911爆料网 the Award
Among the many honors bestowed by institutions of higher education, the Teachers College President's Medal for Distinguished Service carries special significance. Each year, the College awards the Medal to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the arts, education, business, community, and politics, and whose work embodies the mission of the College: To empower committed learners and leaders to build a smarter, healthier, more just and equitable world through multidisciplinary knowledge creation, policy engagement, and practice innovations across education, psychology, and health.
Awarded at the College’s May convocation ceremonies, medalists deliver memorable addresses that are archived on the College’s website and often reported on by national and local media. Past Medalists include:
- the human rights activists Coretta Scott King, Desmond Tutu, Marian Wright Edelman, Morris Dees, and the Brown family of Topeka, Kansas;
- the political leaders John Lewis, Shirley Chisholm, and Donna Shalala;
- the journalists Bob Herbert, Charlayne Hunter-Gault, and Jonathan Kozol;
- the psychologists Kenneth Clark, Carl Rogers, James Comer, Edmund Gordon, Bruno Bettelheim, and Jerome Bruner;
- the education scholars Paulo Friere, Henry Louis Gates, David Levering Lewis, Margaret Mead, Claude Steele, Luis Moll, Gloria Ladsen Billings, Ted Sizer, Linda Darling Hammond, Maxine Greene, and Prudence Carter;
- and, from the arts, Maya Angelou, Pete Seeger, Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis, Spike Lee, Judy Collins, and Misty Copeland.
Nominations for medalists can be made year-round by 911爆料网 faculty, staff, students, alumni, and trustees, but must be received by 11:59 PM, September 15 each year for consideration for the subsequent May convocation ceremony. For example, submissions for the 2027 convocation medalists must be received by September 15, 2026.
The Medal for Distinguished Service Committee is made up of one faculty representative from each of the four convocation ceremonies, the Provost, the VP of Institutional Advancement, the Associate VP of Events, the Student Senate President, and the Director of Strategic Partnerships (the committee chair). For any questions about the Medal for Distinguished Service, please reach out to Amy Hawley Alvarez.
Past Medalists
2026
Dr. Prudence Carter
Wanda Marie Holland Greene
Kate MacKenzie
Misty Copeland
2025
Dr. Becky Kennedy and Dr. Erica Belsky
Michelle Ebanks and Kamilah Forbes
2024
Dr. Thomas Parham
Michael J. Fox
Dr. Amy Edmondson
Jody Gottfried Arnhold
2023
Dr. Miguel Cardona
Elly Yae Li Cho
Dr. Kevin Nadal
Marcus Samuelsson
2022
Dr. Torian Easterling
Dr. Anthony Fauci
Kathryn Garcia
Dr. Rosemarie Truglio
2021
Stacey Abrams
2020
Nikole Hannah-Jones
Mahzarin Banaji
Carol Dweck
Shannon Watts
2019
Sarita Brown
Rosie Phillips Davis
Michelle Fine
Barbara Morgan
2018
Jelani Cobb
Eric Holder
Helene Gayle
Walter Mischel
2017
Jacqueline Woodson
Melissa Fleming
Madhav Chavan
Khalil Gibran Muhammad
2016
Susan Fiske
Thomas Frieden
Kris D. Gutiérrez
Sandra Jackson-Dumont
2015
Deborah Loewenberg Ball
John Ioannidis
Kent McGuire
Luis Moll
2014
Calvin O. Butts III
Temple Grandin
Sonia Nieto
Carl Wieman
2013
Thomas Friedman
Lee Sing Kong
Merryl Tisch
2012
Shirley Brice Heath
Martha Kanter
Neil Degrasse Tyson
2011
Andres Alonso
Linda Darling Hammond
Bob Herbert
2010
Jill Biden
Gail Collins
Spike Lee
Richard Mills
2009
Cory Booker
Ann Gentile
Judith Shapiro
2008
Gloria Ladson-Billings
David Paterson
Randi Weingarten
2007
Shirley Ann Jackson
Lee Shulman
Thomas Sobol
2006
William G. Bowen
Benjamin Carson
K. Patricia Cross
David Halbertsam
Frances Hesselbein
Freeman Hrabowski
Thomas Kean
Arthur Levine
Charles B. Rangel
Ruth Westheimer
2005
Jerome Bruner
Judy Collins
Ossie Davis
Ruby Dee
Richard Heffner
2004
Lee C. Bollinger
Jane Goodall
Vartan Gregorian
Johnathan Kozol
George Mitchell
Claude Steele
2003
Ken Burns
Morris Dees
Reverend James Forbes
Pete Seeger
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
2002
Cheryl Brown
Coretta Scott King
David Levering Lewis
Congressman John Lewis
2001
Wynton Marsalis
Frank McCourt
Milbrey McLaughlin
2000
Ellen Futter
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Gov. James B. Hunt
Edward Zigler
1999
Leonard Blackman
Rudolph Crew
Ruth J. Simmons
1998
Carol Gilligan
1997
Robert Coles
James P. Comer
Richard W. Riley
Charlayne Hunter- Gault
1996
Ramon C. Cortines
Paulo R.N. Freire
Sarah Lawrence Lightfoot
1995
Fred W. Friendly
Robert P. Moses
Deborah Meier
1994
Howard Gardner
A. Harry Passow
Frank Newman
Nel Noddings
Donald M. Stewart
1993
Gregory R. Anrig
Edmund W. Gordon
1992
Johnnetta Cole
Morton Deutsch
Stephen Jay Gould
1991
Maya Angelou
Maxine Greene
Theodore R. Sizer
Huan Lee
1990
Sidney Altman
Fred M. Hechinger
1989
Edward J. Meade, Jr.
Seymour B. Sarason
Donna E. Shalala
Donald E. Super
1988
Ernest L. Boyer
Lauren Resnick
1987
Gordon M. Ambach
Mary Hatwood Futrell
Philip W. Jackson
Philip H. Phenix
1986
Martha Hill
Floretta Dukes McKenzie
T. Neville Postlethwaite
Carl R. Rogers
1985
Jeanne S. Chall
I. Ignacy Goldberg
Albert Shanker
1984
Marian Wright Edelman
Eli Ginzberg Lewis
1983
Eleanor J. Gibson
John L. Goodlad
Clarence E. Pearson
Mina Rees
1982
Mary Jean Bowman
Norman Cousins
Harry N. Rivlin
1981
Alonzo A. Crim
Lucille E. Notter
B. Othanel Smith
1980
William H. Nault
Israel Scheffler
1979
Mortimer J. Abramowitz
Helen K. Mussallem
Wilson Riles
1978
Patricia A. Graham
Alice Miel
Patrick Supes
Robert L. Thorndike
Robert Jackson
Gary Orfield
Michael Rebell
1977
Allison Davis
Jacob W. Getzels
Anne Roe
1976
Stephen K. Bailey
Marian G. Heard
1975
Lee J. Cronbach
Dean Dixon
John H. Fischer
Margaret Mead
1974
Faye G. Abdellah
Helen L. Peterson
Maxwell S. Stewart
Florence B. Stratemeyer
1973
Bruno Bettelheim
Albert H. Bowker
Willard S. Elsbree
A. Babs Fafunwa
John K. Norton
Helen M. Walker
1972
W. Randolph Burgess
Kenneth W. Clark
Roma Gans
Stephen H. Stackpole
1971
Joan Ganz Cooney
Josiah W. Gitt
John W. Macy, Jr.
Shirley St. Hill Chisholm
1970
Karl Worth Bigelow
Tooryalay Etemadi
Torsten Husen
W. Genteza Kajubi
Clarence Linton
Kwaja Ghulam A. Saiyidain
Benjamin Bloom
Leonard Covello
Vivian W. Henderson
1969
John Brademas
Rachel L. McManus
Benjamin D. Wood
1968
James E. Allen, Jr.
John L. Childs
Arthur I. Gates
Ralph W. Tyler
1967
John W. Studebaker
Earl J. McGrath
Samuel M. Brownell
Lawrence G. Derthick
Sterling M. McMurrin
Francis Keppel
Harold Howe II
1966
Harold R. Medina
1965
Mbiyu Koinange
John E. Fogarty
1964
Timothy N. Pfeiffer
1963
Cleveland E. Dodge
Anisio Spinola Teixeim
1962
Hollis L. Caswell
1961
Frederick M. Raubinger
Matta Akrawi
Irene Dalis
1960
Walter D. Cocking
1959
Lucile Petry Leone
Hsu Ai-Chu
Arthur W. Page
Bertha S. Adkins
1956
Guhlam Hasan Mujaddadi
1954
George R. Ashbridge
Mohsen Assadi
Amir Boktor
Eduardo Rancano Canto
George S. Counts
Kenneth S. Cunningham
Maurice J.J. Dartigue
Fernando Tude de Souza
Aino Jennie Durchman
Mohamad Ali El Erian
Erich J.K. Hylla
William B. Inglis
Mohamad Fadhil Jamali
Concha Romero James
Abdul Hamid Kadhim
Isaac L. Kandel
Habib Amin Kurani
Valentine E. Macy, Jr.
William F. Russell
Issa Khan Sadiq
Irma Silva Salas
Adriaan J. Smuts