Meshell Sturgis awarded 2021 AAC&U K. Patricia Cross Future Leaders Award

meshell sturgis

M.A. in Cultural Studies alum Meshell Sturgis was selected as a 2021 recipient for the prestigious K. Patricia Cross Future Leaders Award by the Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U).

This award recognizes graduate students who show exemplary promise as future leaders of higher education and who are committed to academic innovation in the areas of equity, community engagement, and teaching and learning.

Sturgis, currently a doctoral candidate in the Department of Communication at the UW and a 2019 Mellon Summer Fellow for Public Projects in the Humanities, will be presented with the award as part of the virtual 2021 Annual Meeting.

The 2021 AAC&U Annual Meeting also includes two UW panels: “Interrupting Privilege: Building Anti-Racist Spaces of Dialogue and Critique in the Classroom and in the Community” and “International Education: Reciprocity and Equity in a Post-Pandemic World.”

Past recipients of the award include IAS faculty member Shauna Carlisle (2010) and IAS Advisory Board member Lisa Thornhill Richman (2009).