ACE announced today that University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann will receive the 2015 Reginald Wilson Diversity Leadership Award. The award is given annually to an individual who has made outstanding contributions and demonstrated sustained commitment to diversity in higher education. 

The award is named in honor of Reginald Wilson, senior scholar emeritus at ACE and founding director of the Council's Office of Minority Concerns, and will be presented at ACE's 97th Annual Meeting.

“It is a privilege to present the 2015 Reginald Wilson Diversity Leadership Award to Amy Gutmann, whose vision and leadership at the University of Pennsylvania and elsewhere has shown her dedication to increasing access to higher education to all students,” said ACE President Molly Corbett Broad. “She has worked tirelessly to assist students in pursuing their dream of a college degree.”

Gutmann became the eighth president of the University of Pennsylvania in 2004 and has been an outspoken advocate for increased access to higher education, leading Penn to become the largest university in the United States to establish an all-grant policy for all undergraduate students who qualify for financial aid. As a first-generation college student, Gutmann has significantly increased the number of students from low-income, middle-income, and first-generation college families attending Penn.

In 2011, Gutmann launched the university’s $100 million Action Plan for Faculty Diversity and Excellence in partnership with Penn’s provost and the deans of the university’s 12 schools, which has further strengthened Penn’s eminent faculty.

Gutmann is the Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Professor of Communication at Penn’s Annenberg School for Communication. She has published widely on the value of and the importance of access to higher education.

Previously, Gutmann served as provost at Princeton University (NJ), where she also was the Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Politics. She was the founding director of the University Center for Human Values, a multidisciplinary center that supports teaching, scholarship and public discussion of ethics and human values. Gutmann graduated magna cum laude from Harvard-Radcliffe College (MA). She earned her master's degree in Political Science from the London School of Economics and her doctorate in Political Science from Harvard University (MA).

Previous Reginald Wilson Diversity Leadership Award winners since 2008 include (titles reflect status at time of the award): Charlene M. Dukes, president of Prince George’s Community College (MD), Johnnetta B. Cole, director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art and former president of Spelman College (GA) and Bennett College (NC); James M. Rosser, president of California State University, Los Angeles; Nancy Cantor, chancellor and president of Syracuse University (NY); Bob H. Suzuki, president emeritus of California State Polytechnic University, Pomona; Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Eduardo J. Padrón, president of Miami Dade College (FL).

About ACE

Founded in 1918, ACE is the major coordinating body for all the nation's higher education institutions, representing more than 1,600 college and university presidents, and more than 200 related associations, nationwide. It provides leadership on key higher education issues and influences public policy through advocacy. For more information, please visit www.acenet.edu or follow ACE on Twitter @ACEducation.