Carolyn Sampselle, professor of nursing, and Dr. Lori Pierce, professor of radiation oncology, have been named recipients of the 2011 Sarah Goddard Power Award and Jill Becker, a professor in the Department of Psychology, will receive the 2011 Sarah Goddard Power Distinguished Service Award.
Also, the Academic Women’s Caucus selection committee will present the Rhetaugh G. Dumas Progress in Diversity Award to the Program in American Culture in LSA.
The 27th annual awards ceremony will take place at 4 p.m. Feb. 16 in the Michigan League Hussey Room.
Sampselle is the Carolyne K. Davis Collegiate Professor, School of Nursing; professor of women’s studies, LSA; and professor of obstetrics and gynecology, Medical School. Colleagues say she is dedicated to women’s health, outstanding scholarship and exemplary mentoring.
Sampselle
Her recent research has focused on improving the continence of women. Her teaching has been recognized with the Mae Edna Doyle Teacher of the Year award from the School of Nursing. She developed an interdisciplinary course on Women’s Reproductive Health, which became a centerpiece of the Women’s Studies Gender and Health Concentration and sparked the creation of an interdisciplinary training program for postdoctoral fellows, which she led.
She has worked on the Michigan Initiative for Women’s Health, leading a transition team to develop a plan for creating a formal relationship between the initiative and the Institute for Research on Women and Gender. She has served on many committees, and assists students and junior faculty with manuscripts, grants applications, presentations, finding teaching and research opportunities, and networking. She currently serves as a national mentor for the Nurse Faculty Scholars program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Pierce, of the Medical School, is a supporter, leader and significant contributor to the health and betterment of women, colleagues say. As a radiation oncologist, she has dedicated her scholarly efforts toward improving the treatment of breast cancer. She combines her research with direct clinical care to women with breast cancer, staying connected to the daily and practical issues women face with this disease.
Pierce
She has taught in the Radiation Oncology Technology Training Program and the Radiation Oncology Residency Training Program in addition to her work with medical students and her cross-disciplinary teaching.
She has held significant administrative positions at U-M, currently serving as a vice provost of academic and faculty affairs for the medical schools and colleges. In these roles, she has advocated for open and fair tenure and promotion policies and procedures, and she oversaw a series of salary equity studies, the hiring of scientists from Pfizer, and a program of leadership training to encourage diverse faculty to assume and succeed as chairs and associate deans. Pierce also has been a major contributor to the success of the ADVANCE project.
Becker, also research professor at the Molecular & Behavioral Neuroscience Institute, promotes women in every aspect of her work as a scientific researcher, leader and mentor, colleagues say. In her neuroscience research, she has focused on such areas as understanding the interaction between neuroscience and endocrinology in the modulation of female behavior, and the difference in the release of dopamine and its role in the female brain. Her work has resulted in an acceptance that female and male brains work differently.
Becker
At U-M, she was instrumental in improving both mentoring and promotion processes, resulting in formal mentoring plans in departments and more transparent promotion reviews, both of which create a more open and supportive faculty environment. As associate director of the Neuroscience Program, she has increased flexibility for students who need to cope with birth, illness and other complications.
Currently she is chair of the Isis Fund network on Sex, Gender, Drugs and the Brain (a network of the Society for Women’s Health Research), and chair of the Committee on Women in Neuroscience, where she works with colleagues to increase the presence and success of women in that field.
The Academic Women’s Caucus selection committee will present the Rhetaugh G. Dumas Progress in Diversifying Award to the Program in American Culture for its sustained commitment to diversity and for embedding it as a core value in its mission.
The program, under the direction of Gregory Dowd, professor of history and American culture, is being lauded because of its productive efforts in the diversification of faculty across all ethnicities and in all ranks, its record of aggressively retaining women and ethnic minorities in senior ranks and in upper administrative positions in LSA, and its combination of a prestigious national ranking with great progress and visibility of its diversity.
The Academic Women’s Caucus, founded in 1975 by women working to overcome inequity issues in the workplace, aims to support academic women and presents the Sarah Goddard Power Award to distinguished faculty and senior administrative staff (including instructors, lecturers, primary researchers, librarians and curators) affiliated with the university. Awardees are nominated based on their contribution to the betterment of women through scholarship, leadership and service.
The award was established by the Academic Women’s Caucus in memory of Sarah Goddard Power, a former regent who was a strong advocate for women within the university.
