Pullias Center Founding Director William Tierney awarded USC Faculty Lifetime Achievement Award

Noted higher education scholar and USC Pullias Center founding director William (Bill) Tierney has been awarded the prestigious 2026 USC Faculty Lifetime Achievement Award.

Awarded to a select number of retired faculty at the annual Academic Honors Convocation, the USC Faculty Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes eminent careers and notable contributions to the university, the profession and the community. Tierney was nominated for this honor by USC Rossier Dean Pedro A. Noguera and Professor Julie Posselt, among others.

Tierney has had an illustrious career in academia, having spent more than three decades conducting research on college access for underrepresented youth, as well as improving the performance of colleges and universities, Tierney is committed to informing policies and practices related to educational equity and postsecondary effectiveness. He began his career at USC in 1993, initially serving as the founding director of the Center for Higher Education Policy Analysis (CHEPA) before facilitating the endowed gift that created the Earl and Pauline Pullias Center for Higher Education in 2012. Tierney was named the Wilbur-Kieffer Professor Higher Education in 1998 and was named University Professor in 2006.

“I am honored to have received the Faculty Lifetime Achievement Award,” said Tierney. “The only reason I have received this award is because I was lucky enough to work in an environment at USC that encouraged me to take intellectual risks. My colleagues, especially those who were most severe in critiquing my work, helped me become a better scholar.”

“Bill’s dedication and contributions to the academy and to USC have been so significant and this award honors his decades of work. His service as president of the academic senate was particularly noteworthy,” noted Pullias Center Director Adrianna Kezar. “His 25 years as director of the Pullias Center helped USC to become a leader on the issue of college access, and his acquisition of the Pullias endowment for the Center ensured it would be a leader for decades to come.”

Some of Tierney’s myriad awards and accolades include winner of Distinguished Research Award from Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE), Member of the National Academy of Education, Fellow of the American Educational Research Association and a Fulbright Scholar to Central America, Australia and India. He also served as president of the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) and the American Educational Research Association (AERA). Most recently, he was a Fernand Braudel Fellow at the European University Institute, in Florence, Italy, and a Rockefeller Fellow at Bellagio, Italy, where he completed his last book on higher education and democracy.

Tierney’s extensive academic and life experiences includes serving as an academic dean at a Native American community college in North Dakota, a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco, and a scholar in residence in Malaysia. He earned a master’s degree from Harvard University and holds a PhD from Stanford University in policy analysis. At USC, he taught graduate courses on higher education policy, administration and governance, organizational behavior and research design.