Athletic Association Professor named to Kennedy Center Next 50 list
Bettina Love, the Georgia Athletic Association Professor in the Mary Frances Early College of Education, was recently named to The Kennedy Center Next 50 list of leaders and organizations.
As part of its 50th anniversary, the center worked with artists, cultural leaders, arts organizations and community members to select a group of leaders who are making the world a more inspired, inclusive and compassionate place.
“I feel honored and very grateful,” said Love, who teaches in the department of educational theory and practice. “This honor is possible because of so many amazing teachers, students and parents who believe in justice and make the work possible for me. This is a community win.”
Leaders and organizations named to The Kennedy Center Next 50 are paving the way forward in their respective fields through sustained excellence of artistic, educational, athletic, or multi-disciplinary work.
They will also take part in Kennedy Center programs, forums, residencies and events—such as Arts Summit, the Center’s annual convening investigating the power and potential of the arts—and work with The Kennedy Center to create opportunities for discourse with civic leaders to ensure the voices of artistic and cultural leaders are lifted and heard.
Love is an award-winning author whose writing, research, teaching and educational advocacy meet at the intersection of education reform, abolition and Black joy. In the pursuit of making her scholarship a reality, she works with activists, communities, youth, families and school districts to build communal, civically-engaged schools rooted in the aspirations of abolitionist strategies that love and affirm Black and Brown children.
In 2020, Love co-founded the Abolitionist Teaching Network and was also named a member of the Old Fourth Ward Economic Security Task Force with the Atlanta City Council.
She is the author of best-selling book “We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom.