Eight Women Academics Are Honored With Distinguished Awards

Mary E. Rittling, president of Davidson County Community College in North Carolina, was named President of the Year by the North Carolina Community College System. President Rittling will receive a plaque and an $8,000 cash award at a ceremony in Raleigh next month.

Dr. Rittling is a graduate of D’Youville College in Buffalo, New York. She earned a master’s degree in nursing from Binghamton University and a second master’s degree and an educational doctorate at Columbia University.

Shannon B. Rinaldo, assistant professor at the Rawls College of Business at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, has been selected to receive the 2012 Outstanding Marketing Teacher of the Year Award from the Academy of Marketing Science. She will be presented with the award at the academy’s national conference in New Orleans this May.

Dr. Rinaldo joined the faculty at Texas Tech in 2008. She holds a bachelor’s degree, an MBA, and a Ph.D., all from the University of Kentucky.

Cortney Franklin, assistant professor of criminal justice at Sam Houston State University in Texas, received the New Scholar Award from the Academy of Criminal Justice Science’s Victimology Section. Dr. Franklin is widely published in the field of victimology. She teaches a course entitled, “Violence Against Women.”

Dr. Franklin is a graduate of Spokane Community College. She earned a bachelor’s degree at Gonzaga University and a master’s degree and Ph.D. in criminal justice from Washington State University.

Ji Kyung Park, an assistant professor of marketing at the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics at the University of Delaware, received the 2012 C.W. Park Young Contributor Award from the Journal of Consumer Psychology. She was honored for her paper, “More Than Meets the Eye: The Influence of Implicit Versus Explicit Self-Esteem on Materialism.”

Dr. Park holds degrees from Ewha Womans University and Yonsei University in Korea. She earned a doctorate at Columbia University.

Barbara J. Johnson, associate professor and chair of the department of counseling, adult, and higher education at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, received the Public Service Award at the annual conference of the American Association of Blacks in Higher Education. She was honored for her commitment to the Leadership and Mentoring Institute.

Dr. Johnson is a graduate of Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina. She earned an MBA at Ohio State University and a doctorate in education and human development from Vanderbilt University.

Mary R. Hamilton, senior executive in residence at the School of Public Administration at the University of Nebraska at Omaha,  received the Elmer B. Staats Lifetime Achievement Award for Distinguished Public Service from the American Society for Public Administration.

Hamilton is the former senior executive at the General Accounting Office and has taught at the University of Nebraska for eight years.

Bronwen Lichtenstein, associate professor and graduate director of the department of criminal justice at the University of Alabama, received the 2012 Lahoma Adams Buford Peace Award from the university. The award is given to a faculty member who has demonstrated exceptional levels of involvement in mediating human disputes.

Dr. Lichtenstein has been on the University of Alabama faculty since 2004. She holds bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees from the University of Canterbury.

Susan Adams, an associate professor of counseling and development at Texas Woman’s University in Denton, received the Distinguished Service Award from the Association for Adult Development and Aging.

Dr. Adams has been on the faculty at Texas Woman’s University since 2004. She holds a doctorate in counselor education from Texas A&M University Commerce.