Associate Professor Terah Venzant Chambers is being recognized this week as part of the Inspirational Women of the Year Awards through the MSU Center for Gender in Global Context.
Venzant Chambers is being recognized alongside three others during the fifth annual honors, which celebrate how women-identified members of MSU impact the community on- and off-campus, lift one another up and inspire a culture of high performance at MSU. This year, a Greater Lansing category was added to recognize individuals outside of the university who influence the community and campus.
“I am honored and humbled to receive this recognition,” said Venzant Chambers, who will receive the Community Engagement Award. Honorees are chosen by a diverse group of MSU staff and faculty. “In my career, I have committed to doing work that matters—cultivating authentic relationships with the community that drive my research and inform education policy. Though I don’t do this work for the recognition, I am very pleased that the GenCen and my colleagues who nominated me for this award similarly see the need for and value of this approach. And, since none of us do this work alone, I want to also thank my many students, friends and colleagues whose contributions have been essential to my success.”
Among the ways she works with the community, Venzant Chambers holds national and local leadership roles. She was appointed president of the University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA) for the 2019 year. After being appointed to fill an empty seat on the East Lansing Public Schools Board of Education in 2017, she was re-elected to serve a full four-year term in 2018. She was also one of the lead coordinators for “I March, I Stand,” the 2018 public exhibit in Erickson Hall honoring sexual assault survivors and providing an avenue for the community to express their voice.
She was nominated for the honor by faculty and students from the College of Education, College of Arts & Letters and the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities.
“To state it simply: Terah is the kind of faculty member that every student dreams of working with, every colleague hopes to learn from and every community member admires,” wrote College of Education faculty in one of the nomination letters. “Terah is the type of faculty member and community-engaged scholar that we aspire to be.”
Venzant Chambers will receive the Community Engagement Award in a ceremony on Feb. 7, 2019.
Related links
Venzant Chambers has written for MSU and its community in a variety of ways, including:
- Student-led Activism: What’s Race Got to Do With It? (MSU Today, 2018, with College of Education Assistant Professor Alyssa Dunn)
- Strategies for Educators to Promote Equity and Inclusion in Schools (New Educator, 2017, with fellow College of Education faculty Dorinda Carter Andrews and Chezare A. Warren)