Honors and Awards for Five Women With Ties to Academia

Bernice Pescosolido, Chancellor’s Professor of Sociology at Indiana University in Bloomington, received the Leonard I. Pearlin Award for Distinguished Contributions from the American Sociological Association’s Section on Sociology and Mental Health. She also received the Wilbur Lucius Cross Medal from the Yale Graduate School Alumni Association.

Professor Pescosolido received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1974 and a Ph.D. from Yale University in 1982.

Erin Gabriel, assistant director of admission at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, received the Iowa Admission Professional of the Year Award from the Iowa Association for College Admission Counseling.

Gabriel is a graduate of Mount Mercy University in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and holds a master’s degree from Drake University.

Margaret H. Marshall, the former chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, received the 2012 Radcliffe Medal from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. She is currently a senior research fellow and lecturer at Harvard Law School.

Justice Marshall is a native of South Africa. She holds a master’s degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and is a graduate of Yale Law School.

Lori J. Betchel-Wherry, chancellor of the Altoona campus of Pennsylvania State University, received the 2012 Most Supportive College/University President of the Year Award from SIFE USA (Students in Free Enterprise).

Dr. Betchel-Wherry has been on the faculty at Penn State Altoona for 25 years and has served as chancellor since 2005. She is a professor of bio-behavioral health and women’s studies. She is a graduate of Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania, holds a master’s degree from the University of Illinois, and earned a doctorate in health education from Penn State.

The Duke University board of trustees had approved the naming of School of Medicine’s Center for Health Education after the late Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans. The philanthropist, who died this past January (see WIAReport obituary here), was a trustee of the Duke Endowment for 55 years and served as chair from 1982 to 2001.

The new five-story center will include classrooms, laboratories, and event space. Classes are scheduled to begin in the new building this coming January.