Carol Mullen, a professor of educational leadership in Virginia Tech’s School of Education, has been honored with the 2017 Living Legend Award from the country’s premier national organization for educational leaders.

Presented by the National Council of Professors of Educational Administration, the award recognizes recipients for significant contributions to the field, including exemplary ethics, professionalism in service, and dedication to research and teaching.

In August, Mullen will deliver a speech at the Living Legend banquet during the council’s annual conference, to be held in Puerto Rico.

Mullen specializes in mentoring theory and practice, creativity and innovation in learning, and values-oriented pedagogies for developing professionals and systems. She recently published a book, Creativity and Education in China: Paradox and Possibilities for an Era of Accountability (Routledge and Kappa Delta Pi, 2017), the result of a Fulbright Scholar Award that took her to China in 2015.

Among her many honors, Mullen received the Jay D. Scribner Mentoring Award from the University Council for Education Administration in 2016.

More recently, the American Educational Research Association (AERA) honored her with the 2017 Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award for Service from its Learning and Teaching in Educational Leadership Special Interest Group. She was recognized for stellar contributions to organizational service and excellence in the mentoring of students and junior faculty in the educational leadership field.

In addition, Mullen and her coauthors — Mariela Rodriguez, an associate professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio, and Tawannah Allen, an associate professor at High Point University — received the 2017 AERA Best Paper Award from the Action Research Special Interest Group. At the AERA annual meeting this spring in San Antonio, Texas, Mullen accepted both awards, gave talks at the award ceremonies, and presented papers.

A past president of the National Council of Professors of Educational Administration, Mullen has authored or edited 21 scholarly books and 225 refereed journal articles and juried book chapters. She holds a doctoral degree and a master’s degree from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto and a bachelor’s degree from York University in Toronto.

Mullen is the second Virginia Tech faculty member to receive the Living Legend Award since its establishment in 1999. David Alexander, a professor specializing in educational leadership and policy studies in the School of Education, received the award in 2014.