December 20, 2023 | Amanda Ameral

Neag School Faculty Member Earns National Service Award


Adam McCready has received the Sue Kraft Fussell Distinguished Service Award from the Association of Fraternity/Sorority Advisors Foundation

Adam McCready

Adam McCready thanks HESA program students and colleagues during a celebratory event held last month in his honor after receiving the Sue Kraft Fussell Distinguished Service Award. (Shawn Kornegay/Neag School)

Adam McCready, assistant professor-in-residence of Higher Education and Student Affairs (HESA) at UConn’s Neag School of Education, has been selected as a recipient of the Sue Kraft Fussell Distinguished Service Award, presented by the Association of Fraternity/Sorority Advisors Foundation.

The award was established in 1985 to recognize individuals who have exhibited outstanding achievements in the fraternity/sorority industry, including participating in service and research beyond the recipient’s organization and scope of role. The award is presented to up to five association members each year.

A member of the Association of Fraternity/Sorority Advisors for two decades, McCready’s research critically examines the college experience, often focusing on historically white fraternities and sororities. For the past two years, McCready has been the editor of the “Journal of Sorority and Fraternity Life Research and Practice” (JSFLRP) and has been on the editorial board since 2015.

Receiving this award was a surprise. It has been very humbling to receive an individual honor like this because I view my work as editor as one element of a collective of people. — Adam McCready

“Receiving this award was a surprise,” McCready says. “It has been very humbling to receive an individual honor like this because I view my work as editor as one element of a collective of people. I am not the only one contributing to the success of the journal, so while I am getting the honor, I want to acknowledge and recognize the work of the peer reviewers, as well as my editorial colleagues who have helped advance the mission of the journal.”

As an undergraduate, McCready became involved in Greek Life as a member of the Theta Delta Chi Fraternity at The George Washington University. As a first-generation college student, McCready credits much of the friendships he formed through his fraternity as a key reason for staying at GWU.

Group of student and faculty gathering.
Adam McCready (in the back row) gathers with fellow HESA program faculty members and students for a recognition event last month in honor of his award. (Photo courtesy of the HESA program)

Following his undergraduate graduation, McCready went on to work for Theta Delta Chi as a traveling consultant. Through this experience, McCready visited over 40 colleges in the United States and Canada to support men from the fraternity.

Upon completing his master’s degree at Bowling Green State, McCready served as the coordinator of Greek Life in the Office of Student Involvement & Leadership at the University of New Hampshire. McCready then became the assistant director of fraternities, sororities, and independent living groups at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, during which time he received the 2014 MIT Infinite Mile for Student Life Award, MIT’s highest honor for student affairs professionals. McCready earned his Ph.D. in higher education at Boston College.

Humbly, McCready attributes much of his success to others and offers gratitude to his colleagues at UConn’s Center for Fraternity and Sorority Development (CFSD), who nominated him for the award. However, he remains proud of his commitment to the field over the past 20 years as a professional and faculty member.

McCready’s involvement with CFSD stems from the professional relationships he formed in his career before his doctoral work and his continued research interests related to their work.

“My personal and professional experiences fostered my interest in better understanding the outcomes and experiences of fraternity men,” McCready says. “Much research has painted fraternity men with a broad brush. My scholarship indicates that the experiences and outcomes of fraternity men are nuanced and dependent on context and individuals’ identities and prior experiences.”

McCready’s research has been published in “Psychology of Men & Masculinities,” “Research in Higher Education,” “Innovative Higher Education, Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development,” and the “Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice.”

“I want my research to have value to CFSD’s practice, with the hope that it benefits the learning, development, and growth of students at UConn and elsewhere,” McCready says.

View photos from a ceremony held in McCready’s honor on the Neag School’s Facebook page, and learn more about the Neag School’s HESA program at hesa.uconn.edu.