Erin Rentschler Wins National Future Leaders Award for Higher Ed

Erin Rentschler, program manager for the Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE), received the K. Patricia Cross Future Leaders Award for 2015. Rentschler, who is pursuing her Ph.D. in English, was one of 10 winners chosen from a nationwide pool of more than 270 nominees.

The award, which is sponsored by the Association of American Colleges and Universities, recognizes emerging student leaders in higher education who are committed to developing civic and academic responsibility in themselves and others, and whose work emphasizes teaching and learning.

Rentschler’s leadership style is based on respect and ethical principles, said Dr. Magali Cornier Michael, professor of English and Rentschler’s dissertation director, who nominated her for the award.

“One of Erin’s many strengths is her ability and desire to connect with others and to interact with them respectfully, including a keen attention to those who are disempowered,” Michael said. “Her leadership style promotes cultural and racial sensitivity and an ethics of care that is clearly shown in her roles as a teacher, a mentor, an advisor and now program manager with the CTE.”

Dr. Laurel Willingham-McLain, director of the CTE, said Rentschler consistently displays these ethical principles throughout all aspects of her life.

“There isn’t any discrepancy between Erin’s personal, academic and civic practices,” Willingham-McLain said. “She constantly models this integrity for others. Not only does she model it, but she also guides her students and colleagues to think deeply about how their studies and their actions affect other people.”

This honor has given Rentschler an opportunity to holistically examine her roles in higher education.

“The award process has given me a chance to step back and reflect on how all the different pieces of my life in the world of higher education—as a graduate student, a teacher and a graduate student/faculty developer—fit together,” Rentschler said.

She received the award on Jan. 22 during the organization’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C.