For 2024 Palmarium Award Nomination Information, Please visit:

https://du.digication.com/giftededucationconference/palmarium-award-and-recipients

2023 Palmarium Award Recipient

Dr. Donna Ford, Ohio State University 

2023 Palmarium Keynote

Equity and Culture Matter: Increasing Access to Gifted and Talented Education and Advanced Placement for Underrepresented Minoritized Students

Donna Y. Ford, PhD, is a Distinguished Professor of Education and Human Ecology and Kirwan Institute Faculty Affiliate at The Ohio State University's College of Education and Human Ecology. She is the author of numerous books, over 300 articles and book chapters, and has given over 2,000 presentations at professional conferences, organizations, and school districts. She conducts research primarily in gifted education and multicultural/urban education. Specifically, her work focuses on the achievement gap, recruiting and retaining culturally different students in gifted education, multicultural curriculum and instruction, culturally competent teacher training and development, African-American identity, and African-American family involvement. Dr. Ford is co-founder of the Scholar Identity Institute (SII) for Black MalesTM, and creator of The Ford Female Achievement Model of Excellence (FAME). Dr. Ford has received several awards for her work, including the Research Award from the Shannon Center for Advanced Studies, the Early Career Award and the Career Award from The American Educational Research Association, Senior Scholar Award and Early Scholar Award from The National Association for Gifted Children, the Esteemed Scholarship Award from The National Association of Black Psychologists, the Outstanding Service Award from the Council for Exceptional Children-The Association for the Gifted. Additionally, she is the Vanderbilt University SEC Faculty Award recipient (2013). Dr. Ford is a two-time board member of the National Association for Gifted Children and has served on numerous editorial boards, including such as Gifted Child Quarterly, Exceptional Children, Roeper Review, Journal of Negro Education, Gifted Child Today, and Journal of Educational Psychology. She also reviews for several journals in such disciplines and topics as urban education, the achievement gap, educational psychology, and counseling and development. On a personal note, she is the proud mother of Khyle L. Ford and proud grandmother of Khyle Jr. (KJ).

The Palmarium Award is a recognition awarded to the individual most exemplifying the vision of

a future in which giftedness will be understood, embraced, and systematically nurtured throughout the nation and the world

The Palmarium Award is presented each year, at the annual Gifted Education Policy Symposium and Conference, through the Office of the Daniel L. Ritchie Endowed Chair in Gifted Education.

Recipients demonstrate vision through an understanding of giftedness in the areas of:

• Practice by impacting graduate education, pre-service, and P-12 community
• Community Outreach through advocacy at a variety of levels (local, national, international)
• Publications informing teachers, children, parents, policymakers, and/or academia
• Research influencing theory, practice, and/or policy

Download the Questions for the Palmarium Award Nomination

Call for Nominations 2022 Palmarium Award.pdf

2022 - Dr. Paula Olszewski-Kubilius

Dr. Paula Olszewski-Kubilius is the director of the Center for Talent Development at Northwestern University and a professor in the School of Education and Social Policy. Over the past 38 years, she has worked to create programs models to meet the need of diverse gifted learners including online learning programs, summer, and weekend programs. She has written and published extensively about issues in gifted education, with a particular focus on talent development for under-served gifted students. Her recent work includes The Handbook of High Performance: Developing Potential into Domain-Specific Talent with colleagues Rena Subotnik and Frank Worrell, published by the American Psychological Association, and Unlocking Potential. Identifying and Serving Gifted Students from Low-Income Households, with Tamra Stambaugh, published by Prufrock Press. Olszewski-Kubilius has served as the editor of Gifted Child Quarterly, co-editor of the Journal of Secondary Gifted Education and on the editorial boards of Gifted and Talented International, Roeper Review, Journal for the Education of the Gifted, and Gifted Child Today. She is currently the vice chair of the board of trustees of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy and serves on that advisory boards for the Center for Gifted Education at the College of William and Mary and the Robinson Center for Young Scholars at the University of Washington. She is a past- President of the National Association for Gifted Children and the Illinois Association for Gifted Children. Dr. Olszewski-Kubilius has received several awards for her publications along with co-authors including the Gifted Child Quarterly Paper of the Year Award in 2011, 2017 and 2020; The Gifted Child Quarterly Paper of the Decade in 2020; the Mensa Education and Research Foundation Award for Excellence in Research in 2013; and the National Association for Gifted Children Scholarly Book of the Year Award in 2018, 2019 and 2020. She received the Distinguished Scholar Award in 2009 and the Distinguished Service Award in 2016 from the National Association for Gifted Children.

Gilman Whiting – is a true renaissance man. His breadth and depth of knowledge and interests are as rich and diverse as his life experiences, contributions and personal accomplishments. His view of the educational system covers the full spectrum of education, pre-K through PhD, from special education to gifted education. His understanding of systems allows him to effectively research and analyze the impacts of the under identification of marginalized students in gifted education. Dr. Whiting’s areas of research include psychological and social behavior of underperformance in special and gifted education and disparity; sociology of race, sports, and American culture; qualitative research methods; and young fatherhood initiatives. As a professor and director of graduate studies in the Department of African American and Diaspora Studies at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, Dr. Whiting has published more than 70 refereed articles, an edited book received multiple grants support low income students. Dr. Whiting directs the Black Male Initiative, Scholar Identity Institute (SII), and the Achievement Gap Consortium at George W. Peabody College of Education, an intensive summer institute designed to work with key school personnel on issues of historical importance including - equity, diversity, and inclusion. In 2006 Whiting created the Scholar Identity Model™ (SIM), a psycho-social model designed to assist whole communities to rethink ways to combat academic apathy. Today the SIM and Scholar Identity Institute have been expanded to include all children across racial, ethnic, gender, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Most recently, Whiting instituted a Primary Grades Principals Institute. He serves as Co-Chair of the National Association for Gifted Children’s Diversity and Equity Committee and is a member of the National NAGC Planning Committee.

Tracy L. Cross, Ph.D., holds an endowed chair, Jody and Layton Smith Professor of Psychology and Gifted Education, and is the executive director of the Center for Gifted Education and the Institute for Research on the Suicide of Gifted Students at William & Mary. Previously he served Ball State University as the George and Frances Ball Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Gifted Studies, the executive director of the Center for Gifted Studies and Talent Development, and the Institute for Research on the Psychology of Gifted Students. For nine years, he served as the Executive Director of the Indiana Academy for Science, Mathematics, and Humanities, which is a residential high school for intellectually gifted adolescents. He has published over 175 articles, book chapters and columns, and has published 13 books. Dr. Cross has made over 300 presentations at conferences. He has edited seven journals, five in the field of gifted studies, including Gifted Child Quarterly, Journal for the Education of the Gifted, Roeper Review, and The Journal of Secondary Gifted Education (now called Journal of Advanced Academics). He has been president of the National Association for Gifted Children and twice of The Association for the Gifted. Dr. Cross received the Distinguished Service Award from both The Association for the Gifted of the Council for Exceptional Children and the National Association for Gifted Children, the Early Leader and Early Scholar Awards and the Distinguished Scholar Award from NAGC, four Outstanding Research on Intelligence or Intellectual Giftedness awards from The MENSA Education and Research Foundation, the Inaugural Diversity Award from the National Association for Gifted Children Network on Gifted Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual, Transgender and Questioning, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the MENSA Education and Research Foundation, and the 2020 Palmarium Award. He lives in Williamsburg, Virginia with his wife Dr. Jennifer Riedl Cross.

Marcia Gentry (Ph.D., UCONN 1996), Professor of Educational Studies, directs the Gifted Education Resource Institute at Purdue University. She has received multiple grants worth several million dollars in support of her work with programming practices and underrepresented populations in gifted education. Dr. Gentry’s research interests include student attitudes toward school and the connection of these attitudes toward learning and motivation; the use of cluster-grouping and differentiation to meet the needs of students with gifts and talents while helping all students achieve at high levels; the use of non- traditional settings for talent development; the development and recognition of talent among underserved populations including students with diverse cultural backgrounds including Native American youth, and children who live in poverty. She actively participates in NAGC and AERA; frequently contributes to the gifted education literature, and regularly serves as a speaker and consultant. She has collaborative projects across the country and around the world. Prior to her work in higher education, she spent 12 years as a teacher and administrator in K-12 settings. She enjoys spending time with family and friends, spending time with her daughter who just graduated from Miss Porter’s School in Farmington Connecticut and will attend Purdue this fall, gardening, hanging out in the horse barn, collecting contemporary Navajo weavings, spending time at her cabin on Lake Superior, and working with her doctoral students.  She was the 2014 recipient of the prestigious National Association for Gifted Children’s Distinguished Scholar Award—and at this same meeting Scott Peters, one of her graduates received the Early Scholar Award and, Jiaxi Wu, one of her doctoral students received the Doctoral Student Award.

James T. Webb, Ph.D., has been recognized as one of the most influential psychologists nationally on gifted education. Dr. Webb has written 16 books, over 75 professional publications, three DVDs, and many research papers for psychology conventions or for conferences regarding gifted and talented children. Six of his books are on gifted children and adults, and four have won “Best Book” awards.

A frequent keynote and workshop speaker, Dr. Webb, a licensed psychologist, has appeared on Good Morning America, CBS Sunday Morning, The Phil Donahue Show, CNN, Public Radio International, and National Public Radio.

In 1981, Dr. Webb established SENG (Supporting Emotional Needs of Gifted Children, Inc.), a national nonprofit organization that provides information, training, conferences, and workshops, and he served as Chair of SENG’s Professional Advisory Committee. In 2011, he was recognized with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Arizona Association for Gifted Children, the Community Service Award from the National Association for Gifted Children, and the Upton Sinclair Award by EducationNews.org.

Dr. Webb has served on the Board of Directors for the National Association for Gifted Children and was President of the American Association for Gifted Children. Dr. Webb was the President of Great Potential Press, Inc.

It is with great sadness that we have learned of the passing of Dr. Webb. Please find an in memoriam by the Webb family here.

Dr. Siegle is a professor in gifted and talented education, Head of the Department of Educational Psychology, and the Director of the National Center for Research on Gifted Education at the University of Connecticut.  He is a past president of the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC), past president of the Montana Association of Gifted and Talented Education (Montana AGATE), and chair of the Research on Giftedness, Creativity, and Talent SIG of the American Educational Research Association (AERA).  Along with D. Betsy McCoach, he is co-editor of Gifted Child Quarterly.  He writes a technology column for Gifted Child Today.  Dr. Siegle is coauthor with Gary Davis and Sylvia Rimm of the popular textbook, Education of the Gifted and Talented.  He is also the author of The Underachieving Gifted Child:  Recognizing, Understanding, and Reversing Underachievement.  Prior to becoming a professor, Dr. Siegle worked with gifted and talented students in Montana.

Julia Link Roberts is the Mahurin Professor of Gifted Studies at Western Kentucky University. Dr. Roberts is the Executive Director of The Center for Gifted Studies and The Carol Martin Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science in Kentucky. She is active in international, national, and state organizations. Dr. Roberts is one of seven members of the Executive Committee of the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children, past-president of The Association for the Gifted (a division of the Council for Exceptional Children), co-chair of the Legislative and Advocacy Committee for the National Association for Gifted Children, a member of the Kentucky Advisory Council for Gifted and Talented Education, and a board member of the Kentucky Association for Gifted Education. Her writing has focused on differentiation, assessment, STEM schools, advocacy, and gifted education. Dr. Roberts received the first NAGC David Belin Advocacy Award, the 2011 Acorn Award as the outstanding professor at a Kentucky four-year college or university, and the 2011 William T. Nallia Award for innovative leadership from the Kentucky Association for School Administrators. She directs summer and Saturday programming for gifted children as well as travels internationally with high school students.