The Dr. Larry E. Davis Award Dinner is a prestigious celebration that recognizes the exceptional contributions, groundbreaking research, and visionary leadership of faculty members who have shaped their fields and enriched our academic community. The awards are open to all Pitt faculty members, regardless of field, whose work is reflective of Dr. Davis’s legacy. A description of each of the award categories follows.
Award Descriptions
Academic Excellence
This award celebrates a faculty member whose scholarly achievement and service reflect the standard Dr. Davis set through his own career; from founding the Center on Race and Social Problems to authoring influential books and research that shaped both academic and public discourse.
Nominees should demonstrate a similarly sustained record of notable accomplishment and service over the course of their professorial journey.
Emerging Scholar
This award recognizes rising-star faculty with 8 years or less of experience who are already making a significant scholarly impact; carrying forward Dr. Davis's own passion for identifying and uplifting the next generation of leaders and scholars.
Nominees should demonstrate innovative research, strong early-career promise, and a trajectory toward future leadership and field-shaping contribution.
Excellence in Community-Engaged Scholarship
This award honors faculty whose teaching and/or research is grounded in sustained, reciprocal partnership with communities; in the tradition of Dr. Davis's own community-engaged scholarship, from CRSP's long-running "lunch and lecture" series to a pilot grant program that turned modest internal funding into millions in external support for race-related research.
Nominees should demonstrate work that similarly bridges the gap between research and practice.
Excellence in Leadership
This award recognizes faculty who demonstrate exceptional academic leadership through vision, influence, and institutional impact; the kind of leadership Dr. Davis brought to his sixteen years as Dean of Pitt's School of Social Work, building the school into a national model through top faculty recruitment, strengthened doctoral programs, and a rise to among the top 10 schools nationally.
Nominees should hold a formal or substantive leadership role and show evidence of building programs, strengthening units or teams, advancing strategic priorities, and inspiring others.
Excellence in Mentoring
This award celebrates faculty with a strong record of mentoring junior scholars, students, or colleagues over time, carrying forward Dr. Davis's own passion for mentoring and uplifting the next generation, brought to life through the Black Administrators, Researchers, and Scholars (BARS) network and the personal mentorship colleagues and former students consistently point to as central to his impact.
Nominees should demonstrate sustained mentoring, measurable mentee growth or success, and a clear commitment to cultivating the next generation of leaders and scholars.
Nomination Information
Basic Guidelines and Dates
- Nominees may be self-nominated or nominated by any faculty, administrator, or staff member employed by the University of Pittsburgh.
- Nominees may be nominated for only one of the below listed awards.
- Nominations Open: August 17, 2026
- Nomination Deadline: Thursday, September 14, 2026
- As a courtesy to all nominees, no late submissions will be accepted.
- Incomplete nominations will not be considered.
- Awardee Announcement: Friday, September 25, 2026
- Award Dinner: Thursday, October 29, 2026
Nomination Questions by Award Category
Every nomination begins with basic information about the nominee and nominator. Review the questions specific to each award category, plus what every nominee is asked regardless of category, so that you can collect the necessary information before beginning the application.