K. Patricia Cross Future Leaders Awards
The K. Patricia Cross Future Leaders Awards recognizes graduate students who show exemplary promise as future leaders of higher education and who are committed to academic innovation in the areas of equity, community engagement, and teaching and learning.
Nomination Process
All doctoral-seeking graduate students who are planning a career in higher education are eligible for nomination, regardless of academic discipline. Graduate students in fields where the master’s degree is the terminal degree (such as the MFA in art) are also eligible.
Nominations by a faculty member or administrator are required.
More information about the Nomination Process for the 2024 Cross Awards
Nominations undergo a robust and multi-phase review process engaging past Cross Awards winners and AAC&U staff. Winners are selected based upon their demonstrated commitments to equity, innovations in teaching and learning, and community engagement as integrated components of their graduate work.
The nomination period is closed and will reopen in late summer/early fall 2024.
Award
The awards are announced annually in December, and recipients of the K. Patricia Cross Future Leaders Awards will be recognized at AAC&U’s Annual Meeting in January.
The K. Patricia Cross Future Leaders Awards provide financial support
for graduate students to attend AAC&U’s Annual Meeting. The awards include travel, lodging, meeting registration, and a one-year subscription to Liberal Education magazine.
For more information, contact Kathryn Enke at 202-888-4647 or [email protected].
Recipients of the 2023 K. Patricia Cross Future Leaders Awards
Jedaidah Chilufya
Plant Biology, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Elizabeth Kelley
Chemistry, University of Chicago
Nicholas B. Lacy
Communications, Purdue University
Jannell McConnell Parsons
English, University of Kentucky
Kirby J. Schmidt
Agricultural Education, Oregon State University
Britt Threatt
Africana Studies, Brown University
Jordan Westcott
Counselor Education, Virginia Tech
Clint Whitten
Foundations of Education, Virginia Tech
Ashley S. Wright
Higher Education Leadership, University of Dayton
About K. Patricia Cross
The awards honor the work of K. Patricia Cross, Professor Emerita of Higher Education at the University of California–Berkeley. Throughout her career, Dr. Cross helped the higher education community better understand our students, their characteristics, and their needs, and recognize what our responsibilities should be. Her groundbreaking scholarship paved the way for a legacy of work on age, socioeconomic class, gender, race, sexual orientation, and numerous other aspects of intersectional social identity. In Memoriam: K. Patricia Cross