Awards & Recognitions

In recognition of exemplary contributions through research on service-learning and community engagement, IARSLCE honors those whose research contributes significantly to understanding and advancing community engagement, across all approaches and all educational sectors.

Nominations are now being accepted for the 2026 IARSLCE Awards. Nominations are due by 11:59pm CT on May 10, 2026 and should be submitted electronically via our Submission Portal on Fourwaves. Nomination should be made by a current IARSLCE member, and self-nominations are welcome. Nomination packets may be submitted in more than one category. Each nomination must be separate and meet the qualifications/requirements of the specific category. Awards will only be given in one category. All nominees will be notified of their status in May, and award winners will be recognized at the 2026 IARSLCE Conference at Loyola University in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA this October. Please help us recognize the outstanding scholars in our field by submitting a nomination!

The Distinguished Career Award acknowledges and celebrates intellectual leadership through a body of work that has broad and deep impact on the study and/or practice of service-learning and community engagement, including the communities, cultures, and systems within which it is undertaken.

The Early Career Award acknowledges and celebrates intellectual leadership through an emerging body of work that has begun to demonstrate broad and deep impact on the study and/or practice of service-learning and community engagement, including the communities, cultures, and systems within which it is undertaken.

The Dissertation Award acknowledges and celebrates a dissertation that advances research on service-learning and community engagement through rigorous and innovative inquiry and has the potential for impact on the study and/or practice of service-learning and community engagement, including the communities, cultures, and systems within which it is undertaken.

The Publication of the Year Award acknowledges and celebrates the author(s) of a single published scholarly article, book chapter, book, or book series that has had a significant impact on the study and/or practice of service-learning and community engagement, including the communities, cultures, and systems within which it is undertaken.

The Global Equity in Service-Learning and Community Engagement Award recognizes excellence in research and scholarship that advances equity, justice, and inclusion within and across global contexts. Such work might include a focus on the experiences, knowledge, and assets of communities that have been systemically or historically underserved; examinations of SLCE through a lens of global intersectionality, exploring how social identities, national histories, and cultural contexts influence the study and practice of engagement; advancements of decolonizing methodologies or participatory frameworks that promote reciprocity and shift power to community partners; or scholarship that informs more equitable practices, influences policy, and/or contributes to the dismantling of exclusionary systems within the field of SLCE locally or internationally.

The Community Outcomes and Impact Award recognizes excellence in service-learning and community engaged research that advances community outcomes and impacts. While all SLCE scholarship should contribute to community-based stakeholders, this award recognizes research that has had a significant impact on an organization or program, and/or measurably benefited a community.

The Public Scholarship Award recognizes exemplary interdisciplinary research that has a demonstrable ameliorative impact on pressing public issues with a special focus on the knowledge needs of policymakers and practitioners. This award recognizes research that generates non-traditional scholarly products, presented in a manner that is widely accessible to targeted audiences and/or the general public. Such work might include policy briefs, program evaluations, white papers, reports, translations of scientific or other scholarly findings, site revitalization plans, concept maps, videos, or other creative products designed to respond to and inform broader publics.

Learn more about the 2025 IARSLCE Award Recipients here.

Previous Award Recipients

2003: Andrew Furco, University of California at Berkeley
2004: Robert Bringle, Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis
2005: Sherril Gelmon, Portland State University
2006: Barbara Holland, National Service-Learning Clearinghouse
2007: Janet Eyler, Vanderbilt University
2008: Shelley Billig, RMC Research Corporation
2009: Dwight Giles, Jr., University of Massachusetts Boston
2010: Barbara Moely, Tulane University
2011: Jeffrey Howard, Depaul University
2012: Rahima Wade, University of Iowa (posthumous)
2013: Lorilee Sandmann, University of Georgia
2014: Sarena Seifer, Community-Campus Partnerships for Health
2015: Edward Zlotkowski, Bentley University
2016: Barbara Jacoby, University of Maryland, College Park
2017: Julie Hatcher, Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis
2018: Patti H. Clayton
2019: Nadine Peterson, University of Johannesburg
2020: Nadinne Cruz
2021: Jean Strait
2022: John Saltmarsh
2023: Maria Nieves Tapia, CLAYSS
2024: Elaine K. Ikeda, Lead California
2025: Roger N. Reeb, University of Dayton
2008: KerryAnn O’Meara, University of Maryland College Park
2009: Nicholas Longo, Providence College
2010: Timothy Eatman, Syracuse University
2011: Tania D. Mitchell, Stanford University
2012: Emily Janke, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
2013: Eric Hartman, Providence College
2016: Stephanie Stokamer, Pacific University
2017: Amy Cook, University of Massachusetts Boston
2018: Danielle Lake, Grand Valley State University and Timothy Shaffer, Kansas State University (co-recipients)
2021: Clare Cannon, University of California at Davis
2023: Samantha Francois, Tulane University
2024: Lauren Wendling, Collaboratory
2025: Carmine Perrotti, Providence College
2008: Julie Hatcher, Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis and Emily Janke, University of North Carolina at Greensboro (co-recipients)
2009: Alan Bloomgarden, University of Massachusetts Amherst
2010: Katrina Norvell, Portland State University and Elaine Ward, Dublin Institute of Technology (co-recipients)
2011: Stephanie T. Stokamer, Portland State University
2012: Lina Dostilio, Duquesne University
2013: Travis York, The Pennsylvania State University
2014: Kendra Brewster, City University of New York
2015: Cynthia Toms, Westmont College
2016: Nora Pillard Reynolds, Temple University
2017: Kristi Farner, University of Georgia
2018: Elisabeth Fornaro, Temple University
2019: Thomas Dahan, Rutgers University, Camden
2020: Colleen Rost-Banik, University of Minnesota
2021: Melissa Quan, University of Massachusetts Boston
2022: “Hilos del mismo tejido”: Weaving community perspectives into community-based global learning through critical micro-ethnographic testimonio by Macario (Mac) Benavides
2023: Academic Community-Engaged Learning and Student Mental Health and Wellness: Understanding the Lived Experiences of Undergraduate Students by Stephanie Brewer
2024: Stories from the Field: Black Service-Learning Student Experiences by Rochelle Smarr
2025: Echoes in Autoethnography: A Reflexive Exploration of Higher Education Service-Learning By A Caribbean Practitioner by Shilohna Phillanders
2020: Dr. Elizabeth Yomantas of Pepperdine University for her chapter “Decolonizing Knowledge and Fostering Critical Allyship,” which appears in the book Teaching and Learning for Social Justice and Equity in Higher Education (Parson & Ozaki, 2020)
2021: Dr. Rachael Shah, Associate Professor of English at the University of Nebraska- Lincoln, for her book Rewriting Partnerships: Community Perspectives of Community-Based Learning (Utah State University Press)
2022: The Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning special issue, “Centering Social Justice in the Scholarship of Community Engagement”
2023: The Pedagogy of Action: Small Axe Fall Big Tree edited by Dr. Nesha Haniff
2024: Virtual Service-Learning. Theoretical Frameworks and Proposals for Innovative Action (Aprendizaje-Servicio virtual: marco teóricos y propuestas de acción innovadoras) edited by Juan García Gutiérrez & Marta Ruiz Corbella
2025: JCES Special Issue: Immigration and Immigrant Community Engagement: Democracy Realized through Immigrant Integration of the Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship co-edited by Dr. Darlene Xiomara Rodriguez and Dr. Paul N. McDaniel
2020: Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), Service-Learning and Leadership Office
2024: Amy Vatne Bintliff, UC San Diego
2025: Nicole Webster, Pennsylvania State University
2019: Tania D. Mitchell, University of Minnesota
2020: Darren E. Lund (University of Calgary) International Award Recipient
2021: Éilish Burke, Ussher Assistant Professor in Ageing and Intellectual Disability at Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin, and Associate Director of the Trinity Centre for Ageing and Intellectual Disability
2022: ENDAVANT (ENfocament de la Diversitat com un AVANTatge —approach to diversity as an advantage in English)
2023: Anti-Racist Community Engagement Research Group (Christina Santana, Roopika Risam, Aldo Garcia-Guevara, Joseph Krupczynski, Cynthia Lynch, John Reiff, Cindy Vincent, and Elaine Ward)
2024: Jessica DeSpain, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
2025: Imandeep Kaur Grewal, Eastern Michigan University
2019: Montagnard Dega Association / Montagnard American Association
2020: Professor Tom Dee (Stanford University), Professor Emily Penner (University of California Irvine), and Assistant Superintendent Bill Sanderson (San Francisco Unified School District)
2021: Katherine Kim, Adjunct Associate Professor at UC Davis School of Medicine and Principal at Health Science and Consumer Health Informatics at MITRE
2022: Liza Grandia, Associate Professor in the Department of Native American Studies at the University of California Davis
2024: Roxana Chicas, Emory University
2025: Ashley Westaway, GADRA Education
2019: Dotte Agency, University of Kansas School of Architecture and Design
2021: Marianne LeGreco, Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro
2022: Keith Watenpaugh, Professor of Human Rights Studies, and the founding director of the Human Rights Studies program at University of California Davis
2025: Nafisa Nipun Tanjeem, Worcester State University