Awards, People

Clark Kerr Award goes to AAU president

By Public Affairs

Mary Sue Coleman
Mary Sue Coleman, president of the American Association of Universities and winner of the 2017 Clark Kerr Award at Berkeley
Mary Sue Coleman

Mary Sue Coleman, president of the American Association of Universities and winner of the 2017 Clark Kerr Award at Berkeley

Mary Sue Coleman, the president of the Association of American Universities and past president of the University of Michigan, has been named the winner of the 2017 Clark Kerr Award.

Conferred by UC Berkeley’s Academic Senate, the Clark Kerr Award honors distinguished leadership in higher education. Created in 1968, the award is a tribute to the leadership and legacy of the man whose name it bears, Clark Kerr, who served as Berkeley’s first chancellor, from 1952–57, and as University of California president, from 1958–67.

Past recipients include former California Governor and Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, and past Berkeley Chancellors Ira Michael Heyman and Chang-Lin Tien.

“Professor Coleman is one of the most distinguished and accomplished academic leaders in the United States,” says the announcement of the 2017 award. “She has been a tireless and effective spokesperson for public higher education, most especially for our great public research universities. She has been an articulate advocate for both their academic excellence and also their service to society, including in particular their role in achieving equity among all Americans.”

Read more on the Academic Senate website