Dr. Ani Yazedjian receives 2026 David A. Strand Diversity Achievement Award

Congratulations to Dr. Ani Yazedjian, recipient of the 2026 David A. Strand Diversity Achievement Award.

Yazedjian was named vice president of Academic Affairs and provost in May 2024 following a one-year appointment serving as acting provost. From 2019-2023 she served as the associate provost. She began her journey as a Redbird when she joined Illinois State University in 2013 as chair of the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences and named University Professor. She received the University's Distinguished Service Award in 2023. Yazedjian also served on the university strategic planning steering team and the COVID-19 steering team.

Prior to arriving at Illinois State, Yazedjian served as a faculty member and Presidential Fellow and Special Assistant to the Provost for International Student Services at Texas State University, where she spearheaded a number of new internationalization initiatives aimed at improving and increasing the support services provided to international students. 

In her tenure as provost, Yazedjian has established and revived professional development opportunities for academic leaders, launched a Provost Fellows program, and initiated an Academic Affairs Academy to start later this spring. She has implemented initiatives to support faculty research and creative activity, provided leadership in the development of a framework for online learning and micro-credentials, convened the interdivisional Committee on Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence, and launched the Adaptive Edge Institute in fall 2025 to help drive campus-wide AI innovation. She has also shepherded new program development processes, allocated additional funding for student support services, like the Redbirds Launch Internship Grant, and overseen the University's successful reaccreditation by the Higher Learning Commission.

Yazedjian's guiding framework focuses on people, programs, and processes, grounded in equity, and driven by a deep sense of purpose about who we are as an institution and why we do what we do.

She is an accomplished scholar, with 60 publications and 170 invited and peer-reviewed presentations. She has been awarded over $7 million in external funding to support her scholarship and is especially proud of a program she developed to provide over 1,000 at-risk youth relationship education, job readiness, and financial management skills. Throughout her career, Yazedjian has worked to strengthen systems, reduce barriers, and support the growth of all individuals, particularly those who have more limited access to the resources needed to support their success.

In 2023, she was selected as a Fellow of the National Council on Family Relations and in 2021, she received the Marie F. Peters Award, also from the National Council on Family Relations, a biennial recognition of a distinguished scholar, researcher, or practitioner who has made significant contributions to the area of racial and ethnic diversity in families. Yazedjian holds a doctorate and master's degree in human and community development from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She holds a bachelor's degree in sociology from the University of Florida.

Established by Illinois State President Emeritus David Strand in 1994, the award recognizes a current Illinois State University faculty or staff member who is instrumental in extraordinary curricular or program activities that assist the University in responding to its commitment to diversity.