2020 Award Recipients

Jackie Irvine 
Emory University 

This citation recognizes Dr. Jackie Irvine for exemplifying in this generation of scholars the commitment to research excellence, problem-solving, and mentorship that defined African American scholarship in history. A Charles Howard Candler Professor of Urban Education Emerti at Emory University, the university’s most prestigious endowed chair, Dr. Irvine ‘s research produced 15 books, monographs or training manels, three of which garnered national recognition. She has received 31 honors for the hundreds of book chapters, refereed articles, and professional presentations, including election to the National Academy of Education and nine awards from AERA. Dr. Irvine also successfully generated numerous funded proposals that allowed her to apply her scholarship on school leadership, teacher education, and culturally responsive pedagogy to contemporary educational problems. Of her many funded projects, two created centers that linked directly with improving the practices in local urban schools (The Ford Foundation) and improving the communication and shared vision among university professors interested in urban education across the South (The Spencer Foundation).  Together with numerous professional development workshops and school consultations, Dr. Irvine’s intervention into helping address the problems in schools through her research knowledge generated years of formally-evaluated successful engagement. In her mentorship, Dr. Irvine was no less vigilant. Her vision and research funding spurred the proliferation of diverse doctoral students in the Division of Educational Studies at Emory, and she worked tirelessly with two generations of doctoral students in her office, at her home, and during professional meetings. Today her mentees are scattered across the country and world, each continuing the legacy of commitment to urban education in their own institutions. For her ability to transfer to a current sphere an exemplar of historical values in present-day practice and for her investment in shaping my own career, Dr. Jackie Irvine is awarded the Presidential Citation for 2020.

James Anderson
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign​

This citation recognizes Dr. James Anderson, Gutgsell Professor and Dean of the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for exemplifying in this generation of scholars the commitment to research excellence, problem-solving, and mentorship that defined African American scholarship in history. In scholarship, Dr. Anderson has spent more than 50 years publishing articles and book chapters on the history of desegregation, institutional racism, and representation of Blacks in textbooks. His groundbreaking book, The Education of Blacks in the South transformed the landscape of Black educational history and remains today the standard interpretation in the educational historiography on African Americans. For his research contributions, Dr. Anderson has been elected to National Academy of Education and the Fellows of the American Educational Research Association, as well as receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. In commitment to problem-solving, Dr. Anderson has served as an expert witness in a series of affirmative action and desegregation school cases, including Jenkins v. Missouri, Knight v. Alabama, Ayers v. Mississippi, Gratz v. Bollinger, and Grutter v. Bollinger. He both advised and participated in the documentaries, The Story of American Public Education, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, and Forgotten Genius: The Percy Julian Story. In his mentorship, Dr. Anderson has either chaired or served on 100-plus dissertation committees for students of color and advised more than 250 students. His commitment as scholar and Dean to serving diverse student populations has touched so many lives that Dr. Anderson has almost single-handedly produced the next generation of African American and Latinx academics in the fields of Education and History.  For his ability to transfer to a current sphere an exemplar of the historical triad of African American values into present-day practice, Dr. James Anderson is awarded the Presidential Citation for 2020.

Past Recipients

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