Alumni Distinguished Graduate Professor Alyssa Rockenbach Selected as Member of ACPA Foundation’s 2021 Diamond Honoree Class

Alyssa Rockenbach, Ph.D., Alumni Distinguished Graduate Professor in the NC State College of Education, has been selected as a member of the American College Personnel Association (ACPA) Foundation’s 2021 Diamond Honoree Class.

The Diamond Honoree Program was established in 1999 as a way for those who care about research, scholarship and programs that promote student development and success to help advance the ACPA Foundation’s efforts in encouraging activities that generate and disseminate new knowledge in the student affairs professions and knowledge that prepares students for leadership roles in a global society.

“It is an honor to be a part of the 2021 Diamond Honoree class and to be recognized alongside colleagues whose work and contributions to the field of higher education and student affairs I deeply admire,” Rockenbach said. “I also value the intent of the Diamond Honoree program–which is to raise funds to support future work and scholarship in our profession.”

Diamond Honorees are “championed” by individuals who have recognized the nominee’s specific contributions to the field and choose to raise funds in honor of that nominee’s “outstanding and sustained commitment to higher education through student affairs and student development.” Funds are used to sustain the ACPA Foundation’s support of research, scholarship and programs that advance the field as a whole.

Rockenbach was nominated by Matthew Mayhew, Ph.D., of Ohio State University. Mayhew and Rockenbach serve as co-principal investigators on the Interfaith Diversity Experiences & Attitudes Longitudinal Survey (IDEALS) Project, a partnership with the Interfaith Youth Core that was launched in 2015 and examines how campus climate and college experiences shape student’s knowledge, attitudes and behaviors with respect to religion and worldview.

Findings from the ongoing project were cited several times in an October 2019 U.S. Government Accountability Office report that determined the Department of Justice needs to provide more support to college campuses as reports of religious-based hate crimes increase.

Rockenbach has authored or co-authored more than 100 publications and her work has been featured in national media outlets including The Washington Post, Huffington Post and the Christian Science Monitor. She is the author of the 2016 book How College Affects Students: 21st Century Evidence that Higher Education Works as well as the co-editor of Spirituality in College Students’ Lives: Translating Research Into Practice, released in 2012.