A Quartet of Women Scholars Honored With Awards

Velma McBride Murry received the 2013 Distinguished Contributions to Cultural and Contextual Factors in Child Development Award from the Society for Research in Child Development.  Dr. Murry holds the Betts Chair in the department of human and organizational development at the Peabody College of Education at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.

Professor Murry is a graduate of the University of Tennessee and holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from the University of Missouri at Columbia.

Teresa A. Sullivan, president of the University of Virginia, received the 2013 Advocate for Higher Education Award from the Public Relations Society of America. Dr. Sullivan has been president of the University of Virginia since 2010 and previously was the provost at the University of Michigan.

President Sullivan is a graduate of Michigan State University and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.

Mary Lynn McPherson, professor and vice chair for academic affairs in the department of pharmacy practice and science at the University of Maryland, has been selected to receive the Robert K. Chalmers Distinguished Pharmacy Educator Award from the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy. She will receive the honor at the group’s annual meeting in Chicago this summer.

Professor McPherson is a recognized expert in the fields of pain management and palliative care. She earned her doctorate in pharmacy at the University of Maryland at Baltimore.

Anne Ponder, chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Asheville, has been chosen to receive the inaugural Van Ummersen Presidential Leadership Award from the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletics Administrators. She will receive the award in Indianapolis on May 17.

Dr. Ponder has served as chancellor at UNC-Asheville since 2005. Previously, she was president of Colby-Sawyer College in New Hampshire.