Royster was among five women leaders from the Georgia Tech community who were honored with the Leadership Excellence Award. The other recipients included Meltem Alemdar, assistant director and senior research scientist at the Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics, and Computing (CEISMC); Sherry Farrugia, chief operations and strategy officer at the Pediatric Technology Center; Elizabeth Mynatt, executive director at the Institute for People and Technology; and Sungmee Park, co-founder and chief technology officer at Sarvint Technologies Inc.

Royster’s research explores the intersections of the history of rhetoric, feminist studies, and cultural studies with a primary interest in the connections between human and civil rights. She has received several awards, including The Winifred Bryan Horner Award from the Coalition of Women Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition and being named a Fellow of the Rhetoric Society of America.

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the graduation of Georgia Tech’s first two female graduates, Diane Michel and Shirley Clements Mewborn. In celebration of the milestone, the Leadership Excellence Awards were created to honor women faculty, staff, and alumnae who are excelling in leadership, collaboration, and innovation.

The Leadership Excellence Award recipients were selected due to accomplishing one or more of the following:

• Built communities and raised the capacity of others to collectively advance the Institute’s potential.
• Either had national or international impact, or if at the regional level, attracted wider recognition.
• Created needed institutions, initiatives, and/or programs.
• Transformed their chosen field and presented fundamental and influential research contributions.

To learn more about the Leadership Excellence Awards, visit diversity.gatech.edu.