Susan Assouline, (BS ‘75, EDS ’84, PhD ‘88) received the Board of Regents Award for Faculty Excellence. Assouline, the Myron and Jacqueline Blank Endowed Chair in Gifted Education in the College of Education, directs the Belin-Blank International Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development and is internationally acknowledged as a leader in the field of gifted education. She has co-authored dozens of publications, perhaps most notably the reports A Nation Deceived and A Nation Empowered, both of which have changed the way educators perceive academic acceleration for gifted learners. She has contributed significantly to the growth of the Belin-Blank Center, expanding its research contributions and its service to students and educators across the nation and around the world. 

Jan Warren, (2 MAs ‘07) received the Board of Regents Staff Excellence Award. She is the assistant director for student services at the Belin-Blank Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development. She is a national leader in early college entrance programs. At the Belin-Blank Center, she administers a number of pre-college student programs that positively impact thousands of young Iowans. These include the Blank Summer Institute, the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards for Iowa and the Midwest region, and the new Bucksbaum Early Entrance Academy, a premier opportunity for highly talented high school students who are ready to start college at the age of sixteen. She spearheaded development of two new three-week summer residency programs for high school students, in art and writing, that were offered for the first time in summer 2018.