ACPA Senior Scholars
ACPA Senior Scholars represent the best of engaged scholarship relevant to student affairs work in higher education. Scholars are senior members of the profession (e.g., generally full professors or senior student affairs officers) who have made exemplary and sustained contributions to ACPA’s mission transforming higher education by creating and sharing influential scholarship, shaping critically reflective practice, and advocating for equitable and inclusive learning environments. A maximum of twelve Senior Scholars can hold active membership. Senior Scholars must be or become members of ACPA and maintain that their membership throughout their term. Senior Scholars serve terms of five years. The term begins at the end of the convention following the appointment as Senior Scholar. Senior Scholars are strongly encouraged to attend the convention at the time of their appointment to begin their orientation to the group.
Expectations of Senior Scholars
Seniors Scholars must attend at least four ACPA national conventions during their five-year term and be active participants in the work of the Senior Scholars. In addition to participating in national conventions, Senior Scholars will endeavor to participate in conference calls throughout the year (typically four meetings). When possible an optional in-person meeting may be held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE). All Senior Scholars are expected to participate in the annual review and selection of Emerging Scholars and Senior Scholars. Project leaders may coordinate other meetings as needed so that groups who are in charge of specific initiatives can organize for report outs during the Senior Scholar meetings/conference calls.
Senior Scholars are expected to serve the organization by participating in at least one scholarly leadership commitment annually, including, but not limited to:
- Coordinating ACPA Senior Scholars session proposal process for the ACPA national convention
- Directing the Emerging Scholar and Senior Scholar review, selection, and orientation processes
- Serving on committees or liaising with relevant groups (e.g., Senior Student Affairs Officers) of the Association
- Leading efforts to support ACPA’s mission, vision, and values and the Strategic Imperative for Racial Justice and Decolonization
- Serving on the Publications Committee of ACPA, the ACPA Awards Committee, or the Marylu McEwen Dissertation of the Year Award Selection Committee
- Leading the Senior Scholar Grant Program
- Collaborating with the Senior Student Affairs Officer (SSAO) Advisory Board to develop an agenda for research and scholarship and identifying topics for research and scholarship that address day to day issues and concerns faced by senior student affairs officers in their professional practice
- Coordinating research papers & posters on the convention team (can be a current scholar or a scholar chosen for this role by the Senior Scholars group)
- Advancing the scholarship agenda of ACPA
Expectations of Diplomates
ACPA Senior Scholar Diplomates are encouraged to continue to serve the association and to be involved with Senior Scholar activities as they are interested and able. Diplomate status is conferred upon Senior Scholars who have fulfilled Scholar expectations and participated in at least four of five (2024, 2025, 2026, 2027, 2028) ACPA national convention meetings during the Senior Scholar term.
Orientation and End of Service
New Senior Scholars will be recognized at the ACPA Award Ceremony at the convention following their appointment; i.e., 2023 in New Orleans. Senior Scholars complete their term of service at the close of their 2028 convention; scholars achieving Diplomate status will be recognized for this designation at the Award Ceremony at that last convention.
Become a Senior Scholar
applications due 25 August 2024
ACPA implemented its Senior Scholars program in 1984 and has since been advocating for the integration of scholarship into the practice of student affairs. Senior Scholars, through the creation of an engaged scholar network, keep abreast of promising work and identify critical issues that could benefit from inquiry and attention. The Senior Scholars Program provides scholars with a continuing opportunity to promote scholarship through the presentation of programs of interest to the profession at each national convention and to serve the association on projects related to their fields of interest.
ACPA Senior Scholars represent the best of engaged scholarship relevant to student affairs work in higher education. Scholars are senior members of the profession (e.g., generally full professors or senior student affairs officers) who have made exemplary and sustained contributions to ACPA’s mission transforming higher education by creating and sharing influential scholarship, shaping critically reflective practice, and advocating for equitable and inclusive learning environments.
Award Criteria
- A maximum of 12 Senior Scholars can hold active membership
- Senior Scholars must be or become members of ACPA and maintain that their membership throughout their term.
- Senior Scholars serve terms of five years. The term begins at the end of the convention following the appointment as Senior Scholar.
- Senior Scholars are strongly encouraged to attend the convention at the time of their appointment to begin their orientation to the group.
Nomination Process
If you would like to nominate a deserving colleague, please forward their name and contact information to Dr. Ximena Zúñiga, [email protected], in advance of the 25 August 2024 application deadline. Nominees will be invited to apply for consideration by submitting the materials listed below.
Application Process
To apply for ACPA Senior Scholars, submit a single PDF document with the following materials: (a) cover letter with responses to questions below (no more than 250 words per question) and (b) current CV.
- How can you help the Senior Scholars advance our statement of action?
- How do your scholarly interests and trajectory align with those found in ACPA’s A Bold Vision Forward: A Framework for the Strategic Imperative for Racial Justice and Decolonization.
- How will being a part of Senior Scholars contribute to your scholarly and professional development?
- What role would you like to see the Senior Scholars play for the association and the field of student affairs?
Application Submission
- Applications are due 11:59 pm ET on Sunday, 25 August 2024.
- All materials should be submitted in a single PDF document, in the order listed under “application process.”
- Please use “Senior Scholars Application—LAST NAME” for your PDF file.
- Applicants will be notified in October 2024.
- For more information, contact Dr. Ximena Zúñiga ([email protected]), Dr. Fred A. Bonner ([email protected]), or Dr. Lori Patton Davis ([email protected]).
Current Senior Scholars
Senior Scholar Grants
The Senior Scholar Grant application process is currently closed. Information on the 2025 process will be announced soon!
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Past Grant Recipients
2023-2024
- Katie Koo & Mary Ann Bodine Al-Sharif
- Title: Voices from the Margins: Racism, Racialized Experiences, and Racial Advocacy among Asian International Students in U.S. Higher
- D. Chase J. Catalano, Antonio Duran, Steven Feldman, Vanessa Aviva González-Siegel, T.J. Jourian, Kalyani Kannan, Kristopher Oliveria, Jonathan T. Pryor, & Chris Woods
- Title: Navigating TQ Center(ed) Diversity Work Amidst Socio-Political Tumult
2022-2023
- Chelsea Gilbert, The Ohio State UniversityCo-theorizing with women of color postsecondary staff to disrupt systemic barriers.
- Tricia Shalka, University of RochesterA Mixed Methods Investigation of How College Student Trauma Shapes Faculty-Student Interactions in Academic Environments
2021-2022
- no recipients awarded
2020-2021
- no recipients awarded due to Covid19
2019-2020
- Robert Schwartz, Florida State UniversityGeorge F. Zook and Higher Education in the United States: An Untold Story of Access and Inclusion
- TJ Stewart, Iowa State UniversityNavigating Place and Space: Exploring the realities of fat-bodied students on campus through photovoice methodology
2018-2019
- Sosanya Jones, Howard UniversityHBCU and PVI Diversity Professionals: Training, Roles, Challenges, and Strategies of Entry
- Susana Muñoz, Colorado State UniversityUnderstanding Undocumented and DACA Community College Students’ Experiences during Turbulent Political Times
2017-2018
- Susan D. Longerbeam, University of LouisvilleContribution of Student Affairs Preparation Programs to Undergraduate Student Success: Influences of Mentoring on Campus Racial Climate and Sense of Belonging
- Natesha L. Smith, University of BinghamtonEngaging Cross-Cultural Impressions: An Exploration of Student Affairs Practices in the Gulf Region
Senior Scholar blog
Many are pushing back against our systems of traditional dominant-culture values, White supremacy, gender binary, heterosexism and patriarchy. Movements such as Black Lives Matter and advocacy for LGBT rights are all calls for complete change. What can the higher education and student affairs professionals do to support students and advocate for inclusion on an institutional-level? How do we answer the calls for transformations of structural oppression? How can we advocate more effectively for students?
ACPA Senior Scholars Statement of Action
As we continue to observe the pervasive and enduring acts of white supremacy, anti-Blackness, and colonialism—deeply rooted in our nation—we recognize that our campuses are not decoupled from that history; they are microcosms of what is playing out in larger society....
The Oar
If you put your soul against this oar with me, the power that made the universe will enter your sinew from a source not outside your limbs, but from a holy realm that lives in us. Excerpt from That Lives In Us by ~Rumi The Oar As this academic year dies, there is life...
A Response to Patricia Daugherty’s Commentary: Situating My Beloved ACPA
Written by Sherry K. Watt "I only preach from my scars, not my wounds." -Nadia Bolz-Weber is the founding pastor of House for All Sinners and Saints in Denver, Colorado As I read Patricia Daugherty’s Essay entitled What I Saw At A College Administrators’...