Coleman Named 2026 Ray Schroeder Leadership Award Recipient at SOLAR Conference in Boston

BOSTON, July 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Nancy Coleman, Dean of Harvard’s Division of Continuing Education (DCE), today received the 2026 UPCEA Ray Schroeder Leadership Award for the Advancement of Digital Learning at the SOLAR conference, held at the Westin Seaport Hotel in Boston. The award, presented annually by UPCEA, the leading association for professional, continuing, and online education, recognizes exemplary leadership in advancing digital and online learning.

Coleman was appointed Dean of DCE in 2020, becoming the first woman to serve in the role. She leads an institution whose engagement with distance and online learning spans more than six decades, from the first extension course broadcast on television in 1956 to the launch of Polaris University in 1960 that delivered coursework to Navy submarine crews, in-house hybrid learning technology that improved student persistence rates by four percent and was credited with enabling DCE to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic without emergency adaptation.

“I’m thrilled to share this award with the Harvard DCE staff who make it possible, and with the students whose lives have changed through online education,” said Coleman. “The tools keep changing — television, submarines, the internet, now AI-driven classrooms — but the mission hasn’t: real rigor, real access, real outcomes.”

Under Coleman’s leadership, DCE serves more than 25,000 learners annually from over 120 countries, in programs spanning from the Extension School, Harvard Summer School, to Crimson Summer Academy, which has served high-achieving students from Cambridge, Somerville, and Boston public schools for 40 years, with 99.8 percent of graduates enrolling in a four-year college since the program’s inception, to retirement learning through the Harvard Institute for Learning in Retirement. Professional and executive development programs designed in partnership with employers saw 74 percent of 2026 clients return for additional engagements.

Coleman is also the author of a recent book chapter, “Yes, That Harvard,” tracing the history and future direction of DCE and its role in shaping continuing education nationally.

About the Ray Schroeder Leadership Award

The UPCEA Ray Schroeder Leadership Award for the Advancement of Digital Learning recognizes leaders who have made significant contributions to the advancement of digital and online learning through sustained commitment to quality, access, and innovation. The award is presented annually by UPCEA at its SOLAR conference.

About Harvard’s Division of Continuing Education

Founded in 1910, Harvard’s Division of Continuing Education offers more than 900 open-enrollment courses and programs annually, serving learners from age 16 to well past 90. DCE encompasses Harvard Extension School, Harvard Summer School, Harvard Professional and Executive Development, the Crimson Summer Academy, and the Harvard Institute for Learning in Retirement. As one of Harvard’s twelve degree-granting schools, DCE operates on an ‘earn your way in’ admissions model, prioritizing demonstrated academic ability. More information is available at extension.harvard.edu.

Media contact: Trent Spiner, (917-502-8079), tspiner@gmail.com

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SOURCE Harvard University Division of Continuing Education