PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Commissioner Mike Aresco has announced that former Memphis track and field standout Keanan Joyner and former Tulsa softball player Julie Kernen have been chosen as the winners of the Commissioner’s Postgraduate Leadership Awards by the American Athletic Conference Academic Affairs Committee.
 
The awards are given to one male and one female student-athlete from an American Athletic Conference-sponsored sport who have been admitted to a degree-granting or professional program for the following year and who have demonstrated leadership through excellence in academic credentials, athletic performance and depth of commitment to service within the institution or the community.
 
Joyner and Kernen will each receive a $5,000 scholarship, which may be applied to postgraduate study.
 
Joyner, who hails from McDonough, Georgia, graduated summa cum laude from Memphis’ honors program with a 3.96 grade-point average as a psychology major and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in clinical psychology at Florida State University. He was a two-time qualifier for the NCAA South Regional in outdoor track and field and registered top-15 finishes in the 800-meter run at the 2014 and 2015 American Athletic Conference indoor championships. Joyner was the recipient of an NCAA Ethnic Minority Program Postgraduate Scholarship, was a four-year recipient of a University of Memphis Presidential Scholarship and was a participant in the NCAA’s Career In Sports Forum.
 
Joyner’s community service efforts include volunteer work to improve Memphis-area schools through landscaping and maintenance services, and working with his church as a camp counselor, substitute teacher and spiritual group leader.
 
Kernen, a native of St. Louis, Missouri, graduated from Tulsa with a 3.97 grade-point average and is pursuing  a master’s degree in speech pathology from the university. A 2015 CoSIDA Academic All-America selection, Kernan was a two-time all-conference first team selection and was a National Fastpitch Coaches Association All-Mideast Region third team pick. She was a career .289 hitter with 29 home runs and 148 RBIs. She helped Tulsa to two conference regular-season and conference tournament championships.
 
Kernen was a member of the Phi Eta Sigma national honor society at Tulsa and was a seven-time selection to the President’s Honor Roll. She volunteered with Big Brothers and Big Sisters, was secretary of Tulsa’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.