IA Announces 2025 Awardees: Alexis Pauline Gumbs and David Hoffman

Imagining America is pleased to announce that David Hoffman is the recipient of the 2025 Randy Martin Spirit Award, and Alexis Pauline Gumbs is the inaugural recipient of the 2025 Julie Ellison Vision Award. Please join us in celebrating the work and spirit of these dedicated community-engaged scholars, artists, organizers.

Randy Martin Spirit Award

Recipients of the Randy Martin Spirit Award are professionals working in and/or in-partnership with higher education who consistently achieve excellence and demonstrate original thinking and approaches in at least three of the areas in which Randy Martin excelled: scholarship, artistry, pedagogy, mentorship, and institutional leadership/administration. His unique combination of playfulness, joy, experimentation, and critical thought embodies the core values of IA, as do our celebrated Randy Martin Spirit Award recipients.

Julie Ellison Vision Award

The Julie Ellison Vision Award, honoring the visionary work of IA’s founding faculty director and Professor Emerita at University of Michigan, recognizes the leading-edge visions for justice, equity, and relentless support of the next generation of public scholars by current and former fellows in IA’s Publicly Active Graduate Education (PAGE) program. This award honors a former PAGE fellow who demonstrates an ongoing commitment to publicly engaged graduate education in their current institution or organization, in a manner that reflects the values and vision of Dr. Julie Ellison.