Eight Women From the Academic World Who Have Received Significant Honors or Awards

Betsy Wackernagel Bach, a professor of communications studies at the University of Montana, was selected to receive the 2017 Donald H. Ecroyd Award for Outstanding Teaching in Higher Education from the National Communications Association. She will be honored at the association’s annual convention in Dallas in November.

Professor Bach is a graduate of Hope College in Holland, Michigan. She holds a master’s degree in interpersonal communication from the University of Montana and a Ph.D. in organizational communication from the University of Washington.

Mary Ann Glendon, the Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and the former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, will be presented with the 2018 Notre Dame Evangelium Vitae Medal in April. The award is given to individuals who have been champions of the pro-life movement. She is the author of several books including The Forum and the Tower: How Scholars and Politicians Have Imagined the World, from Plato to Eleanor Roosevelt (Oxford University Press, 2011).

Professor Glendon holds a bachelor’s degree and two law degrees from the University of Chicago.

Christine Wang, a senior staff member in the Laser Technology and Applications Group in the Lincoln Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,  received the 2017 American Association for Crystal Growth Award at the American Conference on Crystal Growth and Epitaxy in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Dr. Wang holds bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in material science and engineering from MIT.

Chinyere Oparah, provost and dean of the faculty at Mills College in Oakland, California, received the Visionary of the Year Award from the Association for Wholistic Maternal & Newborn Health. The award honors an individual who has worked to improve childbirth and/or maternal and infant health nationally, locally, or internationally. She is the co-editor of Birthing Justice: Black Women, Pregnancy, and Childbirth (Routledge, 2015). Dr. Oparah joined the faculty at Mills College in 1997.

Dr. Oparah holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Cambridge in England. She earned a second master’s degree and a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Warwick.

Joyce Longcore, an associate research professor in the School of Biology and Ecology at the University of Maine, received the 2017 Golden Goose Award. The award honors researchers who have made unexpected scientific breakthroughs. Dr. Longcore was honored for her work determining the cause of significant declines in frog populations.

Dr. Longcore is a graduate of the University of Michigan, where she majored in biology. She earned a master’s degree at Indiana University and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Maine.

Rebecca Lutte, an assistant professor in the Aviation Institute at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, received the V.L. Laursen Award for Outstanding Contributions to Aerospace Education from the University Aviation Association.

Dr. Lutte is a graduate of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska-Omaha.

Mary Uhl-Bien, the BNSF Railway Endowed Professor of Leadership at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth received the Decennial Award from the journal Leadership Quarterly. The award honors an author whose published work in the journal continues to have substantial impact a decade after its initial publication. Professor Uhl-Bien was honored for her article “Complexity Leadership Theory: Shifting Leadership from the Industrial Age to the Knowledge Age.”

Professor Uhl-Bien joined the faculty at Texas Christian University in 2014. She holds a bachelor’s degree, an MBA, and a Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati.

Angela Des Jardins, an assistant research professor in the department of physics at Montana State University, received the Special Service Award from the National Space Grant Consortium. She was honored for her Eclipse Ballooning Project where 55 teams of college and high school students launched balloons that live-streamed the total solar eclipse this past August.

Dr. Des Jardins hold bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in physics from Montana State University.