PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas (November 12, 2020) – Fred A. Bonner II, Ed.D., is the newest recipient of the Regents Professor Award at Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU). The award is the highest honor granted to faculty employed by the Texas A&M University System (TAMUS). Bonner and 14 other faculty members and seven agency service, extension, or research professionals within TAMUS received news of their appointments as 2019-2020 Regents Professors and Regents Fellows today.
“I am both excited and humbled to be recognized as one of the recipients of the Regents Professor Award,” said Bonner. “The Texas A&M System, in general, and Prairie View A&M University, in particular, have both contributed to my career in profound ways.”
The TAMUS Board of Regents established the Regents Professor Awards program in 1996 and the Regents Fellow Service Awards program in 1998 to recognize employees who have made extraordinary contributions to their university, agency, and the people of Texas. Bonner, who’s been teaching since 1997, and at PVAMU since 2015, has made an impact on countless numbers of generations in both Texas and beyond.
“My first full-time position was a visiting professor at Centenary College of Louisiana,” he said. “Actually, I taught a sociology course as a ‘sub’ for a friend at Owens Community College in Toledo, Ohio. It was only for a semester, but it was on Friday evenings! It was a great formative experience.”
Throughout his career, Bonner has been leaning on his guiding philosophy of excellence via esprit de corps; his core belief is that learning, growth, and development is best accomplished through collective efforts and a shared vision.
“I am hoping to make a difference in students’ lives in two critical ways. The first is by serving as an example of who and what they can become. All students, and especially our diverse student populations, need to see me in these roles and spaces that we, people of color, are sometimes not well represented,” he said. “The second way is by engaging in and producing cutting-edge scholarship that provides a different narrative regarding diverse and underrepresented student success. I am attempting to redirect the narrative-moving from a focus on deficits to an emphasis on assets.”
Bonner currently serves as a professor and endowed chair in PVAMU’s Whitlowe R. Green College of Education (WRGCOE). He teaches courses in the Department of Educational Leadership and Counseling, ranging from dissertation seminars to classes on diversity in higher education. He’s authored, co-authored, edited, and co-edited nine books, with two books pending as part of his new series Diverse Faculty in the Academy with Routledge Press.
“Dr. Bonner’s success can be attributed to the fact that he is passionate about education and is committed to student success,” WRGCOE Dean Michael McFrazier, Ed.D., said in his support letter for Bonner’s nomination. “He is innovative in his instructional delivery, which is demonstrated by the special lecture series, debates, speakers’ programs, and other activities he organizes to enrich the learning environment.”
In addition to his teaching and writing endeavors, Bonner is the executive director and chief scientist of the Minority Achievement, Creativity, and High-Ability Center (MACH-III). According to its website, MACH-III produces cutting-edge best-practices and scholarship that speaks to the contemporary issues impacting critical populations: administration, faculty, and students across the P-20 spectrum.
“Dr. Bonner has a national and international following for his research,” said James M. Palmer, Ph.D., provost and senior vice president of Academic Affairs at PVAMU. “He and the MACH-III team are transforming Prairie View into a leader for the examination of contemporary issues such as diversity, equity, and inclusion impacting critical populations across the P-20 spectrum and beyond.”
Bonner, who comes from humble beginnings, says he is just thankful to have made a difference in his 23 years of educating, and counting.
“I think the best part of receiving this award is that, for me, it represents all of who I am–an African American male, researcher, scholar, and teacher, who is an East Texas native, son, and grandson of HBCU [Historically Black Colleges/Universities] graduates who served as public school teachers and administrators,” said Bonner. “I routinely end my class sessions with the same statement, ‘Go Forth and Do Great Things!’ It is super cool that several of my former students have connected this statement to their memories of being in my classes over the years.”
To date, 268 A&M system faculty members have been recognized with the Regents Professor Award, and 157 agency professionals have received the Regents Fellow Service Award.
Click here to read the full announcement from the Texas A&M University System.
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*Academic course instruction is not affected by the passage of SB 17. The law specifically states that its limitations may not be construed to apply scholarly research or a creative work by an institution of higher education’s students, faculty, or other research personnel or the dissemination of that research or work. This page reference is to specific research interest of a professor, Dr. Fred Bonner.*