Brian A. Burt, an alumnus of the Secondary Education program (B.S., 2004), has won the Dr. Charlie Nelms Distinguished Alumni Award, the most prestigious honor presented to a Neal-Marshall Alumni Club alum whose achievements reflect exceptional professional excellence, leadership, and community impact.

Burt is currently a professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis and director of Wisconsin’s Equity and Inclusion Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin. He said he was speechless when he found out he received the award. As a freshman at IU, he was concerned he didn’t fit in and had made the wrong decision about coming to Bloomington—until meeting Nelms in person changed his mind. 

“Interacting with him, listening to him speak around campus, and observing the student-centered work he did on campus contributed to my turning point,” Burt said. “He encouraged me to get involved on campus, to make connections with peers, and to see IU as my own. His words and model of excellence were transformative for me and a reason why I'm in the field of Higher Education and study college student success.”

In 2024, Burt launched a transformative initiative, Black Males in Engineering, based on his extensive research on Black male student success. This new initiative includes short videos, complementary handouts, and curated resources on a user-friendly website. Each video targets a distinct audience (parents/caregivers, teachers, peers, mentors, professors, and students), and as a collection, the video series illuminates the lifecycle of curiosity, perseverance, and success for Black boys and men in STEM. The Black Males in Engineering project was awarded a Telly Award, a prestigious distinction in the world of media, a significant achievement as it highlights the immense reach and impact that the Black Males in Engineering project has made both within the field of education and to society. 

Burt will be showing the video series and offering a short lecture about the research behind it to Higher Education and Student Affairs (HESA) students, as well as participating in mentoring events with undergraduate and graduate students, while he is in Bloomington attending IU Homecoming events and accepting the Nelms award.

Burt noted he is grateful to his nominator, Shontrai Irving, Esq., who also received the Dr. Charlie Nelms Distinguished Alumni Award in 2010, as well as B. Afeni McNeely Cobham and Cameron Beatty, both HESA alums, for their contributions to his nomination.