PROMOTE Initiative
Elevating excellence
As part of President Crow’s vision for a New American University, access and excellence go hand in hand. While ASU has excelled in expanding access, the PROMOTE Initiative—led by the Office of the Executive Vice President and University Provost—advances excellence by identifying highly prestigious national and international awards, coordinating faculty nominations and supporting recognition at the highest levels, including honors from the National Academies.
How PROMOTE can help faculty:
- Collaborate with deans, department chairs, and distinguished faculty to surface strong candidates and empower nominators.
- Work with scholars to strengthen professional presence and craft compelling nomination packages.
- Build bridges between internal and external nominators to align support.
- Track internal submission dates and approval workflows to keep nominations on schedule.
- Elevate faculty achievements through ASU-wide recognition and media outreach.
How faculty can strengthen and grow their portfolio:
- Target early- and mid-career society awards that often precede highly prestigious honors.
- Take roles on editorial boards, professional committees, grant panels, or advisory groups.
- Survey the landscape of the major awards in your field, and assess your fit
.
.
A team focused on achievement
The PROMOTE Advisory Committee is composed of faculty from across ASU schools and departments, recommended by their deans. Committee members bring deep knowledge of ASU faculty and of the awards landscape within their fields.
Ayanna Thompson
Special Advisor to the Provost, PROMOTE Initiative Lead
Ayanna Thompson is a Regents’ Professor of English at Arizona State University, and the Executive Director of the Arizona Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies (ACMRS). In 2025 she was elected to the British Academy, and in 2021, she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is an expert in Shakespeare in performance and serves on the boards of the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Folger Shakespeare Library, the National Parks Arts Foundation, and Play On Shakespeare.
Osvaldo Sala
Special Advisor to the Provost, PROMOTE Initiative Lead
Osvaldo Sala is the Julie A. Wrigley, Regents’, and Foundation Professor in the School of Life Sciences and School of Sustainability, and the Founding Director of the Global Drylands Center. Osvaldo has been trained as a dryland ecologist working from the local to the global levels. He has received several recognitions to his academic work including being an elected Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Academy of Sciences of Argentina, the Argentinean National Academy of Physical and Natural Sciences, Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the American Geophysical Union, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Ecological Society of America.
.
.