Six Women Scholars Are Honored With Prestigious Awards

Twyla J. Cummings, senior associate dean of the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences and a professor in the School of Media Sciences at the Rochester Institute of Technology, has been selected to receive the 2015 Naomi Berber Memorial Award from the Ben Franklin Society of the Printing Industries of America.

Professor Cummings holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and a master’s degree in business and industrial management from Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. She earned a doctorate in business management from the Union Institute and University in Cincinnati.

Courtney Meyers, an associate professor in the department of agricultural education and communications at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, won the United States Department of Agriculture Food and Agriculture Sciences Excellence in Teaching Award from the Association of Public Land-grant Universities.

Dr Meyers has been on the faculty at Texas Tech since 2008. She is a graduate of Kansas State University. Dr. Meyers holds a master’s degree from the University of Arkansas and a Ph.D. in agricultural education and communication from the university of Florida.

Nicole Baganz, a postdoctoral fellow in pharmacology at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, received the 2015 Next Generation Award from the Society for Neuroscience. Dr. Baganz was honored for contributions to public communication, outreach, and education relating to neuroscience.

Dr. Baganz earned a Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio.

Deborah K. Fitzgerald, a professor of the history of technology and former dean of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, received the Gladys L. Baker Award from the Agricultural History Society for a lifetime of achievement in the field of agricultural history.

Professor Fitzgerald is the author of The Business of Breeding: Hybrid Corn in Illinois, 1890-1940 (Cornell University Press, 1990) and Every Farm a Factory: The Industrial Ideal in American Agriculture (Yale University Press, 2003). Dr. Fitzgerald is a graduate of Iowa State University and holds a Ph.D. in the history and sociology of science from the University of Pennsylvania.

Suzanne O’Connell, professor of earth and environmental sciences at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, received the Exchange Award from the Association for Women Geoscientists.

Professor O’Connell is a graduate of Oberlin College in Ohio. She earned a master’s degree at the University at Albany of the State University of New York System and a Ph.D. from Columbia University in New York City.

Donna De Carolis, dean of the School of Entrepreneurship at Drexel University in Philadelphia, received the Iris Newman Award from the Alliance of Women Entrepreneurs. The award honors “a woman who exhibits a trailblazing spirit, inspiring leadership, and stalwart support for women in the entrepreneurial community.”

Dr. De Carolis holds an MBA from Villanova University in Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. in strategic management from Temple University in Philadelphia.