Notable Honors and Awards for Six Women From the Academic World

Sandra Faber, a professor emerita of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California Santa Cruz, has received the 2018 Magellanic Premium Medal from the American Philosophical Society. She was honored for her “contributions to the study of galaxy formation and evolution, which have transformed our understanding of these building blocks of the Universe and set the agenda for years to come.”

Dr. Faber is a graduate of Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, where she majored in physics and minored in mathematics and astronomy. She holds a Ph.D. in optical observation astronomy from Harvard University.

Abigail Latimer, a social worker and researcher in the College of Social Work at the University of Kentucky, has received the 2019 Award for Excellence in Clinical Practice from the Social Work Hospice & Palliative Care Network. She was honored for her excellence and leadership in end-of-life, hospice, and palliative care. Her research focuses on moral distress in professionals and healthcare providers, the impact of social work and professional development in palliative care, and the role of social workers in management of heart failure.

Latimer holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master of social work degree from the University of Kentucky, where she is also currently working on a doctorate in social work.

Denise Dowling, an associate professor of journalism and interim dean of the School of Journalism at the University of Montana, has received a Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Society of Professional Journalists for her documentary Alex, Not Amy: Growing Up Transgender in the Rural West. The documentary follows the story of 10-year-old Alex O’Neill as he changes his gender. The piece has also won a Regional Edward R. Murrow Award from the Radio Television Digital News Association and is now under consideration for a National Murrow Award as well.

Professor Dowling holds a bachelor’s degree in radio and television from the University of Montana and a master’s degree in learning and technology from Western Governors University.

Julie Barnes, a professor mathematics at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina, has been honored with a distinguished teaching award and distinguished service award from the Mathematical Association of America. She is co-author of Tactile Learning Activities in Mathematics: A Recipe Book for the Undergraduate Classroom (American Mathematical Society, 2018) and Coloring Book of Complex Function Representations (American Mathematical Society, 2017), an adult coloring book featuring 18 images and the math that produced the images. This year, she worked with other faculty members at Western Carolina University to start a club called “FEM in STEM,” a group for female majors in science, technology, engineering and math fields.

Dr. Barnes is a graduate of the University of Central Florida where she majored in mathematics. She holds a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Amy Gaffney, director of the Oral Communication Center at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, has received the Joyce Ferguson Faculty Paper Award from the National Association of Communication Centers for her paper, “‘It’s not my major, but…’: Exploring the Impact of Discipline on Tutoring Activities.” The award is given to the top paper by a faculty member or other administrator that empirically address an issue surrounding communication centers. Dr. Gaffney’s paper examined patterns in how tutors work with students based on whether or not the course is in the tutor’s major.

Dr. Gaffney is a graduate of Bethany College in West Virginia where she majored in communication. She holds a master’s degree in communication studies from Kent State University in Ohio and a Ph.D. in communication, rhetoric, and digital media from North Carolina State University.

The Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University will be renamed for Stanford alumna and psychologist Carolyn Lewis Attneave. Throughout her career she worked at various institutions including the Boston University School of Medicine, the University of Washington, the Harvard School of Public Health, and Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. She established the field of Native American mental health and helped establish organizations now known as the Society of Indian Psychologists and the North American Indian Center of Boston. She passed away in 1992.

Dr. Attneave earned her master’s degree and doctorate both in education from Stanford University.