CHASS Women Lauded for Equity Efforts

Four NC State women were recently honored with Equity for Women Awards at NC State’s Council on the Status of Women 2014 Sisterhood Dinner. Three of the four represent CHASS.

Deborah Hooker was surprised with a lifetime achievement award. Hooker, a teaching associate professor of English and director of the interdisciplinary CHASS women’s and gender studies program, was lauded for her contributions to equity on campus, to the Women’s and Gender Studies program, to the students in WGS, as well as her support of the Women of Welch Village. “The Council was so overwhelmed by nominations that celebrated Deborah that they created an entire new category for her,” says Hooker’s proud colleague, Cat Warren, associate professor of English. “She was given a well-deserved standing ovation from the more than 400 faculty, staff, and students present.” Read the complete nomination profile online.

The faculty award was presented to Mary Wyer, associate professor of psychology. Her nominators say that for the past 20 years, Wyer’s work “has illuminated the challenges to diversity in the STEM disciplines (and beyond) for both students and faculty. Her approach has been two-pronged: get gender studies research into scientific curriculaand explore biases among faculty and students who are currently in or contemplating those fields.” They credit Wyer with providing the insights and rationale for building much of NC State’s current diversity infrastructure with regard to women in STEM, saying that with three NSF-funded grants from 1996 to 2005, she built a coalition of science and engineering faculty committed to gender equity. Read the complete nomination profile online.

The student award was presented to Suzanne Martin, a graduate student who is president of the social work honor society Phi Alpha and a member of the social work department’s advisory board and committee on diversity, recruitment and retention. Read the complete nomination profile online.

Hats off to each of these women, and to  Shaefny Grays, assistant director of the College of Natural Resources’s community for diversity. Grays received the staff award for leading community service initiatives focused on issues related to women such as domestic violence, breast cancer and ovarian cancer.

See the photo and video gallery of the Sisterhood Dinner online.