Diverse Champions

2025 Award Recipient

Dr. Karen A. Stout is this year’s Diverse Champions Award. Stout is president and CEO of Achieving the Dream (ATD). Click here to learn more

Dr. Karen A. Stout
More about the Diverse Champions Award

The Diverse Champions Award recognizes higher education leaders who have shown unwavering commitment to equal opportunity and access for all, particularly at the community college level.

The award was created by Diverse: Issues In Higher Education in 2012 upon the retirement of the inaugural Diverse Champions Award winner, Dr. John E. Roueche, as director of the Community College Leadership Program (CCLP) at the University of Texas at Austin. Of the more than 500 CCLP graduates produced during his 40-plus year tenure at CCLP, more than 60% are women and people of color.

The award is given to individuals who have made similarly extraordinary contributions to the world of higher education.

Latest
Community Colleges
Guiding Community Colleges Toward Mission Fulfillment
Dr. Karen A. Stout is the recipient of the 2025 Diverse Champions Award.
April 2, 2025
Dr. Karen A. Stout, president and CEO of Achieving the Dream (center), with 2025 DREAM Scholars
Diverse Champions
Making Equity a Priority
Dr. Keith Curry is the 2024 Diverse Champions Award winner.
March 28, 2024
Dr. Keith Curry works with other community college leaders across the nation to replicate Compton College’s strategies toward addressing food and housing insecurity.
Diverse Champions
Community College Leader Recognized as 2023 Diverse Champion
Dr. Steven R. Gonzales is a 2023 recipient of the Diverse Champions Award.
April 10, 2023
Higher education leaders say Dr. Steven R. Gonzales (center) brings a unique-but-relatable perspective to serving first-generation and underprivileged students as chancellor of the Maricopa County Community College District.
Diverse Champions
A Purpose-Driven Life
Dr. Eboni M. Zamani-Gallaher is the 2022 recipient of the Diverse Champions Award.
March 30, 2022
Dr. Eboni M. Zamani-Gallaher
Diverse Champions
California Community Colleges Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley Is 2021 Diverse Champion
Growing up in Southeast Los Angeles as the son of a U.S. citizen father educated in Mexico and a mother who was a Mexican immigrant, Eloy Ortiz Oakley says that he could not have imagined a journey that would take him to leading the largest higher education system in the U.S. However, Oakley says that it is the very struggles he overcame in his youth that inform his work as chancellor of the California Community Colleges system, which comprises 116 colleges serving more than 2.1 million students.
April 2, 2021
Oakley
Diverse Champions
2020 Diverse Champion: How Dr. Curtis L. Ivery Transformed Wayne County Community College District
Dr. Curtis L. Ivery has become somewhat of a celebrity in Detroit, using his high-profile status as the chancellor of the Wayne County Community College District (WCCCD) to champion opportunity and educational equity for the 70,000 students enrolled at the multi-campus college.
April 9, 2020
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Diverse Champions
Dr. Ken Atwater: A Student-Centered President
Dr. Ken Atwater’s enthusiasm for community colleges is quite infectious. It’s apparent when you talk to administrators, faculty and some of the nearly 45,000 students at the five-campus Hillsborough Community College (HCC) where he serves as president.
April 16, 2019
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Diverse Champions
Roueche Made Profound Difference
Dr. Suanne Davis Roueche, a prolific educator, administrator and researcher who passed away in December, maintained a rigorous and active research and writing agenda while making a profound impact on community college education.
April 16, 2018
Dr. Suanne Davis Roueche
Diverse Champions
McPhail Rallies Around College Access
Dr. Christine Johnson McPhail, who became a pioneer in the community college world in 1998 and has gone on to blaze more trails in higher education, is the 2018 Diverse Champions winner.
April 16, 2018
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Diverse Champions
Kay McClenney Named as 2017 Diverse Champions Award Winner
Dr. Kay McClenney, a veteran leader in education and a community college advocate, has been named the recipient of the 2017 Diverse Champions Award.
January 10, 2017
Dr. Kay McClenney
Diverse Champions
50 Years of Leadership Lands O’Banion Diverse Champions Award
Saying he was “humbled and deeply honored,” Dr. Terry O’Banion accepted the 2016 Diverse Champions Award before a packed ballroom.
April 10, 2016
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Diverse Champions
PadrĂłn Honored With Fourth Annual Diverse Champions Award
Diverse: Issues In Higher Education awarded Dr. Eduardo PadrĂłn, president of Miami Dade College (MDC), with the fourth annual Diverse Champions Award.
April 19, 2015
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Diverse Champions
Jerry Sue Thornton Honored with Diverse Champions Award
Dr. Jerry Sue Thornton, the president emeritus of Cuyahoga Community College, was honored with the 2014 Diverse Champions Award Sunday evening.
April 6, 2014
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Diverse Champions
Bumphus Takes Center Stage at AACC Conference
Community college giant cited as a “leader among leaders” as he is named 2013 Diverse Champions Award winner for his service.
April 21, 2013
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Diverse Champions
John Roueche Awarded Inaugural Diverse Champions Award
On the eve of his retirement from the Community College Leadership Program, Dr. John E. Roueche said farewell Tuesday to his community college colleagues at the 34th annual National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development conference.
May 29, 2012
John Roueche