University of Miami President Julio Frenk was presented the prestigious Bouchet Leadership Award Medal, named for the first African-American to earn a Ph.D. in the U.S., at the 13th annual Bouchet Conference on Diversity and Graduate Education at Yale University.
Frenk also delivered the keynote address at the April 2 conference, which was themed “Embedding Diversity in the Mission, Vision, and Values of the Academy.” In his remarks, "Beyond Goodwill: Committing to Diversity, Inclusion, and the Scholarship of Belonging," he spoke eloquently about one of the core issues that define his new presidency at UM.
"Nearly 100 years after Bouchet’s death, the pipeline for faculty of color remains too narrow; the ranks of African-American scholars too thin. This is a challenge that all of us in higher education must address together," he told the scholars, administrators, community leaders, and graduate and undergraduate students attending the conference from across the nation.
The award and conference are named for Yale alumnus Edward A. Bouchet (1852-1918), who in 1876 became the first African-American to earn a Ph.D. in any discipline from an American university. Also one of the first African-Americans to be elected to Phi Beta Kappa, he was only the sixth person in the western hemisphere to earn a doctorate in physics.
Yale and Howard universities founded the Edward A. Bouchet Graduate Honor Society in 2005, and last year the University of Miami was recognized as an institutional member—the first in Florida—in recognition of the University’s outstanding scholarly achievements and promotion of diversity and excellence in graduate education.
The Bouchet Society seeks to develop a network of preeminent scholars who exemplify academic and personal excellence, foster environments of support, and serve as examples of scholarship, leadership, character, service, and advocacy for students and postdocs who traditionally have been underrepresented in the academy.
