AASCU Launches New Initiative to Help Higher Education Lead for a More Equitable and Just Society
A new initiative to help campus leaders create conditions for equitable democracy to thrive.
AASCU Announces Winners of the 2023 Civic Engagement Awards
Honoring ADP campuses doing extraordinary work to promote and re-imagine civic engagement.
Protected: 2022 International Education Week
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
2022 Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement Meeting
Share knowledge and develop a sense of community around civic learning and democratic engagement.
2023 Bridging Wicked Divides Project: Deliberative Forums for College Students
A nation-wide, open access, deliberative forum series exclusively for college students.
Civic Engagement Awards
AASCU’s American Democracy Project recognizes individual leadership at the provost, faculty, and staff levels in civic engagement on AASCU member campuses.
Learn more.It is our honor to shine a light on the great work being done on AASCU ADP campuses.
Our work to equip students with the knowledge, skills, and experiences to be informed and engaged, ready to tackle current and future issues to ensure a thriving and equitable democracy is more important than ever. The American Democracy Project recognizes leadership in civic engagement on AASCU member campuses through awards presented at the Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement (CLDE) conference in June.
Honoring Individuals
William M. Plater Award
in recognition of exemplary leadership by a chief academic officer.
Learn more.Honoring Institutions
We the People Award
One of AASCU’s Excellence & Innovation Awards, given to recognize institutional team commitment to meaningful and deep civic engagement work.
Learn more.Awards News
The Spirit of Democracy Award
Established in 2022, this award is given in recognition of exemplary leadership from staff (non-faculty, non-senior administrator) in advancing the civic learning and engagement of undergraduate students.
Learn more.2023 Award winner
Sandy Jacobs’ work advances students’ intellectual and professional growth through a range of academic programming and community-centered, needs-based projects—including supporting probationary students and creating strong community partnerships.
As a founding member of UMBC’s Center for Democracy and Civic Life, Romy Hübler’s energetic and innovative work is integral, relational, organic, and generative—perhaps not surprising, as she is a national leader in developing and disseminating the Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement Theory of Change. Through her sustained mentorship and skills as an educator, Romy empowers, includes, and inspires students.
About the award
- Nominees must be a staff member (defined as non-faculty, non-senior administrator), affiliated for more than five years on an AASCU campus, who demonstrates leadership in advancing the civic learning and engagement of undergraduate students.
- Nominations must include an endorsement from campus leadership, the nominee’s curriculum vita, and additional documents that provide examples of the nominee’s sustained leadership in advancing civic learning and infusing equity into their work.
- Presentation: Annually in person at the Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement conference in June and a virtual acknowledgment will be made at AASCU’s Annual Meeting in November.
- Recipients will receive a commemorative to acknowledge the national recognition.
- 2023: Sandy Jacobs, University of North Carolina at Pembroke
- 2022: Romy Hübler, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Questions about the Spirit of Democracy Award? Ask us.
"*" indicates required fields
AASCU Award news
The John Saltmarsh Award for Emerging Leaders in Civic Engagement
Awarded to exemplary early-career leaders who advance the wider civic engagement movement in higher education via community-campus collaboration to build a broader public culture of democracy committed to justice, equity, and inclusion.
Learn more.2023 Award winner
AASCU recognized Graybeal’s effort to build faculty capacity, develop community partnerships, impact student civic development, and create institutional change in innovative ways, including consistently excellent intellectual contributions to the civic engagement field through her publications. John Saltmarsh noted that, “Dr. Graybeal is clearly an emerging leader in community engagement who can help to shape community engagement in higher education in the future.”
Bekah Selby’s work on food insecurity and global warming and financial literacy show the depth and breadth of her commitment to impacting lower income individuals and working to resolve inequities in our society that endanger the health of our democracy. We congratulate Bekah on her achievement and look forward to seeing her future accomplishments.
About the award
This award was established in 2011 to honor John Saltmarsh, Professor of Higher Education at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.
John Saltmarsh is Professor of Higher Education in the Department of Leadership in Education in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. He has published widely on community engaged teaching, learning and research, and organizational change in higher education, including the co-edited book Publicly Engaged Scholars: Next Generation Engagement and the Future of Higher Education (2016), and the edited volume with Matthew Hartley, ‘To Serve a Larger Purpose:’ Engagement for Democracy and the Transformation of Higher Education (2011). He is the co-author of the “Democratic Engagement White Paper” (NERCHE, 2009) and “Full Participation: Building the Architecture for Diversity and Public Engagement in Higher Education” (Columbia University Law School: Center for Institutional and Social Change, 2011). From 2005-2016 he served as the Director of the New England Resource Center for Higher Education (NERCHE). From 1998-2005 he was the director of the national program on Integrating Service with Academic Study at Campus Compact.
The award was named in John Saltmarsh’s honor to recognize a long-standing passion of his: nurturing and preparing the next generation of higher education leaders (staff, faculty, or administrators) to sustain and advance the civic engagement movement. The award recognizes emerging higher education leaders whose community partnership work is grounded in reciprocity, mutual respect, shared authority, and co-creation of goals and outcomes.
- Be faculty or staff members at an AASCU institution.
- Demonstrate their community partnership work is grounded in reciprocity, mutual respect, shared authority, and co-creation of goals and outcomes.
- Exhibit contributions to sustain and advance the civic engagement movement in the areas of practice, institutionalization, and scholarship.
- Nominees must be an emerging higher education leader whose community partnership work is grounded in reciprocity, mutual respect, shared authority, and co-creation of goals and outcomes on an AASCU campus.
- Nominations must include an endorsement from campus leadership, the nominee’s curriculum vita, and additional documents that provide examples of the nominee’s contributions in the areas of practice, institutionalization, and scholarship.
- Presentation: Annually in person at the Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement conference in June and a virtual acknowledgment will be made at AASCU’s Annual Meeting in November.
- Recipients will receive a commemorative to acknowledge the national recognition.
- 2023: Lesley Graybeal, University of Central Arkansas
- 2022: Bekah Selby, Emporia State University (KS)
- 2021: Margot Morgan, Indiana University Southeast
- 2019: Allison Rank, State University of New York at Oswego
- 2018: Nicholas Hartlep, Metropolitan State University in Minnesota
- 2017: Danielle Lake, Assistant Professor of Liberal Studies, Grand Valley State University (MI)
- 2016: Jennifer Purcell, Assistant Professor of Leadership Studies, Kennesaw State University (GA)
- 2015: Adam Bush, Chief Academic Officer, College Unbound
- 2015: Lane Graves Perry, Director of Service Learning, Western Carolina University (NC)
- 2014: Bethany Fleck, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Metropolitan State University of Denver (CO)
- 2013: Brandon Kliewer, Assistant Professor of Civic Engagement and ADP Campus Director, Florida Gulf Coast University
- 2012: Emily Janke, Special Assistant for Community Engagement, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
- 2012: Paul Markham, Assistant Professor and Co-Director at the Institute for Citizenship and Social Responsibility, Western Kentucky University
- 2011: Cecilia M. Orphan, National Manager, American Democracy Project
Questions about the John Saltmarsh Award? Ask us.
"*" indicates required fields
