The National Academy of Education (NAEd) inducted its first representative from a historically Black college or university (HBCU) March 9.

Wade Boykin, Professor and Director of the Undergraduate Program in the Department of Psychology at Howard University, is one of nine inductees. He will be the first and only HBCU representative of an HBCU in a 215-member body, a Howard press release said.

Professor A. Wade Boykin, Howard University (Courtesy photo)

““It is a pleasure to welcome these pre-eminent leaders from a diverse range of academic fields — they are each being recognized for their extraordinary contributions to education research and policy helping to improve the lives of students in the United States and abroad,” said Gloria Ladson-Billings, NAEd president in a Howard University press release.

Founded in 1965, the NAEd is a non-profit, non-governmental research organization that researches education policy.

Boykin’s research has contributed to the study of academic achievement discrepancies between African Americans and American Whites.

Howard’s Capstone Institute, of which Boykin is Executive Director, researches and refines models for educational reform, the institute’s website says.

“I am humbled to be elected to the National Academy of Education,” Boykin said in the same release. “This honor is testimony to having exceptional colleagues, talented students, and a supportive platform here at Howard University to address persistent disparities in education. I look forward to collaborating with the membership of the National Academy of Education toward implementing interventions to develop students’ assets for success in the classroom and in their lives.”

Boykin, after receiving his PhD in experimental psychology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, moved on to become a tenured associate professor at Cornell University. He is a Spencer Fellow of the same National Academy of Education and served on an advisory panel to President George W. Bush and his administration’s Secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings.

This year’s induction ceremony will be during November’s 2018 NAEd Fall Retreat and Annual Meeting.