Associate Professor and ELPS Department Chair Heather Shotton was awarded the CEP Mildred García Award for Exemplary Scholarship (Senior Scholar) by the Association for the Study of Higher Education. ASHE awards recognize exemplary achievements and contributions to the study of higher education through research, leadership, or service to ASHE and the field of higher education.
The purpose of the García Award for Exemplary Scholarship is to recognize one junior, nontenured scholar-practitioner (e.g., visiting assistant professor, clinical assistant professor, or tenure-track faculty) and one senior practitioner-scholar (i.e., tenured associate or full professor, senior/executive administrator) for seminal, exemplary scholarship that focuses on research and issues specifically related to underrepresented populations of color.
The CEP Mildred García Award for Exemplary Scholarship is named in honor of Dr. Mildred García, an exemplary scholar whose contributions as a leader and trailblazer in the field of higher education research continue to raise the bar for academicians and administrators, alike. Dr. García’s academic research has concentrated on equity in higher education and its impact on policy and practice.
Shotton and Assistant Professor Natalie Youngbull are part of the Indigenous Scholars Collective that was named co-recipient of the ASHE Special Merit Award. The Indigenous Scholars Collective has initiated a transformation in ASHE that tilts towards justice and makes ASHE a better educational organization. The Indigenous Scholars Collective has generously worked with ASHE to help the organization recognize, understand, and transform its complicity in colonial norms and practices.
The presence and contributions of Native and Indigenous voices around ASHE have and continue to broaden the epistemological and philosophical basis for planning and decision-making in ways that prioritize the importance of relationships, reciprocity, and the possibility of reparative justice.
