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Proudly supporting Tarek Grantham at the GAGC Awards Reception March 15 are (clockwise) his wife, Kimberly, and children, Jovi Dy, Kurali Wade and Copeland Hatcher-Dillon.

University of Georgia College of Education professor Tarek Grantham has received the 2012 Mary M. Frasier Equity and Excellence Award from the Georgia Association for Gifted Children.

The award is named for the late UGA faculty member who was a nationally recognized scholar and researcher in gifted education, the 2002 Aderhold Distinguished Professor, and the founder of the Torrance Center for Creativity and Talent Development in the College of Education. It is presented annually to an organization or individual who has demonstrated outstanding achievement in practices that promote equitable identification procedures and/or provision of high-quality services to gifted students for under-represented groups.

Grantham, an associate professor in the department of educational psychology and instructional technology, teaches courses in the Gifted and Creative Educational (GCE) program, primarily in the diversity and equity strand: multicultural gifted and talented education, retention of ethnic minorities in gifted/advanced programs, gifted and advanced black students in school, and family and community engagement in talent development.

He has served as program coordinator for both on-campus and online graduate degree programs in GCE. As co-coordinator of the UGA Preparing Future Faculty Program in Psychology sponsored by the American Psychological Association, Grantham worked to recruit, train and retain diverse faculty in the field of educational psychology.

Grantham’s current research focuses on recruitment and retention of under-represented ethnic minority students for gifted and advanced programs, and more specifically, his work focuses on gifted black males, parent engagement, and “upstander” attitudes to enhance motivation, leadership, and talent development among diverse youth. He is co-editor of the book, Gifted and Advanced Black Students in School: An Anthology of Critical Works, and he guest edited a special issue for the Roeper Review titled, “Underrepresentation Among Ethnically Diverse Students in Gifted Education.”

In 2009, Grantham received the E. Paul Torrance Creativity Award for recognizing creative strengths in economically disadvantaged students, and mentoring and developing creativity in those students.

Since 2006, Grantham has been a Diversity and Equity Committee member and served on the Education Commission of The National Association for Gifted Children. This year, he established the Frasier Lecture o, held this year on April 9, to honor the legacy and contribution of Mary M. Frasier to the College of Education.

Grantham received the award during the GAGC Annual Convention in Callaway Gardens March 15-16.