The 2025 Terry O'Banion Legacy Award application process will open in April 2024.

In recognition of Terry O’Banion’s many contributions to thought leadership and innovation in the community college field, the League for Innovation in the Community College has created the Terry O’Banion Legacy Award. Throughout his six decades in community college education, O’Banion has been a thought leader who pushes faculty, staff, and administrators to think differently about their work, their institutions, their students, and the communities they serve. With close to 300 publications, including 18 books, he is a long-time community college champion whose steadfast efforts to expand opportunities for current and prospective students have had a major influence on the field.

O’Banion has described himself as a provocateur in the field of education: someone who proposes what can enhance learning, exposes what reduces learning, and challenges what is to create what can be. As a provocateur, he is an advocate, reformer, provoker, proponent, and challenger.

In this provocateur spirit, the Terry O’Banion Legacy Award supports preparation of a paper that presents an innovative and thought-provoking examination of and response to a major issue or challenge facing community and technical colleges. The issue or challenge may or may not be one that is widely recognized by the community and technical college field, but it must have impact across the range of public community and technical colleges and across international borders.

Additional information about the award and the 2025 application process will be available in April 2024.