Angela Gunder recognized with Humanitarian Award
Through openness and empathy, the inaugural winner of the 2025 Humanitarian Award, Angela Gunder, leaves a mark on the higher education industry beyond just developing AI – but focusing on the humanity behind the bots.
The award was presented on day two of Agentic AI and the Student Experience, hosted by ASU and its partners. Gunder, who is the CEO and founder of Opened Culture, was recognized for her lasting impact on higher education.
The Humanitarian Award was established to honor a remarkable individual whose work exemplifies the power of leadership, compassion and systems change. Lev Gonick, chief information officer at ASU, presented the award to Gunder, highlighting how deeply human-centered influential her work is within the AI and higher education sphere.
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“We want to take a moment in these two days of sharing, to not marvel at the machines, but to celebrate the people who remind us why we build machines in the first place,” Gonick said. “Angela’s career has been defined by a conviction that learning, especially in the age of AI, must begin with humanity.”
Gunder’s future-focused lens on learning is apparent in Opened Culture, a consultancy dedicated to empowering educational institutions and communities through strategic insights, practical support and community engagement.
“I’m very overwhelmed with gratitude for this moment.” Gunder said. “I have a long history with ASU – my grandfather is a Professor Emeritus … I went here, my sister went here, my husband went here. And my grandmother was one of our biggest champions across the entire family … She definitely led with this notion that learning should always be about the heart.”
Gunder has continually advocated for learner-centered design practices, focusing on the future of learning, in order to enhance educational experiences.
“I had always seen the power of informal learning with a lot of dedication and agency,” Gunder said. “Having that agency and that autonomy to guide your learning as being important, but needing educators to always start you along that path. There was always that human piece.”
Through her dedication to student-focused innovation, Gunder’s work serves as a reminder that technology must always serve humans first.
“If folks would take anything away from any of the work that I've done, it's really passing on the work that my mom did, that my grandfather did, that all of these other academics did,” Gunder said.
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