School of Education faculty member Brian Burt has been honored by the University of Maryland’s College of Education with an alumni achievement award.
Burt was chosen to receive the college’s inaugural Alumni Changemaker Award, which acknowledges his dedication to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the field of education. In its announcement of the honor, the college noted Burt’s scholarship investigating the experiences of students of color in engineering and the factors that may encourage or dissuade them from pursuing STEM pathways.
“He is committed to mentoring students and engages both students and colleagues about diversity and inclusion,” the college noted.
Burt is an associate professor in the UW–Madison School of Education’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis and director and chief research scientist with Wisconsin’s Equity and Inclusion Laboratory (Wei LAB).
Burt earned his master’s degree in higher education administration from the University of Maryland in 2006. He says he is honored by the acknowledgement.
“I am humbled to receive this honor that recognizes my efforts toward diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice,” Burt says. “At Maryland, I received invaluable learning experiences, life-changing mentoring, and the tools to better understand and dismantle inequities. What I learned during my time at Maryland directly translates to my current teaching, mentoring, research, and leadership.”
Last summer, Burt received an alumni achievement award from another of his alma maters, Indiana University. In 2021, he was the inaugural winner of the Emerging Leader Alumni Award from the University of Michigan’s School of Education.
Burt has received numerous awards recognizing his excellence in research, including the National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship and National Science Foundation Early CAREER Award. He recently received a H.I. Romnes Fellowship from UW–Madison, which recognizes faculty with exceptional research contributions within their first six years from promotion to a tenured position.
Burt’s research uses qualitative methodological approaches to study the experience of graduate students and the institutional policies and practices that influence students’ pathways. His current research falls into two strands: understanding team-based research experiences and exploring the experiences of underrepresented graduate students of color in engineering. His most recent publication, a collaboration with his own doctoral student mentees, published in the Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering, illuminates some factors that influence Black men to pursue higher education in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).