2020 Outstanding Teaching and Mentoring Award Winner

Dr. Rupert Nacoste is a native of the Louisiana bayou country, and Alumni Distinguished Undergraduate Professor of Psychology at North Carolina State University. During his time in service in the U.S. Navy (1972-1976), to deal with its serious racial problems, the Department of Defense trained him (and others) to be a facilitator of racial dialogues among sailors. From that 1974 point onward, adding academic degrees, Dr. Nacoste has worked as a scholar-activist of interpersonal and intergroup relationships. On the faculty of North Carolina State University since 1988. In 2006, he created his one of a kind “Interpersonal Relationships and Race” course which has become wildly popular. He is the winner of the 2013 UNC Board of Governor’s Teaching Excellence award because he uses a captivating oratory style to engage people to see their own role in moments of tension in social interaction. His books include Taking on diversity: How we can move from anxiety to respect (2015; Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books) and his newest, To Live Woke: Thoughts to carry in our struggle to save the soul of America (2020, Loyola University Baltimore, Md: Apprentice House Press).