BARBARA A. HOLLAND SCHOLAR-ADMINISTRATOR AWARD
BARBARA A. HOLLAND SCHOLAR-ADMINISTRATOR AWARD
The Barbara A. Holland Scholar-Administrator Award honors a bold, mid-career scholar-administrator whose leadership and intellectual voice illuminates the transformative power of urban and metropolitan higher education. Holland Scholars are respected, strategic leaders across their institution who are known for contributing to cutting-edge research related to their administrative role. Their scholarship may focus on, but is not limited to, topics such as social and economic mobility, campus culture, faculty development, student health and well-being, curricular innovation, regional well-being, research productivity, planning and assessment, student retention and progress, and community engagement.
Holland Scholars approach leadership by drawing on literature and research to ignite the potential of their institution to be successful in its mission and goals. They are inquisitive, inclusive and collaborative, and they are driven to ask and answer scholarly questions critical to their field and professional role as evidenced by a record of their own scholarship. They put their scholarship to good use in addressing urgent issues in urban/metropolitan environments. Their work inspires others to do the same.
2025 HOLLAND SCHOLAR TIMELINE
- Call opens: April 1
- Call closes: June 16
- Awardee notified: early August
- Awardee announcement: October 28
- CUMU Annual Conference: October 26–29
Barbara A. Holland Scholar-Administrator Award Recipients
2024 Holland Scholar
Brenda Marsteller Kowalewski, Ph.D., Weber State University
2023 Holland Scholar
Henry R. Cunningham, Ph.D., University of Louisville
2022 Holland Scholar
Patrick M. Green, Ed.D., Loyola University Chicago
2021 Holland Scholar
Lina Dostilio, Ed.D., University of Pittsburgh
2021 Holland Scholar
Deirdre Gonsalves-Jackson, Ph.D., Virginia Wesleyan
2020 Holland Scholar
Lynn E. Pelco, Ph.D., Virginia Commonwealth University
2019 Holland Scholar
Euan Hague, Ph.D., DePaul University
2018 Holland Scholar
Emily Janke, Ph.D., UNC Greensboro
Holland Scholar Recognition and Candidacy
The Barbara A. Holland Scholar-Administrator Award is recognized at the CUMU Annual Conference. The awardee is expected to submit a paper for consideration for publication in the conference issue of Metropolitan Universities journal. Awardees are provided free registration to the CUMU Annual Conference and an award of $2,000. Awardees may also be invited to participate in other CUMU-sponsored activities.
Holland Scholars are mid-career individuals distinguished by an integrated record of administrative leadership and high-impact scholarship that has shaped ideas and actions within and beyond their institution. They hold or have held administrative roles with significant reach and responsibility within an institution of higher education, and are viewed by their peers as having both a scholarly approach to their administrative role and the potential for future advancement in leadership in or related to higher education.
Mid-career nominees have many years left to advance in their field, to pursue more impactful leadership roles and to encourage and mentor others to pursue similar goals of leadership and scholarship that focus on addressing complex problems that shape urban life.
- A candidate’s current home institution must be a CUMU member institution
- An individual may only be named a Holland Scholar once
- Candidates may be considered multiple times
- Nominees should have an earned Ph.D. (or equivalent)
The Holland Scholar is selected each year by a committee of current and emeriti presidents and chancellors of CUMU member institutions who can provide an informed perspective on this approach to scholarly leadership. Candidates are assessed across three domains:
- Professional impact and achievement
- Demonstrated intellectual leadership within and beyond their institution
- Scholarship impact relevant to their administrative role
Individuals may self nominate or be nominated for the Barbara A. Holland Scholar-Administrator Award.
Upon receipt of nominations, the nominee will be contacted to request completion of full application materials.
The following materials are required for each candidate and serve as the sole basis for the committee’s deliberation. It is the responsibility of each candidate to ensure that his/her materials are complete and accurate. Candidates with complete materials by the candidacy deadline will be considered by the selection committee.
- Current curriculum vitae
- Up to three letters of support, one of which could be a letter of nomination.
- At least one from a colleague at the candidate’s home institution describing the nominee’s approach to leadership through a scholarly lens
- At least one from a colleague describing the candidate’s scholarly impact beyond the institution
- Personal statement (not to exceed 1,500 words) that:
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- Provides a brief overview of the professional and scholarly achievements that make you eligible for this award.
- Identifies the leadership qualities that have enabled you to achieve career success.
- Illustrates how you look to scholarship when making administrative decisions.
- Highlights how you have connected your own scholarship with your administrative role and activities.
- Demonstrates how your administrative leadership activities and scholarship have impacted urban and metropolitan universities.
All items submitted for purposes of this award become the sole property of the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities (CUMU).
About Barbara A. Holland
Barbara A. Holland, Ph.D., is recognized internationally for her scholarship and expertise on organizational change in higher education with a special focus on the strategic impacts of community engagement as a method of teaching, learning, and research. She has served in senior academic administrative roles at several universities in the United States and Australia, held a visiting scholar role in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development headquarters, and was executive director of the federally funded National Service-Learning Clearinghouse.
Dr. Holland was the editor of Metropolitan Universities (1998–2016), the journal of the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities, and served as a founding member of the national advisory panel for the Carnegie Foundation community engagement classification program. For these reasons and her many research publications and impacts on the field of engagement, including the “Holland Matrix,” Dr. Holland was awarded the Research Achievement Award from the International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement (2006).
In 2018, CUMU established the Barbara A. Holland Scholar-Administrator Award to honor those who, like her, integrate a record of administrative leadership and high-impact scholarship that shapes ideas and actions within and beyond their campus.
Dr. Holland earned her Bachelor of Journalism and Master of Arts in Journalism at University of Missouri, and a Ph.D. in higher education policy at University of Maryland. In 2017, University of Nebraska Omaha awarded Barbara an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters.
INTERVIEW WITH DR. HOLLAND
CUMU Executive Director Valerie Holton interviews Barbara A. Holland about her work with CUMU and Metropolitan Universities journal since she became part of the organization in 1990.
HONORING BARBARA A. HOLLAND
Dr. Holland was honored at the 2023 CUMU Annual Conference for her continued support of CUMU and as a leader in the field championing our urban and metropolitan campuses.