An AASA award program that was created more than 75 years ago will recognize seven top-shelf graduate students in educational administration.

The AASA Educational Administration Scholarship, first issued in 1949, provides recognition and financial assistance to outstanding graduate students in school administration who intend to make the school superintendency a career. AASA selects recipients on the basis of their professional work experiences and excellence in school administration, personal essays and recommendations from university faculty. 

Each recipient receives a $2,500 scholarship given in honor of seven of AASA’s former executive directors: Sherwood D. Shankland, Worth McClure, Finis E. Engleman, Forrest E. Connor, Paul B. Salmon, Richard D. Miller and Paul D. Houston.

The 2026 scholarship recipients are as follows.

• Dana M. Bowser of Aston, Pa., is director of student success and engagement in the Chester Upland School District in Chester, Pa. Bowser is working on an Ed.D. at Neumann University in Pennsylvania that she expects to complete by this fall. Bowser has been an AASA member since 2025.

• Rochelle Renae Espitia of San Jose, Calif., is principal of Shirakawa Elementary School in San Jose, Calif., part of the Franklin McKinley School District. She is completing her doctorate in education in May at the Rossier School at University of Southern California.  

• Pierre Orbe of North Bergen, N.J., is principal of DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, N.Y. He is pursuing a doctorate in educational leadership at Russell Sage College in Albany N.Y., that he expects to complete in December.

• Markesha Parker of Danville, Ill., is associate superintendent of the Danville School District 118 in Illinois. She is working on a doctorate in educational leadership at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with an early 2028 completion date. Parker became an AASA member in 2025.

• Han Phung of Berkeley, Calif., is deputy superintendent of alternative education in the Oakland Unified School District in California. She is working on an Ed.D. at University of California Berkeley School of Education that she hopes to complete in May 2028.
  
• Matthew Ritter of Lynbrook, N.Y. is assistant superintendent of data, planning, assessment and accountability in the Uniondale Union Free School District in Uniondale, N.Y. He expects to complete an Ed.D. in educational leadership at Russell Sage College in Albany, N.Y., in August. Ritter joined AASA as a member in 2025.

• Porsha Robinson of Westerville, Ohio, is principal of Deer Run Elementary School in the Dublin City School District in Dublin, Ohio. She expects to complete her superintendent licensure in June at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, where she previously earned a Ph.D. in special education and applied behavior analysis. Robinson became an AASA member in 2025.
  

(Jay Goldman is editor-in-chief of Conference Daily Online and the editor of AASA’s School Administrator magazine.)