Applications for 2024-2025 consideration are now closed. Recipients will be announced in the lead-up to AGB’s 2025 events. Contact awards@AGB.org with any questions.

Awards are given annually to up to six boards and are typically distributed evenly among public, private or proprietary, and institutionally-related foundation boards.

Winners will be:

• Honored with a special conversation with AGB’s leadership during their spring board meetings and given an elegant keepsake for display.
• Recognized at a plenary session at AGB’s National Conference on Trusteeship in April, or the Foundation Leadership Forum in January (foundation boards only), attended by hundreds of board members and top administrative leaders from around the world, and will receive three complimentary event registrations.
• Highlighted across AGB’s publications, including features in Trusteeship magazine and on AGB.org.

Who may be nominated for this award?
Any board that is a member in good standing with the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges is encouraged to nominate themselves for this award.

What information should be included in the narrative?
The narrative is your opportunity to describe how your board played a significant role in shaping your institution, system, or foundation. As such, please include the following:

• The difficult circumstances or opportunities for significant achievement that your board faced.
• The plan your board designed within that climate.
• The execution of this plan, including any additional challenges that arose during that time.
• An assessment of how the steps taken by your board have contributed to your institution, system, or foundation.

What are the formatting requirements for the application?
Please include as a single PDF document in submission:

• A cover page with name and address of the board, as well as contact information for the submission contact, the board professional (if not the same person), and the chief executive.
• A five-page-maximum narrative, with the board name on each page.

Beyond that, there are no specific requirements; we welcome each nominee’s own take on how they structure their narrative to address the aforementioned criteria and elements of interest.

What if our application exceeds the five-page limit?
Judges will only be permitted to read the first five pages submitted. In order to ensure that your whole application is reviewed, please limit your narrative to five pages. Please note that the cover page does not count towards the five page limit.

John W. Nason (1905–2001) was a higher education leader who served as a pioneer on behalf of the importance of effective good governance. He began his professional life as a philosophy professor and went on to serve as president of Swarthmore College and Carleton College, as well as the president of the Foreign Policy Association. He honored AGB by serving as the director of its Commission on the Future of College and University Trusteeship and made immense contributions to the field of higher education governance and boards, including authoring seven books—two of which are seminal works on the role and responsibilities of college and university board members. Perhaps his greatest accomplishment was serving as chairman of the National Japanese American Student Relocation Council during World War II. Resisting widespread prejudice and rejecting the disruption of higher education for thousands of students, Mr. Nason negotiated the release of interned Japanese-American students and persuaded higher education institutions to allow them to continue their studies. Under his guidance, the council matched more than 4,000 students with campuses across the nation.