Four Women Scholars Honored With Prestigious Awards

Lisa Manning, an associate professor of physics at Syracuse University in New York, has been selected to receive the Maria Goeppert Mayer Award from the American Physical Society. The award honors an outstanding woman physicist for early career achievements. She will be honored at the society’s meeting in Los Angeles in March.

Dr. Manning is a graduate of the University of Virginia, where she double majored in mathematics and physics. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Lydia Tapia, an associate professor of computer science at the University of New Mexico received the Borg Early Career Award from the Computing Research Association-Women at the IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robotics and Systems in Vancouver, Canada. Dr. Tapia joined the faculty at the University of New Mexico in 2011.

Dr. Tapia is a graduate of Tulane University in New Orleans. She holds a Ph.D. in computer science from Texas A&M University.

Jacqueline McLaughlin, an associate professor of biology at Pennsylvania State University-Lehigh Valley in Center Valley, received the Higher Education Educator of the Year Award from the North American Association for Environmental Education.

Dr. McLaughlin is a graduate of New College in Sarasota, Florida. She holds a master’s degree from Florida State University and a Ph.D. from Rutgers University in New Jersey.

Ashley Blount, an assistant professor in the department of counseling in the College of Education at the University of Nebraska Omaha, received the Best Practices Researcher Award from the American Counseling Association. She was honored for developing the Helping Professional Wellness Discrepancy Scale which measures the difference between a person’s perceived wellness and their aspirational wellness.

Dr. Blount is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point. She holds a master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling from Texas A&M University- Corpus Christi and a Ph.D. in counseling from the University of Central Florida.