Excelencia in Education receives the ASHE Presidential Medal Excelencia in Education was awarded the 2021 Presidential Medal by the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) during the 46th Annual ASHE Conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The selection of Excelencia in Education for the honor marks the very first time in ASHE’s history that the annual recognition was bestowed to an organization, instead of an individual. Deborah Santiago, Co-founder and CEO of Excelencia, accepted the medal at the award ceremony and gave brief remarks (view video). D-L Stewart, the 2021 ASHE President, said, “Each year the president has the privilege of awarding the Presidential Medal to someone worthy of special recognition. As I considered this year's theme, "Spanning and Unsettling the Borders of Higher Education," I wanted the Medal recipient to reflect a commitment to not only bridging theory and practice but also using scholarship in the service of community advancement and uplift. Excelencia in Education meets those aspirations better than anyone.” Stewart added, “Excelencia’s longstanding work, spanning disciplinary borders, putting research to work to advance Latino college students, HSIs, and communities is in line with the mission and vision of this conference and for ASHE as a whole. Moreover, Excelencia’s current focus on higher education in Puerto Rico makes the selection even more fitting.” "Excelencia in Education started because we saw an opportunity to inform and compel action with a strength-based Latino lens," commented Deborah Santiago, Excelencia's Co-founder and CEO. "We are grounded in disaggregated data, evidence-based practices, and leadership and have been building on a public stage. We are grateful to have the confianza from our community of common cause to seize the opportunity to address the systemic inequities that preceded us but are now happening on our watch."
