On May 14, Belisa González, associate professor of sociology and director of the Center for the Study of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity, was presented with the President Shirley M. Collado Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Ithaca College Community.

The new award supports the professional development of the chosen faculty member, providing $5,000 to further enhance the capacity for equitable and inclusive leadership. It was established by a gift from Gloria Hobbs, an honorary member of the Ithaca College Board of Trustees, who was inspired to create the award after learning about Collado’s inclusive vision for the Ithaca College community.

For more than 10 years, González has run the Urban Mentor Initiative, a distance mentorship program that pairs middle school students from Brooklyn, New York, with students from Ithaca College. González has also co-created and conducted a series of workshops on inequality in higher education, inclusiveness and excellence in the hiring process, microaggressions in the classroom, and how to have difficult dialogues in the workplace. Her teaching and research focuses on inter- and intra-group relations between and within communities of color in the United States.

“Belisa González has been working to help Ithaca College and our community become a more equitable and inclusive place for all of us since her arrival on campus 12 years ago,” said Wade Pickren, now retired director of the Center for Faculty Excellence. “Her commitment to inclusive education has been evident in her teaching, her work with students, her scholarship, her service, and her leadership—as well as her work in this community and beyond. She is dedicated to making our world, our campus, and our community places where inclusion and equity matter for all of us.”