Texas A&M University President Michael K. Young named Dr. Kent Portney, professor at the Bush School of Government and Public Service, to the inaugural class of Presidential Impact Fellows. The fellows represent an esteemed group of twenty-four faculty members selected for their demonstrated commitment to grand challenges through scholarship, leadership, and core values.
President Young honored Portney and the other awardees in a ceremony on March 7. The program will award the fellows an honorific title for life and an annual stipend of $25,000 for the next three fiscal years to accelerate each recipient’s pedagogy, research, and service impacts. The selected faculty were identified by the dean of their respective colleges and confirmed by the Office of the Provost. They are considered candidates for continued or new national and international acclaim and are expected to utilize the program to participate in national dialogue, advance their scholarship, and create new partnerships.
“We acknowledge a new investment in the excellence of select faculty, who through their scholarship, personal commitment, and results demonstrate they are rising to meet the challenges of their field and demonstrating impact towards creating a better world,” said Young. “I am proud to name these faculty as the inaugural Presidential Impact Fellows.”
Bush School Dean Mark Welsh echoed President Young’s statement.
“President Young has identified in Dr. Portney and the entirety of the inaugural class the excellence embodied here at Texas A&M, and it is my hope that this honor will assist Dr. Portney in his role as both an educator and scholar,” said Welsh. He added, “By the way, none of us at the Bush School were surprised by this announcement. We already knew that Dr. Portney rocks!”
Dr. Kent Portney is a professor and the director of the Bush School’s Institute for Science, Technology, and Public Policy. His areas of expertise include environmental policy, urban sustainability, urban politics, economic inequality, and policy analysis. He has authored or co-authored nine books on economic and environmental development, citizen participation, and teaching critical reasoning in the social sciences. He has also written numerous journal articles on urban sustainability, urban politics, and the local nonprofit sector.
