Six Women Academics Receive Notable Awards

Susanna Childress, an assistant professor of English at Hope College in Holland, Michigan, received the 2012 Award for Poetry from the Society of Midland Authors. Childress was honored for her collection, Entering the House of Awe (New Issues Press).

Professor Childress is a graduate of Indiana Wesleyan University. She holds a master’s degree from the University of Texas and a Ph.D. from Florida State University.

Marika Botha, professor of kinesiology and health at Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, Idaho, received the Outstanding Collegiate Educator Award from the American Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance.

A native of Namibia, Dr. Botha has been on the faculty at Lewis-Clark since 1985. She is a graduate of the University of Orange Free State in South Africa and earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. at Indiana University.

Patricia A. Whitely, vice president for student affairs at the University of Miami, has been chosen to receive the John Jones Award for Outstanding Performance as a Senior Student Affairs Officer from NASPA, an organization of student affairs administrators in higher education. She will receive the award this June in Virginia Beach.

Dr. Whitely is a graduate of St. John’s University. She holds a master’s degree from the University of South Carolina and a doctorate in higher education from the University of Miami.

Margaret Campbell, associate professor of nursing at Wayne State University in Detroit, received the Flame of Excellence Award from the American Association of Critical Care Nurses.

Dr. Campbell holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Wayne State University and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.

Karen Richman, academic director of the Institute for Latino Studies and faculty fellow of the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame, received the 2012 Award for OpenCourseWare Excellence from the OpenCourseWare Consortium. Dr. Richman was honored for her online course, “Creole Language and Culture.”

Dr. Richman has taught at Notre Dame since 1997. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia.

Kimberly Bess, assistant professor of human and organizational development at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, received the 2012 Harold Love Outstanding Community Involvement Award from the Tennessee General Assembly. She was honored for her pro bono work with the Martha O’Bryan Center and the Nashville Promise Neighborhood.

Dr. Bess is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from Vanderbilt.