Associate Professor James Bartlett Receives Lifetime Achievement Award from N.C. Association of Career and Technical Education

Since he began his career in education as a high school business teacher, NC State College of Education Associate Professor James Bartlett has been passionate about helping students find career and technical education (CTE) programs that will help them obtain good jobs, open more educational opportunities and create economic prosperity.

Now, his commitment to career and technical education has been recognized with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the N.C. Association of Career and Technical Education.

The award honors CTE professionals for their leadership, their contributions in CTE and their overall contributions to the field over time. 

“The reason this honor means so much to me is that the N.C. Association of Career and Technical Education is the state-level affiliate of the premiere organization that supports career and technical education for educators across the country at the secondary and postsecondary levels in a wide range of disciplines including business, manufacturing, trade and industry, agriculture and more,” Bartlett said. “The Lifetime Achievement Award is an honor that recognizes my sustained contributions in the field that includes recent work mentoring new researchers and leaders.”

When Bartlett served as president of the Association for Career and Technical Education, his presidential address called on the field to recognize the importance of mentoring and developing future CTE researchers. 

At NC State, he has supported more than 50 researchers to date through the Postsecondary CTE Research Fellows Program at the NC State College of Education. The program supports fellows from across the country who have published and presented their research and are working in faculty, research and leadership roles to improve the CTE field. 

The program recently received an additional $1.3 million in funding, allowing it to continue for an additional four years. 

As a mentor himself, Bartlett said receiving this Lifetime Achievement Award has given him an opportunity to reflect on the impact his own mentors have had on his educational journey. 

“This award made me reflect on how fortunate I was to have mentors to help me with my pathway in higher education, including Mr. Palmer and Dr. Malobicky, the high school CTE teachers that engaged me; Dr. Wayne More, a business education professor in my undergraduate program who encouraged me to conduct research; Dr. Joe Kotorlik, my advisor and dissertation chair at Louisiana State University; and several other colleagues who work in CTE and workforce development.” 

As the winner of the N.C. Association of Career and Technical Education Lifetime Achievement Award, Bartlett will be nominated for the Region 2 Lifetime Achievement Award – which covers Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, the Bahamas, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands – in 2023.