Trinity College Receives ‘Insight Into Academia’ 2026 Higher Education Excellence and Distinction (HEED) Award

Trinity College has received the 2026 Higher Education Excellence and Distinction (HEED) Award from Insight Into Academia magazine, the oldest and largest publication focused on best practices in higher education. This is the fourth consecutive year in which Trinity has been named a HEED Award recipient.

The HEED Award is a prestigious honor recognizing U.S. colleges and universities that demonstrate an outstanding commitment to academic excellence, belonging, and community-building across all levels of campus life. Insight Into Academia presents the HEED Award each year as a tribute to higher education institutions that successfully encourage and inspire a new generation of students to succeed, as evidenced through mentoring, teaching, research, hiring and promotion, recruitment, retention, and many other campus priorities.

Trinity College President Dan Lugo said, “Earning the HEED Award for a fourth consecutive year is meaningful recognition of the work happening across Trinity to strengthen our community. Our campus values call on us to expand access and opportunity, foster belonging and connection, and embrace curiosity and open inquiry. This honor affirms the progress we have made while challenging us to continue putting those values into practice every day, so that every member of our community has the opportunity to contribute, grow, and thrive.” 

Vice President for Students, Community, and Institutional Culture Anita Davis said that Trinity’s campus values aptly illustrate the College’s dedication to academic excellence, belonging, and community-building. “Access enables academic excellence by removing barriers that might impede full participation by students in the full range of opportunities and resources that are available at Trinity,” Davis said. “Curiosity and open inquiry are at the core of the liberal arts experience, centering the importance of openness to new ideas and ways of knowing and intentionally seeking to be in dialogue with those who hold perspectives different from one’s own. Belonging and connection emphasize that everyone has value and purpose, and we strive to collectively create opportunities for student, faculty, and staff recognition and engagement that support these values.” One example of supporting this work was an August talk by best-selling author and workplace kindness and civility expert Shola Richards.

Lenore Pearlstein, co-publisher of Insight into Academia magazine, said that the HEED Award recipients are determined using a detailed scoring process as well as a holistic approach to reviewing each application. “Our standards are high, and we look for institutions where academic excellence and belonging are woven into the work being done every day across their campus,” Pearlstein said.

To support this commitment, from August 2025 through June 2026, Trinity’s Office of Community and Belonging engaged in more than 145 programs with 64 collaborating partners and more than 6,100 participants, Davis said. Engagements represent a combination of hybrid, in-person, and remote programming, including student-facing events, faculty and staff trainings, and collaborating partner programming. Partners included various departments, offices, faculty and staff groups, student organizations, Hartford community groups, and State of Connecticut offices.

The work of embracing and elevating Trinity’s campus values continues this year. Davis said, “Moving forward, a newly established Campus Values Working Group—consisting of students, faculty, and staff—will play a vital role in creating and supporting initiatives and programs that turn the values into actions.” One new initiative that is already underway is an eight-month focus on holistic wellness. “For eight months throughout the academic year, events will be curated for students, faculty, and staff that highlight a different dimension of wellness,” Davis added. “Resources will also be available for campus groups and departments to create and launch events that support the different dimensions.”

As a recipient of the 2026 HEED Award, Trinity will be featured in the October 2026 issue of Insight Into Academia magazine, along with 60 other recipients.

For more information about the 2026 HEED Award, visit insightintoacademia.com.

About Insight Into Academia:

Insight Into Academia magazine is the leader in advancing best practices in higher education excellence. Through thought-provoking print and online articles, it shares expert advice, valuable resources, in-depth profiles of top programs at colleges and universities, headline news, and much more to help keep readers informed and empower them to advance initiatives at their institutions. Current, archived, and digital issues of Insight Into Academia magazine are available online.