Five Women in Higher Education Who Have Been Selected for Prestigious Awards

Linda Tropp, professor of social psychology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, has been named the 2019 recipient of the Nevitt Sanford Award from the International Society of Political Psychology. She was recognized for her professional contributions to political psychology. Her research focuses on how group differences in status affect cross-group relations, and how inequality and conflict have influenced group members’ views of each other and the society they live in.

Dr. Tropp is a graduate of Wellesley College in Massachusetts, where she double-majored in psychology and Spanish. She holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. both in social psychology from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Patricia Martinez, assistant vice president for student affairs at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, has received the 2019 Parthenon Award from the Association of College and University Housing Officers-International. This award is the highest honor granted by the association, which recognizes outstanding service, leadership, achievement and contributions to the collegiate housing field.

Martinez is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. She holds a master’s degree from Eastern Illinois University.

Kerry Peluso, assistant vice president for research administration and finance at Florida State University, has been named a National Council of University Research Administrators Distinguished Educator. The award recognizes her exceptional contributions through the ideation, creation, and delivery of research administration. Earlier in her career, she received the NCURA Distinguished Service Award for her work on behalf of the organization.

Peluso holds an MBA from Rutgers University in New Jersey.

Lovoria Williams, associate professor in the College of Nursing at the University of Kentucky, has been named Nurse Researcher of the Year by the National Black Nurses Association. She was recognized for her efforts to deliver community-based interventions that reduce health disparities among minority and medically underserved populations by increasing tobacco cessation and cancer screening behaviors and reducing obesity and diabetes.

Dr. Williams holds a Ph.D. in nursing from Georgia Regents University.

Lizabeth Allison, Chancellor Professor of Biology at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, has received the Ruth Kirschstein Diversity in Science Award from the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. She was recognized for her commitment to encouraging underrepresented minorities to enter scientific fields and her effective mentorship to those within these fields. The award includes a $3,000 cash prize.

Dr. Allison holds a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences and a master’s degree in biology and cytogenetics from the University of Alaska. She also holds a Ph.D. in zoology and molecular and cellular biology from the University of Washington.