Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society (PTK) will recognize 14 college administrators with the Shirley B. Gordon Award of Distinction during PTK Catalyst 2025, the Society’s annual convention in Kansas City, Missouri, April 3-5, 2025.
To be eligible for this award, college presidents and CEOs must have served in their role for at least five years. Recipients are nominated by students on their campus and are only eligible to receive the award once over the course of their career.
The award recognizes college presidents who have shown support of student success initiatives leading to stronger pathways to completion, transfer, and employment. They have taken an active interest in supporting high-achieving students and developing student leaders on campus.
“These college presidents have spent years making a meaningful impact on student success,” said Phi Theta Kappa President and CEO Dr. Lynn Tincher-Ladner. “The students know they are the priority and always at the center of their leadership. This award is their way of saying thank you.”
The Shirley B. Gordon Award of Distinction is Phi Theta Kappa’s most prestigious award for community college presidents and is named in honor of the late Dr. Shirley B. Gordon, Phi Theta Kappa’s longest-serving Board of Directors Chair and a founder and long-time president of Highline Community College in Washington.
The 2025 recipients are:
| Dr. Michelle Coach CT State Community College- Asnuntuck Campus Connecticut | Dr. Jay Falkner Carl Albert State College Oklahoma |
| Dr. Darren Felty Trident Technical College- Mount Pleasant Campus South Carolina | Dr. Larry Ferguson Ashland Community & Technical College Kentucky |
| Dr. Clint Gabbard McHenry County College Illinois | Dr. Thomas Johnson Lamar State College- Orange Texas |
| Dr. Susan Looney Reading Area Community College Pennsylvania | Dr. Rosevonne Makaiwi-Pato American Samoa Community College American Samoa |
| Dr. Tracy Mancini Carteret Community College North Carolina | Dr. Gregory McLeod Edgecombe Community College North Carolina |
| Dr. William Mullaney Corning Community College New York | Dr. Elizabeth Perkins St. Louis Community College- Florissant Valley Campus Missouri |
| Peter Provenzano Jr. Oakland Community College Michigan | Dr. Jason Smith Texarkana College Texas |
About Phi Theta Kappa
Phi Theta Kappa is the first honor society recognizing the academic achievement of students at associate degree-granting colleges and helping them to grow as scholars and leaders. The Society is made up of more than 4.4 million members and nearly 1,250 chapters in 11 countries, with approximately 220,000 active members in the nation’s colleges. Learn more at ptk.org.