Six Women Awarded Prestigious Honors

Cheryl Kirk-Duggan, professor of religion at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, received the 2011 Academy of Women Award from the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA). In addition to teaching, Professor Kirk-Duggan is a singer, author, and ordained minister.

Dr. Kirk-Duggan earned a bachelor’s degree in voice and piano at the University of Southwestern Louisiana. She holds a master’s degree in voice from the University of Texas at Austin and a master of divinity degree from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Texas. She earned a Ph.D. in religion at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.

Dawn Traynor, director of the Cross Campus Advising Program at the University of South Carolina, will receive the Outstanding New Professional award from the Commission for Academic Support in Higher Education of the American College Personnel Association.

Traynor is a graduate of West Virginia Wesleyan College. She holds master’s degrees from West Virginia University and the University of South Carolina.

Cynthia E. Nance, the Nathan G. Gordon Professor of Law at the University of Arkansas, has been chosen to receive the Spirit of Excellence Award from the American Bar Association. She will receive the award at the ABA mid-year meeting in New Orleans on February 4, 2012. Professor Nance is being honored for her efforts to promote diversity in the legal profession.

Professor Nance, who served as dean of the University of Arkansas School of Law from 2006 to 2011, is a graduate of Chicago State University. She earned her law degree and a master’s degree in finance from the University of Iowa.

Susan K. Johnsen, professor of educational psychology at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, received the President’s Award from the National Association of Gifted Children. Professor Johnsen has been on the Baylor faculty since 1989.

Dr. Johnsen is a graduate of Baylor University. She holds master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Texas at Austin.

Gayle Andrews, an associate professor of education at the University of Georgia, received the John H. Lounsbury Award for Distinguished Service from the Association for Middle Level Education. She is the president of the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform.

Dr. Andrews has been on the faculty at the University of Georgia since 2001. She holds a doctorate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Louise Ivers, assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, received the Bailey K. Ashford Medal from the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Dr. Ivers was honored for her longstanding work in Haiti, particularly for her AIDS treatment and prevention programs and for her efforts in the aftermath of the January 2010 earthquake.

Dr. Ivers, at left, at work in Haiti.