Nia Nunn Honored with President Shirley M. Collado Faculty Award

By Danica Fisher ’05, May 21, 2021

Faculty member recognized for contributions to IC and the community.

Nia Nunn, associate professor of education.

Nia Nunn, associate professor of education, was announced as this year’s recipient of the President Shirley M. Collado Faculty Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Ithaca College Community by the Center for Faculty Excellence in a virtual celebration on May 10.

As a scholar, Nunn's work centers on education, teaching, and psychological communal wellbeing with a Black consciousness foundation. Beyond her classroom teaching, she has created spaces for students of color, particularly Black women, that affirms their right to exist unapologetically in spaces that were not built for or by them.

Nunn is the third IC faculty member to receive this award, which was established in 2019 by a gift from Gloria Hobbs, an honorary member of the IC Board of Trustees, who was motivated to create the award in honor of President Shirley M. Collado’s inclusive vision for the college community. Hobbs’s gift supports the professional development of one faculty member each year, providing $5,000 to further enhance their capacity for equitable and inclusive leadership.

“It is a true joy and honor to be awarded under the name of President Shirley M. Collado and to be the recipient of Gloria Hobbs’s generous gift and encouragement."

Nia Nunn, associate professor of education.

"I am above and beyond grateful,” said Nunn. “It is a true joy and honor to be awarded under the name of President Shirley M. Collado and to be the recipient of Gloria Hobbs’s generous gift and encouragement. Gloria Hobbs is a legend, and I love every interaction I have had with her. She’s an Ithaca College staple, and with many years of modeling excellence in her passion and commitment, she’s mapped out a blueprint for many of us.”

Nunn grew up in Ithaca and is committed to the local community. Most recently, she has worked with the Cortland Theatre, the Hanger Theatre and the Abolitionist Teaching Network to raise racial consciousness through a process she calls radical vulnerability. Nunn has engaged with the Ithaca City School District and Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine to create a Black Lives Matter and Wellness curriculum, respectively.

Additionally, Nunn is the president of the board for Ithaca’s Southside Community Center and the director of the Community Unity Music Education Program (CUMEP) summer program. In these roles, Nunn has centered the joy and enriched the lives of Ithaca’s young people. As part of her work with Southside, in 2018 Nunn wrote and received a $270,000 NoVo foundation grant for Southside’s Black Girl Alchemists initiative. The initiative is targeted directly toward Ithaca’s young women of color, encourages self-expression through art and literature and is intended to disrupt the internalized, gendered racism that black girls’ experience.

“The opportunity to pause, breathe and receive is essential. I'm grateful, I'm energized, I’m ready.”

Nia Nunn, associate professor of education.

As one nomination put it, “It is worth noting that being a tireless champion for equity, inclusion, and antiracism is really hard and emotionally exhausting work. What makes Dr. Nia Nunn even more deserving of this award is that she does this important work in the community on top of living the challenges and fighting the inequities and structural racism in her everyday life for her own family. She works and breathes to make education and access better for all of our children, in addition to her own children, and for that above and beyond she deserves this award and all of our gratitude.”

Nunn credited her role models with inspiring her to keep working for equity in higher education.

“It’s especially as Black and Brown women in higher education, I have such incredible models who remain inspired and exude perseverance despite the 21st century realities of being uniquely critiqued,” said Nun. “The opportunity to pause, breathe and receive is essential. I'm grateful, I'm energized, I’m ready.”