Four Women Academics Receive Honors

Susan Straight, professor of creative writing at the University of California, Riverside, was chosen to receive the 2013 Robert Kirsch Award at the Los Angeles Times Book Awards ceremony on April 11 on the campus of the University of Southern California. The award recognizes a body of work by a writer living in or writing about the American West.

Professor Straight is the author of eight novels and two children’s books. Her novel Highwire Moon (Houghton Mifflin, 2001) was a finalist for the National Book Award. Her latest novel is Between Heaven and Here (McSweeney’s, 2012).

Elaine P. Maimon, president of Governors State University in University Park, Illinois, received the 2014 Donna Shavik Award from the American Council on Education at the organization’s annual meeting in San Diego. The award honors an individual who has demonstrated a sustained commitment to advancing women in higher education.

Dr. Maimon is the former chancellor of the University of Alaska Anchorage. She holds bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in English from the University of Pennsylvania.

Rosemary O’Leary, the Edwin O. Stene Distinguished Professor in Public Administration at the University of Kansas, was presented the Dwight Waldo Award from the American Society for Public Administration at its annual conference in Washington earlier this month. The award is presented for career accomplishments in the field of public administration.

Professor O’Leary earned a bachelor’s degree in English, a master of public administration degree and a law degree, all from the University of Kansas. She holds a Ph.D. in public administration from Syracuse University.

Merline Pitre, professor of history and dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Behavioral Sciences at Texas Southern University in Houston is sharing the Liz Carpenter Award for Research in the History of Women, given out by the Texas State Historical Association. She was honored along with her co-editor Bruce Glasrud, for the book Southern Black Women in the Modern Civil Rights Movement (Texas A&M University Press, 2013).

Professor Pitre is a graduate of Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She holds a master’s degree from Atlanta University and a second master’s degree and a Ph.D. from Temple University in Philadelphia.