Six Women Scholars Presented With Prestigious Honors or Awards

Dawn Elliot, professor and chair of the department of biomedical engineering at the University of Delaware, received the Van C. Mow Medal from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. She was honored for her musculoskeletal tissue structure-function research. Professor Elliot also received the Outstanding Achievement in Mentoring Award from the Orthopedic Research Society.

Professor Elliott joined the faculty at the University of Delaware in 2011 after teaching for 12 years at the University of Pennsylvania. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan, a master’s degree in engineering mechanics from the University of Cincinnati, and a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Duke University.

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg is naming its graduate program in statistics after alumna Jean Dickinson Gibbons. Dr. Gibbons earned a Ph.D. in statistics at Virginia tech in 1962 at the age of 24. She went on to serve as a role model for many women in the field of statistics.

Dr. Gibbons, who holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in mathematics from Duke University, taught at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Alabama. She retired in 1995.

Gina Brown, assistant professor in the physician assistant program at Wichita State University in Kansas, was named Humanitarian of the Year by the American Academy of Physician’s Assistants.

Brown holds bachelor’s degrees from Kansas State University and Wichita State University. She earned a master’s degree in physician assistant studies from the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.

Danielle Walsh, associate professor of surgery at East Carolina University’s Brody School of Medicine in Greenville, North Carolina, received the 2015 Excellence in Medical Leadership Award from the Education and Research Foundation of the International Society of American Gastrointestinal Endoscopic Surgeons.

Dr. Walsh earned her medical degree at the University of South Florida in Tampa. She is a past president of the International Association of Women Surgeons.

Marie Chisholm-Burns, dean of the College of Pharmacy at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis, received the Clinician of Distinction Award from the American Society of Transplantation.

Dr. Chisholm-Burns holds a bachelor’s degree and a doctorate of pharmacy degree from the University of Georgia. She earned an MBA at the University of Memphis and master of public health degree from Emory University in Atlanta.

Valerie Polakow, a professor of educational studies at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, received the Critical Perspectives on Early Childhood Education Distinguished Career Contribution Award from the American Educational Research Association.

Professor Polakow is the author of Who Cares for Our Children? The Child Care Crisis in the Other America (Teachers College Press, 2007). She holds a Ph.D. in educational psychology from the University of Michigan.