During the 2021 Virtual Textbook & Academic Authoring Conference, four TAA Council Awards were conferred to recipients during the daily networking sessions. TAA President, Laura Frost, and Executive Director, Michael Spinella, announced the awardees.

Comments from the award presentations are included below.

Author Mentoring Award

The TAA Author Mentoring Award recognizes an individual with a long and distinguished record of mentoring authors—either through TAA or individual efforts. This year’s Author Mentoring Award recipient was Richard Hull.

One nominator said, “he encouraged us to follow our passions and to write about them clearly.” The other recognized the effect of his encouragement on a current publication stating, “for the past eleven years, he encouraged me when I was discouraged…. Without his continued encouragement, I might have set the project aside permanently.”

Hull also served as TAA’s Executive Director for eight years and served a term on TAA’s Council “during which time he consistently provided encouragement to writing projects of untold TAA members.”

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President’s Award

This is an award determined by the TAA President (not the Awards Committee) based primarily on service to TAA during the past year. It may be awarded to a member or friend of TAA at any career stage. This year’s President Award was given by TAA President Laura Frost to the members of TAA’s Committee for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (CDEI).

The members shown here bring an “extraordinary energy and commitment to this work.” Frost added appreciation for their “candid and sensitive discussion on difficult topics, their thoughtful, committed approach to developing practical solutions, and their dedication to engaging in this work.”

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Rising Star Award

The TAA Rising Star Award is intended to recognize emerging talent in educational and academic authoring whose work reflects a level of quality that holds promise for future contributions to the recipient’s academic discipline. The work may be a textbook, book chapter, monograph or journal article but must be scholarly in nature. This year’s Rising Star Award recipient was Stacie Craft DeFreitas.

Although DeFreitas is relatively new to TAA, “she’s already become involved in committee work serving on the Committee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and was recently elected to the TAA Council. In addition to winning one of the Most Promising New Textbook Awards this year from TAA, she has edited books and written journal articles touching on critical race studies in psychology.”

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Keedy-Anderson Award

The Keedy-Anderson Service Award recognizes individuals with a long record of providing service to authors, to TAA, or to the individual’s discipline, either through TAA, another organization, or through individual efforts. Strong nominees promote TAA to their colleagues, at their university, or within the authoring community. The award is named for Paul Anderson and Mike Keedy, two charter members of TAA who exemplified service to TAA and authors. This year’s Keedy-Anderson Service Award recipient was Eric Schmieder.

Schmieder “has served our organization and our members over a number of years in a wide variety of ways. He has been a conference and webinar presenter, a blog contributor for TAA, in recent years a staff member, and he contributes even more prolifically to our blog. He manages TAA’s social media presence, organizes the Textbook Awards judging, and facilitates crucial membership services like the Writing Gym and the Month of Motivation.”