EVANSTON, Ill. – The David G. Kabiller NU For Life Program has announced Dr. Dionna Latimer-Hearn, former Northwestern women's soccer student-athlete, as the 2026 recipient of the A Life Touched, A Generation Changed Award. Now in its fourth year, the award was established through the generosity of University Trustee David G. Kabiller to honor one former Wildcats letterwinner annually whose life's work reflects a powerful and lasting impact on others while serving as a source of inspiration within their community.
A multilingual speech-language pathologist, educational consultant, and public scholar, Dr. Latimer-Hearn has spent more than two decades advancing equity in education across language, practice, and culture. Nationally and internationally recognized for her work across eight countries, she combines linguistic expertise, lived experience, and a commitment to shifting how educators, institutions, and systems engage with language and culture.
A former student-athlete on Northwestern's women's soccer team, Dr. Latimer-Hearn credits her time at the University as the starting point for the questions and relationships that have defined her career. With that foundation, she built platforms through teaching, research, advocacy, and collaboration to challenge inequity and expand possibilities for students whose language and culture have too often been treated as obstacles rather than assets.
"Receiving the Kabiller A Life Touched, A Generation Changed Award is deeply meaningful because it connects the work I'm doing today with the experiences I had here at Northwestern University," said Dr. Latimer-Hearn. "I arrived at NU as a student-athlete on the newly formed women's soccer team, but I left with a strong understanding of how education can open doors and create change. My work is rooted in the belief that language, culture, and identity should not be barriers to educational or professional opportunities. All students deserve the chance to be seen and understood, and they should have an equal opportunity to achieve success."
In the area of language, Dr. Latimer-Hearn works to promote awareness and understanding of linguistic diversity through Respect the Dialect, an organization with a particular focus on African American English. Her research and advocacy have earned recognition from the World Education Research Association, the American Educational Research Association, and the National Black Association for Speech-Language and Hearing.
"Dionna's work is an ever-present reminder that if you are not Respecting the Dialect, you are not respecting that client, their community, their culture, their traditions, and all they bring to every interaction," said colleague Dr. Lakeisha Johnson.
Through REACT Initiative, Inc., she works to improve educational outcomes for historically marginalized populations while strengthening practice among school-based professionals, helping educators unlearn deficit thinking and reimagine possibility for linguistically and culturally diverse students. Her work has reached individuals and organizations across the United States, and she has served populations in Canada, Burkina Faso, Mauritius, Vietnam, Cambodia, France, and Japan. She also hosts ‘The Culture We Speak’, a podcast exploring the intersection of culture, language, and education.
Beyond the organizations she has built and the research she has advanced, Dr. Latimer-Hearn's sense of purpose is ultimately rooted in the people her work has reached and what it continues to make possible for them.
"Much of my work focuses on promoting awareness of cultural-linguistic diversity and the ways in which it can enhance learning for all students," Dr. Latimer-Hearn continued. "To have my work recognized by Northwestern University is both an honor and a reminder that the impact we have on others can extend far beyond the places where we began. My work has traversed languages, cultures, and borders, and my ultimate goal is to bring people from diverse backgrounds together. I hope this award serves as a reminder to others of what is possible. I want that to be my legacy."
Dr. Latimer-Hearn becomes the fourth recipient of the award since its establishment in 2023, joining Dr. Chinazo Cunningham (Softball, 2023), John Trautwein (Baseball, 2024), and Wendy Nelson (Women's Tennis, 2025) in a group of honorees recognized for their commitment to serving others.
"Dionna's work is a testament to the kind of impact one person can have when they commit fully to serving others,” said Kabiller. “From her advocacy for linguistic equity to the communities she has reached around the world, she embodies exactly what this award was created to recognize. What she has built, and the students and communities her work continues to reach, is a powerful reflection of what is possible when a Northwestern student-athlete carries their experience forward with purpose."
David G. Kabiller '85, '87 MBA is an alumnus of both Northwestern's Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and Kellogg School of Management who came to campus on an athletic scholarship to play tennis, earning a spot on the Big Ten Academic All-Conference team. That experience shaped his vision for the Kabiller NU for Life Program, which he conceived and endowed to connect current student-athletes with alumni mentors and broaden their awareness of professional opportunities. Since its launch, the program has engaged over 1,500 student-athlete alumni across every sport and undergraduate major. A University Trustee, longtime benefactor, and platinum-level member of NU Loyal, Kabiller has also advanced nanotechnology research through the international Kabiller Awards, which he launched in 2015 and endowed in 2018 to recognize leading scholars in nanoscience and nanomedicine in perpetuity, and through The Kabiller Science of Empathy Prize, awarded biennially to a Kellogg faculty member and alum whose work advances the understanding of empathy in business.