by AERA President James A. Banks

1997 - Elizabeth Fennema by AERA President Penelope L. Peterson

1995 - James Comer, M.D. by AERA President Jane A. Stallings

1994 - Jerome Brunner by AERA President Ann L. Brown