Dr. Michael O. Adams Named Andrew Goodman Foundation 2026 Hidden Heroes Award Recipient

The Andrew Goodman Foundation has selected Dr. Michael O. Adams, Professor of Political Science and Public Administration at Texas Southern University’s Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs, as a recipient of its 2026 Hidden Heroes Award for Andrew Goodman Campus Champion of the Year.

The award recognizes Dr. Adams’s dedication to the Foundation’s mission “to make young voices and votes a powerful force in democracy” and to the Andrew Goodman Vote Everywhere program. In its award letter, the Foundation cited his outstanding commitment to civic engagement, student leadership, and service on the TSU campus and in the surrounding Houston community, as well as a passion for civic participation and advocacy that ensures a peaceful, just, and sustainable future.

Dr. Adams will be honored at the Foundation’s annual Hidden Heroes Award Ceremony, which opens this year’s National Civic Leadership Training Summit, themed “Democracy: The Unfinished Promise.”

Dr. Adams is the founding director of TSU’s Institute for Voter and Civic Engagement and the Barbara Jordan Public Policy Research and Survey Center, and he serves as founding director of the Executive Master of Public Administration Program. A nationally recognized scholar of minority politics and voting rights, he currently leads TSU’s role in “The American Civic Tradition at 250,” a U.S. Department of Education American History and Civics Education grant. He is a frequent media commentator on Texas and Houston politics and elections.

About the Andrew Goodman Foundation: The Andrew Goodman Foundation works to make young voices and votes a powerful force in democracy. It honors the legacy of Andrew Goodman, a 20-year-old Freedom Summer volunteer murdered in Mississippi in 1964 while registering Black Americans to vote. Its Vote Everywhere program supports student leaders on campuses across the country. Learn more at www.andrewgoodman.org.