Willie Given AABHE Lifetime Achievement Award

Professor Charles Willie was recently given the Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Association of Blacks in Higher Education (AABHE) at the AABHE President's Awards luncheon in Atlanta.

"It is a pleasure and sheer joy as a teacher and researcher for three decades in the Harvard University learning environment to hear one's peers locally and nationally say, 'Well done, good and faithful scholar,'" Willie said.

Willie focuses his research, teaching, and practice on education planning and school desegregation, the structure and process of family life, community organization, race and ethnic relations, and public health. He has been associated with the Ed School for more than 31 years, having been appointed as a professor of education and urban studies in 1974. Though a professor emeritus since 1999, Willie still teaches the course "Community Power, Decision Making, and Education" every year, which deals with grassroots action to solve community problems, especially in education.

"Born during the third decade of the 20th century, forced to attend racially segregated elementary and high schools as well as college in the South, and volunteering to enroll and work in racially integrated universities in the North, I am grateful for a career in higher education that began in 1952 and that continues to grow today past the half-century mark," Willie said.

The AABHE pursues the educational and professional needs of Blacks in higher education with a focus on leadership, access, and vital issues impacting students, faculty, staff, and administrators.