The Office of Community College Research and Leadership (OCCRL) was the recipient of the 2025 Presidential Citation of Excellence Award from The Council for the Study of Community Colleges at this year’s CSCC Conference in Detroit, where the theme was “working in solidarity for equitable community college futures.”
Presented by outgoing CSCC President Dr. Xueli Wang, OCCRL was recognized as a transformative leader and ray of hope in the field of community college research, leadership and practice.
Wang said during the award presentation that choosing a recipient of the Presidential Citation of Excellence honor is always challenging due to the many qualified members and collaborators of CSCC who are worthy candidates. Yet selecting OCCRL for the award this year was also easy, she said, thanks to the organization’s long-term guidance in strengthening pathways to postsecondary education and careers, along with ensuring that diverse learners successfully transition to and through college toward further education and meaningful employment.
“The visionary leadership of the three directors over the generations has made unprecedented contributions to our field,” Wang said of OCCRL.
Those directors have been Debra Bragg (1989-2015), Eboni Zamani-Gallaher (2015-2022) and Lorenzo Baber (2022 to present), each of whom has made an indelible mark on the field, according to CSCC’s award summation. CSCC recognized the collective contributions of Bragg, Zamani-Gallaher and Baber as “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 during the presentation highlighted OCCRL’s long-term collaboration with the Illinois Community College Board (ICCB). Brian Durham, ICCB’s executive director, called OCCRL “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.
Other contributing thoughts in the video came from Jason Taylor, Jewel Bourne, Royel Johnson, Raina Dyer-Barr, Anjalé Welton and Nina Owolabi, all of whom chimed in on OCCRL’s groundbreaking research, scholarship, and mentorship of future scholars, as well as its commitment to advancing equity within a familial atmosphere.
During her remarks at the event, OCCRL founder Deb Bragg talked about how the continued funding from the state of Illinois and ICCB to OCCRL during its 36-year history—some contributions large, some not so large—make it a unique initiative of the College of Education.
“That is an enormous contribution to our legacy besides our tremendous leadership,” said Bragg, who made sure to thank her supportive and influential friends, colleagues, students and graduates in attendance.
Zamani-Gallaher was a former student of Bragg’s in the mid-1990s at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where she was introduced to a sector of education—community colleges—that would become her life’s work. Back then, Bragg asked her student what she was most interested in learning about, and Zamani-Gallaher told her it was “the trajectory of black and brown folks.” Bragg said there was no shortage of these populations attending community colleges. The rest 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.
Zamani-Gallaher called Baber her friend and “brother” whom she was thrilled to “pass the baton to” when she left Illinois for the University of Pittsburgh in 2022. Baber responded in kind at the podium afterward, saying Zamani-Gallaher’s drive, knowledge and tenacity inspired him greatly as he transitioned into his role as OCCRL director.
Like Zamani-Gallaher, Baber said he also learned a great deal from Bragg about community colleges, institutions he said are becoming “the last truly democratic institutions in our society.” He said Bragg’s vision to see community colleges as part of higher education way back in 1989 showed remarkable foresight.
Baber acknowledged current OCCRL staff and former OCCRL research assistants in the audience who help define what happens when equity meets excellence in scholarship. He also talked about The Anna Julia Cooper Room, a space OCCRL, as a Double Diamond Sponsor of CSCC, named at the conference. Born in bondage in 1858, Cooper became a scholar-practitioner in the field of adult education and earned a doctorate from Columbia University when she was 67 years old. Cooper is an example, Baber said, of how lifelong learning and persistence under racial duress is a pillar of justice and democracy in society.
“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.”
OCCRL’s work and legacy contribute to moving society closer to the pillars of democracy and justice, Baber said, and that is what he wants it to continue to be, especially in tough times.