Geneva Gay

Professor emerita, University of Washington, Seattle

Geneva Gay is professor emerita in the College of Education, University of Washington, Seattle. She is the recipient of the 2023 AERA Division B (Curriculum Studies) Lifetime Achievement Award; 1990 Distinguished Scholar Award, presented by the Committee on the Role and Status of Minorities in Educational Research and Development of the American Educational Research Association; the 1994 Multicultural Educator Award, the first to be presented by the National Association of Multicultural Education; the 2004 W. E. B. Du Bois Distinguished Lecturer Award presented by the Special Interest Group on Research Focus on Black Education of the American Educational Research Association; and the 2006 Mary Anne Raywid Award for Distinguished Scholarship in the Field of Education presented by the Society of Professors of Education. She is nationally and internationally known for her scholarship in multicultural education, particularly as it relates to curriculum design, staff development, classroom instruction, and culture and learning.

Her writings include numerous articles and book chapters; she is co-editor of Expressively Black: The Cultural Basis of Ethnic Identity (Praeger, 1987), author of At the Essence of Learning: Multicultural Education (Kappa Delta Pi, 1994), and editor of Becoming Multicultural Educators: Personal Journey Toward Professional Agency (Jossey-Bass, 2003).

Her professional service includes membership on several national editorial review and advisory boards. She is a frequent consultant for schools, professional organizations, and teacher education programs throughout the United States on culturally responsive teaching. International consultations on multicultural education and culturally responsive teaching have taken her to Canada, Brazil, Taiwan, Finland, Japan, England, Scotland, Australia, and Benin.