Five Women Scholars Honored with Notable Awards

Alicia Nails, a lecturer in the department of communication at Wayne State University in Detroit, was named the 2018 Educator of the Year by the National Association of Black Journalists. Nails also serves as director of the Journalism Institute for Media Diversity at Wayne State.

Nails earned a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism from Michigan State University and a juris doctorate at the Wayne State University Law School.

Nancy Weiss Malkiel, professor emerita of history at Princeton University in New Jersey, was selected to receive the 2018 Sidney Hook Memorial Award from the Phi Beta Kappa Society. The award recognizes national distinction in scholarship, undergraduate teaching, and leadership in the cause of liberal arts education.

Professor Malkiel joined the faculty at Princeton in 1969. She is the author of several books including Farewell to the Party of Lincoln: Black Politics in the Age of FDR (Princeton University Press, 1983). Dr. Malkiel is a graduate of Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. She earned a Ph.D. at Harvard University.

Mia Moody-Ramirez, a professor of journalism and director of American studies in the College of Arts & Sciences at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, received the Lionel Barrow Jr. Award for Distinguished Achievement in Diversity Research and Education from the Association for Education and Journalism and Mass Communication.

Dr. Moody-Ramirez is a graduate of Texas A&M University. She holds master’s degrees in journalism and educational psychology from Baylor University and a Ph.D. in journalism from the University of Texas at Austin.

Karen Kirkhart, a professor of social work at Syracuse University in New York, was named the Laura Taddeucci Downs National Advisor of the Year by the National Society of Collegiate Scholars.

Dr. Kirkhart is a graduate of Pomona College in Claremont, California, where she majored in psychology. She holds a master of social work degree and a Ph.D. in social work from the University of Michigan.

Carolyn B. Murray, a professor of psychology at the University of California Riverside, received the 2018 Dr. William Montague Cobb Award for special achievements in public health from the National Health Committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Professor Murray joined the faculty at the university in 1980. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.