Five Women Scholars Honored With Prestigious Awards

Julie Williams, a professor in the School of Professional Psychology at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, received the Distinguished Contributions to the Advancement of Disability Issues Award from the American Psychological Association.

Professor Williams holds a bachelor’s degree and a doctorate in clinical psychology from Wright state University. She also earned a master’s degree in counseling at Ohio State University.

Deborah O’Bannon, a professor in the School of Computing and Engineering at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, will be honored as the Distinguished Engineering Educator by the Society of Women in Engineering.

Professor O’Bannon is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she majored in civil engineering. She holds a master’s degree in environmental engineering from Manhattan College and a Ph.D. in civil and environmental engineering from the University of Iowa.

Maria Tamargo, a professor of chemistry at the City College of New York, has been selected to receive the 2017 Molecular Beam Epitaxy Innovator Award from the North American Molecular Beam Epitaxy Advisory Board. She will be honored at the group’s conference in Galveston, Texas, in October.

Professor Tamargo is a graduate of the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in chemistry from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Jean Giddens, dean of the School of Nursing at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, has been selected to receive the Mary Adelaide Nutting Award for Outstanding Teaching or Leadership in Nursing Education from the National League of Nursing.

Dean Giddens joined the faculty at Virginia Commonwealth University in 2013 after teaching at the University of New Mexico College of Nursing. She is a graduate of the University of Kansas. Dr. Giddens holds a master’s degree from the University of Texas, El Paso and a doctorate in nursing from Colorado State University.

Gloria Chuku, chair and professor of Africana studies at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, received the 2017 Ali Mazrui Award for Scholarship and Research Excellence from the Toyin Falola Annual Conference on African Diaspora. She is the first woman to receive the award. It was presented to her at the Adeyemi College of Education in Ondo, Nigeria.

Dr. Chuku joined the faculty at the University of Maryland Baltimore County in 2008. Earlier, she taught at Millersville University of Pennsylvania, South Carolina State University, and Morgan State University in Baltimore. She holds a bachelor’s degree and a Ph.D. in history from the University of Nigeria (Nsukka).