The Office of Community College Research and Leadership (OCCRL) has been honored with the 2025 Presidential Citation of Excellence Award from the Council for the Study of Community Colleges (CSCC), one of the organization's highest recognitions. The award was presented at the 66th annual CSCC Conference in Detroit, where this year's theme focused on “working in solidarity for equitable community college futures.”
Presented by outgoing CSCC President Dr. Xueli Wang, the award recognized OCCRL's decades-long impact as a transformative force in community college research, leadership, policy, and practice.
Wang noted that selecting a recipient for the Presidential Citation of Excellence is never an easy task given the many deserving individuals and organizations affiliated with CSCC. This year's selection, however, stood out because of OCCRL's sustained commitment to strengthening educational and career pathways while ensuring diverse learners successfully navigate college and advance toward meaningful careers.
“The visionary leadership of the three directors over the generations has made unprecedented contributions to our field,” Wang said.
Those directors, Debra Bragg (1989-2015), Eboni Zamani-Gallaher (2015-2022), and Lorenzo Baber (2022-present), have each left an enduring imprint on community college scholarship and practice. In its award citation, CSCC praised their collective leadership for “deepening the field's understanding of community college access and success while profoundly impacting policy and practice across state, national and international contexts.”
A video tribute shown during the ceremony highlighted OCCRL's longstanding partnership with the Illinois Community College Board (ICCB), a collaboration that has helped shape community college policy and practice throughout Illinois.
Brian Durham, executive director of the ICCB, described OCCRL as “phenomenal partners.”
“They've kept the focus where it belongs on what works for students [through] critically examining and often helping us design the community college system's efforts to meet the needs of our most underserved populations,” Durham said.
The tribute also featured reflections from scholars and leaders including Jason Taylor, Jewel Bourne, Royel Johnson, Raina Dyer-Barr, Anjalé Welton, and Nina Owolabi. Together, they highlighted OCCRL's groundbreaking research, influential scholarship, commitment to mentoring emerging researchers, and unwavering focus on advancing equity within a supportive, family-like culture.
During her remarks, OCCRL founder Debra Bragg reflected on the organization's 36-year history and the consistent support it has received from the State of Illinois and the ICCB. She noted that the partnership has been instrumental in allowing OCCRL to grow into a nationally recognized research and leadership center within the College of Education.
“That is an enormous contribution to our legacy besides our tremendous leadership,” Bragg said, expressing gratitude to the colleagues, students, alumni, and longtime supporters who have helped shape OCCRL's journey.
For Zamani-Gallaher, the moment carried special meaning.
A former doctoral student of Bragg's at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the mid-1990s, Zamani-Gallaher recalled being introduced to the community college sector through a conversation that would ultimately define her career. When Bragg asked what she most wanted to study, Zamani-Gallaher responded, “the trajectory of Black and Brown folks.” Bragg pointed her toward community colleges, where many of those students were pursuing educational opportunity.
The rest, as they say, is OCCRL history.
“I saw first-generation, I saw working-class, and I was able to move from someone that couldn't buy a vowel or get a clue to being a cheerleader and a champion of it, so thank you for introducing me in such a way that this is three decades later and it's still additive, it's still multiplying, it's still giving,” Zamani-Gallaher said.
She also reflected on passing leadership of OCCRL to Baber when she departed Illinois for the University of Pittsburgh in 2022, describing him as both a friend and a “brother.”
Baber returned the praise, crediting Zamani-Gallaher's passion, expertise, and determination as a source of inspiration during his transition into the director's role.
Like Zamani-Gallaher, Baber also paid tribute to Bragg's influence on his understanding of community colleges and their role in society.
“Community colleges are becoming the last truly democratic institutions in our society,” Baber said, adding that Bragg's vision to establish OCCRL in 1989 demonstrated remarkable foresight at a time when community colleges received far less attention within higher education research.
Baber also recognized current OCCRL staff members and former research assistants in attendance, describing them as examples of what happens when equity and excellence intersect in scholarship and practice.
He further highlighted the Anna Julia Cooper Room, a conference space sponsored by OCCRL as a Double Diamond Sponsor of CSCC. Cooper, born into slavery in 1858, became a pioneering scholar-practitioner in adult education and earned her doctorate from Columbia University at age 67.
For Baber, Cooper's life exemplifies the power of lifelong learning, perseverance, and the pursuit of justice despite extraordinary barriers.
“When we think about the marathon that we're continuing on and the hill that we're climbing, this paradigm, this time, we also have to understand, for people like Anna Julia Cooper, we stand on her shoulders,” Baber said. “The hills that we have now, yes, we feel the burn, but they don't compare to the number of hills that she had to climb in her 105 years and what she saw.”
As OCCRL looks toward the future, Baber said the organization's mission remains firmly rooted in advancing equity, strengthening educational opportunity, and helping move society closer to the democratic ideals and social justice principles that have guided its work for more than three decades.
“That is what OCCRL has been, and that's what I want it to continue to be,” Baber said, “especially in challenging times.”