Dr. Ansley Abraham — a champion for minority Ph.D. graduates — will be awarded the 2021 Arthur A. Fletcher Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Association for Access, Equity and Diversity (AAAED). The Arthur A. Fletcher Lifetime Achievement Award is named after former Assistant Secretary of Labor Arthur A. Fletcher, who is also known as the “Father of Affirmative Action." It recognizes a career "devoted to promoting and advocating for affirmative action, EEO and diversity."
A member and former research associate of the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB), Abraham is the founding director of SREB's State Doctoral Scholars Program, which has developed into a nationally recognized program for producing minority Ph.D.s who are seeking faculty careers. The program hosts the annual Institute on Teaching and Mentoring — considered the largest gathering of minority Ph.D. scholars in the nation.
“Dr. Abraham, or ‘Dr. A’ as we know him, is so deserving of this prestigious award from AAAED. I can say with certainty that his focus over the years to establish a pipeline of students of color pursuing careers in academia is one of the most significant contributions to the availability of qualified diverse candidates for faculty positions in higher education nationwide,” said L. Jerry Knighton, Jr., the AAAED conference chair and assistant vice president for access and equity at Clemson University.
Abraham holds a B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in sociology and psychology from Florida State University.
