Distinguished Fellows
About the Award
The Southern Economic Association® (SEA) Board unanimously approved a resolution creating a Distinguished Fellows Program at its 2022 Annual Meeting. Distinguished Fellows have a substantial record of exceptional scholarly achievement and long-term involvement and service to the Association. No more than two Distinguished Fellows will be recognized in any one year. Recipients of the award will include the outgoing past-president, who will have just completed formal service to the SEA Board of Directors, and up to one more recipient. The latter will be proposed by the Board based on nominations solicited from the SEA membership, which will then be chosen by a vote from all living Distinguished Fellows.
Candidates for admission as a Distinguished Fellow should have both a substantial record of exceptional scholarly achievement and long-term involvement and service to the SEA.
Evidence of exceptional scholarly achievement could include:
- An exemplary quantity of published books, journal articles, or other scholarly publications;
- Evidence of a substantial impact of their scholarship. Such impact could be evidenced by numerous citations, extensive media coverage of their scholarship or clear impact of their scholarship directly on economic policy;
- Major external awards and recognitions (such as a John Bates Clark medal, a Nobel Prize, membership in the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, best academic article published in a professional journal, delivery of special lectures and addresses, journalistic arrangements with major news outlets).
Evidence of long-term involvement to the SEA could include:
- Cumulative years of membership and conference participation;
- Substantial service as a member of the Board of Trustees and/or the Southern Economic Journal (SEJ) Editorial Board.
Nominees must satisfy at least some threshold of both the exceptional scholarly achievement and long-term involvement and service criteria. Once a minimum threshold is satisfied on both criteria, exceptional qualifications on either margin can compensate for lesser accomplishments on the other margin.
Call for Nominations
The 2026 Distinguished Fellow award announcement and presentation will take place Sunday, November 22, 2026 at the Marriott Marquis Houston in Houston, TX, during the SEA 96th Annual Meeting Presidential Luncheon.
Inquiries and nominations may be submitted directly to the Office of the Secretary/Treasurer, Benjamin Powell (Texas Tech University) at admin@southerneconomic.org.
Please provide the nominee’s contact information and current CV along with the nomination letter.
The deadline to submit nominations is Monday, March 23, 2026.
Past Recipients
| 2025 | |
| 2024 | Julie Hotchkiss (Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta) |
| 2023 |
* = deceased