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ASU Charter Professors
Recognizing commitment to ASU’s charter
A Charter Professor’s record reflects a commitment to ASU’s charter: inclusion and success, research of public value and responsibility for the well-being of the community. The Charter Professor title is, therefore, a temporary credential to signal the close engagement of a particular faculty member with issues relevant to ASU and its charter.
Each year, ASU will sponsor faculty members — tenured or tenure-track faculty member(s) and career-track faculty member(s) — to serve as Charter Professors for a period of three years. Funding will be provided to support the charter-focused projects of each ASU faculty chosen for this honor.
Nominations for Charter Professors are made by ASU deans and are now open.
2024 Charter Professors
Maureen McCoy
Teaching Professor
College of Health Solutions
McCoy has been recognized for her efforts as faculty advisor and student mentor for the student-led nonprofit Pitchfork Pantry. The pantry was developed to address student food insecurity and is designed to provide immediate access to free, nutritious food, essential clothing and hygiene products for ASU students.
Trevor Reed
Professor of Law
Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law
Reed stands out for his pursuit of inclusive innovation as a core tenant of his research, teaching and service. He works to help Indigenous creatives, entrepreneurs and inventors understand what rights they have to their work and navigate the complex world of intellectual property ownership.
2023 Charter Professors
Sara Brownell
President’s Professor
School of Life Sciences
Brownell's research focuses on inclusive excellence in undergraduate STEM education, attending to strategies to promote student success across a range of intersectional identities and lived experiences.
Stacey Gandy
Assistant Professor
School of Social Work
Gandy's commitment to ASU’s Charter and design aspirations are most clearly reflected in her work with the Community Collaborative, an interdisciplinary community project that crosscuts six colleges and schools across ASU.
Karen Knierman
Assistant Teaching Professor
School of Earth and Space Exploration
Knierman’s passion for astronomy and physics education is not only evident in her ASU classrooms, but in her impact on the broader community. Knierman has trained more than 500 teachers to use the Starlab portable planetarium.
Gilberto Lopez
Assistant Professor
School of Transborder Studies
Lopez’s research focuses on addressing social and health disparities in the Latino community, demonstrating his commitment to ASU’s focus on research of public value that promotes community well-being.