The EDU Ledger Announces Its Inaugural IMPACT Awards Celebrating the People and Institutions Shaping Higher Education

The EDU Ledger Announces Its Inaugural IMPACT Awards Celebrating the People and Institutions Shaping Higher Education
 

The EDU Ledger is proud to launch The EDU Ledger IMPACT Awards, a new annual program recognizing the people, institutions, and work making a measurable difference across higher education.

The EDU Ledger IMPACT Awards will recognize the leaders, institutions, and innovations that defined higher education over the past year — from student outcomes and institutional growth to research, access, community impact, and the work of building stronger institutions.

Each recognition considers evidence behind the impact, scale and significance of the accomplishment, and how it aligns with the institution’s mission and starting point. We have leveraged our Top 100 data, as well as more broadly available data around graduation rates and institutional outcomes to identify results and impact that can be documented. Together, these awards will offer a snapshot of the people, organizations, and work that made a measurable difference in higher education this year.

Leaders will be recognized in the following categories:

• Male President of the Year
• Female President of the Year
• Organization of the Year
• Institution of the Year
• Partnership of the Year
• Innovation of the Year
• Faculty Advocate of the Year

“Higher education has no shortage of rankings and recognition programs,” said Autumn A. Arnett, executive editor of The EDU Ledger. “We wanted to create something grounded in a different question: What did this person or institution actually accomplish, and what evidence demonstrates that the work made a difference? We’re excited to introduce the IMPACT Awards because there is so much consequential work happening in higher education that deserves to be seen and understood.” 

The EDU Ledger’s selections consider measurable outcomes, sustained institutional impact, student success, institutional growth and the significance of the change relative to an institution’s mission and starting point. That means impact can look different from one institution to another — and meaningful work does not have to fit a single model.

The inaugural honorees reflect the diversity of higher education itself, representing different institution types, missions, regions and communities. Their accomplishments include measurable gains in degree production and student outcomes, institutional growth, research and innovation, access and opportunity, and efforts to strengthen colleges and universities for the students and communities they serve.

Finalists for The EDU Ledger 2026 IMPACT Awards include:

Male President of the Year:

1. Reginald DesRoches — Rice University
2. Taylor Eighmy — University of Texas at San Antonio
3. M. Brian Blake — Georgia State University
4. Darrell T. Allison — Fayetteville State University
5. Michael Rao — Virginia Commonwealth University
6. Havidán Rodríguez — University of Albany

Female President of the Year:

1. Jayathi Murthy — Oregon State University
2. Javaune Adams-Gaston — Norfolk State University
3. Mautra Staley Jones — Oklahoma City Community College
4. Madeline Pumariega — Miami Dade College
5. Melva Wallace — Huston-Tillotson University
6. Ching-Hua Wang — Samuel Merritt University

Institution of the Year: A college or university that demonstrates measurable institutional transformation through degree production, student success, research growth, access, social mobility, or other documented evidence of broad institutional impact.

1. Claflin University
2. Rutgers University – Newark
3. University of Maryland, Baltimore County
4. Valencia College
5. University of Louisville
6. University of California, Riverside

Organization of the Year: Organizations that build or repair the infrastructure around colleges and universities through measurable investments in institutional capacity, access to expertise and resources, research, student success, workforce partnerships, or other efforts that strengthen higher education and advance the public good.

1. QEM Network
2. Achieving the Dream
3. Strada Education Foundation
4. Education Design Lab
5. Jobs for the Future
6. Kresge Foundation

Partnership of the Year:

1. Northwestern University + City of Evanston
2. Duke Health + Durham Tech + Durham Public Schools — Early College of Health Sciences
3. Mississippi State University + Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College — STEEL
4. Chemeketa Community College + AHIVOY
5. University of Georgia + Archway Partnership communities
6. University of Minnesota + Mapping Prejudice

Innovation of the Year:

1. California State University, Northridge — Global HSI Equity Innovation Hub
2. University of Southern California Race and Equity Center — Takeoff
3. Colorado’s “Thriving Institution” designation
4. Connecticut Invents — University of New Haven + FORGE + NextMinds
5. Carnegie Mellon / Learnvia
6. The Atlanta University Center + USPTO

Faculty Advocate of the Year:

1. Kelsy Burke, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
2. Karma Chávez, University of Texas at Austin
3. Cherie Cofield, Emory University
4. Micah Swartz, Troy University
5. Xueli Wang, University of Wisconsin–Madison
6. Dustin Duncan, Columbia University

Winners will be announced in the December 2026 Year In Review edition of The EDU Ledger magazine, which will feature recognitions and profiles highlighting the accomplishments behind each honor.