Danielle Powell received the 2017-2018 Stanback Stroud Diversity Award from the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges at the 2018 Spring Plenary Session held on Friday, April 13.
Powell has demonstrated excellence in supporting students who are historically underserved in her teaching and programming. She consistently makes the classroom and the college a place of connection, understanding, and support.
The Stanback Stroud Diversity Award is an Academic Senate award and is sponsored by the Foundation for California Community Colleges. It honors faculty who have made special contributions addressing issues involving diversity and perform in an exceptional manner to advance intercultural harmony, equity, and campus diversity by making exceptional contributions to the college beyond their usual obligations.
“She saw students that indicated a certain need, and she wanted to reconceptualize how the students would be served.” Skyline College President Dr. Regina Stanback Stroud said.
Powell is the founding director of the Women’s Mentoring and Leadership Academy at Skyline College. WMLA is a mentoring program for women who feel as though they are on the margins of academic life and brings them to the heart of an academic experience, drawing them into relationships with key advocates on campus, and connecting them to support offices that can provide them with tools and resources to increase their security and well-being and reinforce the idea that they are deserving of help, respect, and success.
Powell also coordinates the African- American Success Through Excellence and Persistence Learning Community, where she has raised rates of success in communication courses, and leads study abroad facilitating experiences for students that are transforming and life changing.
Article by Kevin Perez
