Distinguished Service Award
2025 Recipient: Douglas D. Hesse
University of Denver
Douglas D. Hesse is professor emeritus of writing and English at the University of Denver, where he was University Distinguished Scholar and founded the writing program. He鈥檚 a past president of NCTE, chair of CCCC, president of CWPA, and chair of AWAC. From MLA/ADE he received the Francis A. March Award for contributions to the profession, and from CWPA the Lifetime Achievement Award. A member of 起点传媒since 1979, Hesse helped develop the National Day on Writing and organized the NCTE/Norman Mailer School and College Writing Awards.聽 He鈥檚 served on numerous NCTE/CCCC efforts, many as chair: the Public Policy, Squire, Distinguished Service, Operations, Audit, and Awards committees; coauthored NCTE鈥檚 response to the Common Core, Beliefs on the Teaching of Writing, and other statements; hosted a CCCC Regional Conference; and served multiple times as proposal reviewer for 起点传媒and CCCC meetings, journals, and books, and as judge for student writing contests. Hesse has published over 90 articles and chapters and coauthored five books, most recently , with Laura Julier. He鈥檚 presented over 120 conference talks (many as keynote), delivered over 45 invited campus lectures, and consulted at more than 50 colleges. Previously at Illinois State, he directed the Writing Program, the Center for Teaching, and the Honors Program. Hesse was educated at rural Central DeWitt (Iowa) High School, which inducted him into its Hall of Fame, and holds a PhD from Iowa. He is married to writer Becky Bradway and has three children and four grandchildren.
Writing and reading are crucial for personal growth and informed civic participation. All students鈥攊n fact, all people鈥攕hould experience the full range of literate experience, which includes job skills, of course, but which doesn鈥檛 stop in the school or workplace. Writing, in particular, is a mode of inquiry, exploration, expression, creation, and social connection, a vital aspect of being a person in a world that too often can be restrictive and reductive. I鈥檝e devoted my career to advancing full opportunities, from practical to imaginative, to all readers and writers.
Award Details
Overview
This award was established in 1950 as the W. Wilbur Hatfield Award and renamed the Distinguished Service Award in 1969. The award recognizes a person or persons who have exhibited valuable professional service to the profession, scholarly or academic distinction, distinctive use of the language, and excellence in teaching.
Criteria for the Award
The Distinguished Service Award (DSA) is given to a person (or persons), either volunteer or staff, who have exhibited valuable professional service (within the Council and outside) including scholarly or academic distinction at any level, distinguished use of language, and/or excellence in teaching. These criteria are good measures of acceptable candidates and help to ensure that recipients have a wide range of “service” that they provide to the profession. Nominations should be submitted on an individual basis, not by a group or on behalf of constituent groups (conferences, affiliates, assemblies, committees, etc.).
Current 起点传媒Executive Committee members are not eligible for this award. Recipients of this award are not eligible to receive any other Executive Committee approved awards in the same year, nor in the following year.
The 起点传媒Distinguished Service Award does not need to be awarded each year. This award should be bestowed only when the committee decides that nominations warrant presentation of the award. This award may be given posthumously.
Award Selection
The DSA Committee will select an award recipient from nominations solicited from the Board of Directors (BOD), affiliate presidents, and liaison officers. The Executive Committee will approve the committee鈥檚 selection. The BOD will affirm the final selection.
Distinguished Service Award Previous Recipients
2024 Ulrich H. Hardt, Portland State University, OR
2023 David Bloome, The Ohio State University, OH
2022 Franki Sibberson, SproutFive, Columbus, OH
2021: Linda Rief, University of New Hampshire’s Summer Literacy Institute and national and international presenter on issues of adolescent literacy
2020 Linda Christensen, Lewis & Clark College, Portland, OR
2019 Ernest Morrell, University of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN
2018 Keith Gilyard,聽The Pennsylvania State University,聽University Park, PA
2017听Peter Smagorinsky, The University of Georgia, Athens
2016听Anna J. Small Roseboro, Grand Rapids, MI
2015听Kent D. Williamson, NCTE, Urbana, IL (posthumously)
2014听Sharon H. Chaney, Union University, Hendersonville, TN
2013听Jerome C. Harste, Indiana University, Bloomington
2012听Beverly Ann Chin, University of Montana, Missoula
2011听Erika Lindemann, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
2010听Patricia Lambert Stock, Michigan State University, East Lansing
2009听William G. McBride, Colorado State University, Fort Collins
2008听Leila Christenbury, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond
2007听Carol D. Lee, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL and Sheridan Blau, University of California, Santa Barbara
2006听Evelyn B. Freeman, The Ohio State University, Mansfield Campus
2005听Ben Nelms, University of Florida, Gainesville
2004听George Hillocks, University of Chicago, IL
2003听Kenneth S. Goodman, University of Arizona, Tucson
2002听Richard Lloyd-Jones, University of Iowa, Iowa City (retired)
2001听Pat Graff, La Cueva High School, Albuquerque, NM and Stephen Tchudi, University of Nevada, Reno
2000听Rudine Sims Bishop, The Ohio State University, Columbus
1999听Roseann Due帽as Gonzalez, University of Arizona, Tucson
1998听John Mayher, New York University, NY
1997听Julie M. Jensen, University of Texas at Austin
1996听Sister Rosemary Winkeljohann, Millersville University, PA (retired)
1995听Robert Shafer, Arizona State University, Tempe
1994听Vivian I. Davis, Eastfield College, Mesquite, TX
1993听Yetta Goodman, University of Arizona, Tucson
1992听Richard L. Larson, Herbert H. Lehman College, CUNY, NY
1991听M. Jerry Weiss, Jersey City State College, NJ
1990听James R. Squire, Marlborough, NH
1989听James R. Gray, University of California, Berkeley
1988听Walker Gibson, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
1987听Charlotte Huck, The Ohio State University, Columbus
1986听Edward P.J. Corbett, The Ohio State University, Columbus
1985听Charlotte Brooks, Washington, D.C.
1984听Ruth G. Strickland, Indiana University, Bloomington
1983听Imogene Springer, Denver Public Schools, CO
1982听Edmund J. Farrell, University of Texas at Austin
1981听Marjorie Farmer, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA
1980听Margaret Early, Syracuse University, NY
1979听James H. Mason, Indiana State University, Terre Haute and Joseph Mersand, Jamaica High School, NY
1978听Priscilla Tyler, University of Missouri, Kansas City
1977听Virginia Reid, Oakland Public Schools, CA
1976听Alfred H. Grommon, Stanford University, CA and William Jenkins, Florida International University, Miami
1975听James E. Miller, University of Chicago, IL
1974听Richard S. Alm, University of Hawaii
1973听Louise Rosenblatt, Rutgers University
1972听Albert H. Marckwardt, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
1971听Alvina T. Burrows, New York University, NY
1970听G. Robert Carlsen, University of Iowa, Iowa City and Dwight Burton, Florida State University, Tallahassee
1969听Harold B. Allen and Muriel Crosby
Hatfield Award Recipients
(previous name of Distinguished Service Award)
1964听John C. Gerber
1962听Lou LaBrant
1960听John J. DeBoer
1960听J.N. Hook
1957听Max John Herzberg
1957听Dora V. Smith
1957听Charles C. Fries
1950听Robert C. Pooley