Jennifer Martin, an associate professor in the University of Illinois Springfield’s School of Education, has been selected to receive the Truman L. Kelley Award for Scholarship Excellence from Kappa Delta Pi (KDP), a national educational honor society. The award will be presented during KDP’s first-ever virtual Founders Day Celebration on March 8.

According to KDP, the award is given to an individual who has demonstrated a sustained effort in scholarship excellence within KDP and the education profession at the local, national and/or global level.

In announcing the award, KDP Chief Executive Officer Tonja Eagan stated that Martin is “highly qualified to receive this well-deserved honor!”

Before transitioning to higher education, Martin spent 17 years in public education, with 15 of those years serving as the department chair of English at an urban alternative high school in metropolitan Detroit, focusing on students considered at-risk for academic challenges.

Since 2018, she has served as the editor of the Journal of Urban Learning Teaching and Research. Additionally, Martin edited "Racial Battle Fatigue: Insights from the Front Lines of Social Justice Advocacy," which earned the 2016 AERA Division B’s Outstanding Book Recognition Award. In 2019, she was honored with the Paula Silver Case Award for her contribution to the UCEA Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership for the volume year 2018, specifically for her work on "The Bathroom Case: Creating a Supportive School Environment for Transgender and Gender Non-conforming Students."

Martin's most recent co-authored publication is "Mentoring the Mentor: Celebrating the Intersection of Learning Together, A Reciprocal Journey." In 2021, she received the Burks Oakley II Distinguished Online Teaching Award from the University of Illinois at Springfield and was designated as a University Scholar at UIS for the 2022–2023 academic term. She hosts the eduCATE podcast.

Truman L. Kelley (1884–1961) was instrumental in the founding of KDP. He was a noted scholar who made an impact on American education through his work in statistics and education. He also had great interest in the sciences and psychology.