Adler University received the 2025 Higher Education Excellence and Distinction (HEED) Award from Insight Into Academia magazine, the oldest and largest diversity-focused publication in higher education. Recipients of the annual HEED Award — a national honor recognizing U.S. colleges and universities — demonstrate an outstanding commitment to academic excellence, belonging, and community-building across all levels of campus life.
Adler will be featured, along with 60 other recipients, in the October 2025 issue of Insight Into Academia magazine. This is the second year the University has been named a HEED Award recipient.
“Receiving the HEED Award for a second year underscores our deep commitment to educational excellence through embedding lifelong learning, cultural understanding, and cross-border collaboration into every aspect of our work,” said Adler University President Lisa Coleman, Ph.D. “This distinction reflects our mission to challenge convention and create change – we intentionally integrate community partnerships and co-creation into the fabric of our institutional work. This recognition is an important affirmation of the work of our students, faculty, staff, alumni, and partners, as they continue to reimagine systems, advance public health and well-being, and strengthen communities locally and globally.”
Insight Into Academia selected Adler for its efforts to intentionally embed values of inclusive excellence and belonging into all aspects of the organization. The University embraces global perspectives and cultural nuances across the institution. This effort expands the organization’s capacity to strengthen internal culture, as well as the leadership capacity of its students, faculty, and staff.
“We take a detailed and somewhat holistic approach to reviewing each application in determining who will be named a HEED Award recipient. Our standards are high, and we look for institutions where academic excellence and belonging are woven into the work being done every day across their campus,” said Lenore Pearlstein, co-publisher of Insight Into Academia magazine.
For more information about the 2025 HEED Award, visit insightintoacademia.com.
