Washburn University Professor Melanie Burdick is a KBOR 2026 Sunflower Award for Corequisite Innovation Recipient

Topeka, Kan. - The Kansas Board of Regents (KBOR) has selected Dr. Melanie Burdick, English professor, Washburn University, as a 2026 Sunflower Award for Corequisite Innovation recipient. The Sunflower Award for Corequisite Innovation recognizes Kansas faculty leaders who are advancing student access and success through the implementation of corequisite reform. Rooted in the priorities of the KBOR "Building a Future" strategic plan, this award highlights faculty whose work is helping remove barriers to gateway course completion and strengthening student momentum toward degree attainment.

Burdick is being recognized for her work providing statewide leadership in English composition reforms. In 2024, she served as co-chair with Dr. Stephanie Joiner of Barton Community College of KBOR's system-wide English Course Placement Committee which identified a system for the entire state of Kansas to identify students who need support in their first-year college writing classes. She also worked with Casey Reid with the University of Kansas and Katheryn McCoskey from Butler Community College to design and implement multiple professional development workshops for English composition faculty in Kansas throughout the 2024-2025 academic year. These workshops instructed faculty in how to teach the new corequisite model of first year college writing. And in October 2025, she was selected as one of seven individuals to represent Kansas in the Strong Start to Finish and Complete College America Policy Academy.

"First year college writing should be the class where students find their voices and gain confidence, allowing them to participate in all kinds of new conversations," said Burdick. "It should not be a course used to eliminate certain students. The recent reforms in how college composition is taught are perfectly in line with Washburn's philosophy of a student-centered, teaching-focused college experience, and I am proud to be supporting these reforms across Kansas."

The Kansas Board of Regents launched the "Building a Future in Corequisite Innovation: A Systemwide Faculty Leadership Initiative" in 2026. This initiative includes several components designed to recognize faculty leadership and support continued innovation in corequisite reform. The Sunflower Award is one of these components and recognized four faculty from Kansas community colleges and three from Kansas public universities in its inaugural year.

"Melanie exemplifies Washburn's core values, striving to enhance learning opportunities for our students, as well as students across Kansas," said Dr. John Fritch, provost and vice president of academic affairs, Washburn University. "We know the more people who participate successfully in postsecondary education, the better the outcomes are for our communities."

Burdick has been teaching at Washburn University since 2011 in the English Department. Her areas of focus are English education, composition and literacy studies. She is the author of "Literacy Experiences of Formerly Incarcerated Women: Sentences and Sponsors" (2021, Lexington Books) and co-author of "At the Crossroads of Pedagogical Change in Higher Education: Exploring the Work of Faculty Developers" (2021, Routledge) and "Community Fieldwork in Teacher Education: Theory and Practice" (2015, Routledge), as well as multiple book chapters and articles. Prior to Washburn, she was with the University of Missouri- Kansas City and the University of Kansas.

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