Five Women in Higher Education Recognized for Outstanding Achievements

Patricia Rayas-Duarte, a professor in the department of biochemistry and molecular biology at Oklahoma State University, received the President’s Volunteer Award from Winrock International, a nonprofit foundation established by WInthrop Rockefeller. Professor Rayes-Duarte was honored for her volunteer work in Senegal training women to improve their employability.

Dr. Rayas-Duarte joined the faculty at Oklahoma State in 1997 after teaching at North Dakota State University. She is a graduate of the University of Sonora in Mexico and holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in food science and technology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Ruth Bingham, director of the advising center for the College of Arts and Humanities and the College of Languages, Linguistics, and Literature at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, received the Carol Baffi-Dugan Award from the National Association of Advisors for the Health Professions.

Dr. Bingham has five degrees; two bachelor’s, two master’s, and a Ph.D. in musicology and German, from the University of Hawaii, Manoa and Cornell University in New York.

Barbara Ainsworth, Regents Professor of exercise science and health promotion at Arizona State University received the 2018 Honor Award from the American College of Sports Medicine. Dr. Ainsworth was recognized for lifetime achievements in exercise science research.

Dr. Ainsworth is a graduate of California State University, Fresno. She holds a master’s degree, a master of public health degree, and a Ph.D., all from the University of Minnesota.

Diane Welsh, the Hayes Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship and the director of the Entrepreneurship Cross-Disciplinary Program at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, received the Excellence in Curriculum Innovation and Entrepreneurship Award at the Deshpande Symposium for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell.

Professor Welsh joined the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 2007. She is a graduate of the University of Iowa, where she majored in English. Dr. Welsh earned a master’s degree in psychology at Emporia State University in Kansas and a Ph.D. in business administration at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Elizabeth H. Bradley, president of Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, received the 2018 William B. Graham Prize for Health Services Research from the Baxter International Foundation and the Association of University Programs in Health Administration.

Dr. Bradley became the eleventh president of Vassar College in July 2017. Earlier, she served as the Bradley-Johnson Professor of Grand Strategy at Yale University. Dr. Bradley grew up in Connecticut and graduated from Harvard University in 1984 with degrees in art history and economics. She holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. in health policy and health economics from Yale University. She is the co-author of The American Health Care Paradox: Why Spending More Is Getting Us Less (Public Affairs, 2013).