Notable Honors or Awards for Four Women Scholars in Academia

Toni Morrison, the Robert F. Goheen Professor in the Humanities, Emerita at Princeton University in New Jersey, will have a building on the Princeton campus named in her honor. West College, built in 1836, is now used as an administration building. It will now be known as Morrison Hall.

Toni Morrison was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1988 for her novel Beloved. In 1993, she was the first African American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. In 2012, Professor Morrison was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Her latest novel is God Help the Child (Alfred A. Knopf, 2015).

Audrey Adamson, assistant director of student services for the Quad City campus of Western Illinois University, received the award for Outstanding Achievement by an Experienced Student Affairs Professional from the Commission for Commuter Students and Adult Learners of the American College Personnel Association.

Adamson joined the staff at Western Illinois University in 2012. Previously, she worked in student affairs at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois. Adamson is a graduate of Augustana College, where she majored in biology. She earned a master’s degree in counseling at Western Illinois University.

Rae Goodwin, associate professor and director of the Foundations Program at the University of Kentucky School of Art and Visual Studies, received the Educator Award from Foundations in Art: Theory and Education (FATE). She has taught at the University of Kentucky since 2009. Earlier, Goodwin taught at the University of Pikeville.

Goodwin is a summa cum laude graduate of Framingham State University in Massachusetts. She holds a master of fine arts degree in art and design from Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina.

Mary C. MacDonald, a professor in the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Rhode Island, received the  Miriam Dudley Instruction Librarian Award from the Association of College and Research Libraries.

Professor MacDonald is the co-author of Teaching Information Literacy: 50 Standards-Based Exercises for College Students (American Library Association, 2nd edition, 2010). She holds a master of library and information science degree from the University of Rhode Island.