Eleven Women Faculty or Administrators in Higher Education Honored With Prestigious Awards

Tammy Merrett, faculty advisor for Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s student newspaper, has been awarded the Louis E. Ingelhart First Amendment Award from the College Media Association. The award recognizes professionals that have made an extraordinary, long-term contribution in support of the First Amendment.

Merrett holds a bachelor’s degree in communications from Pittsburg State University in Kansas and a master’s degree in communication management from Webster University in Missouri.

Talitha Washington has received the 2018 Leitzel Prize at the summer Mathematical Association of America MathFest Conference. She is a mathematician and professor at Howard University and a program director at the National Science Foundation.

Dr. Washington is a manga cum laude graduate of Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, where she majored in mathematics and minored in Spanish. She also holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. in mathematics both from the University of Connecticut.

Joan Argetsinger Steitz, a professor of molecular biology and biochemistry at Yale University has won one of three annual prizes from The Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation. She is recognized for her discoveries in RNA biology and her mentorship of women in science.

Dr. Steitz earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and a Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology from Harvard University.

Teresa Amabile, a Baker Foundation Professor at Harvard Business School and the Edsel Bryant Ford Professor of Business Administration Emerita, is the recipient of the 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Organizational Behavior Division of the Academy of Management. The award is given annually to senior scholars who have made significant contributions to the field of organizational behavior over the course of their career.

Dr. Amabile is a summa cum laude graduate of Canisius College in Buffalo, New York, where she majored in chemistry. She holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. in psychology from Stanford University.

La’Kitha Hughes, associate director of facilities and construction management at Jackson State University in Mississippi, has been awarded the Women in Leadership scholarship from the Association of Physical Plant Administrators. The scholarship is given to women facilities professionals based on financial need, professional aspirations, and leadership qualities.

Hughes holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a master’s degree in educational/instructional technology from Mississippi State University.

Bonnie Bassler, the Squibb Professor in Molecular Biology at Princeton University and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator is the recipient of the 2018 Ernst Schering Prize from Schering Stiftung. She is being honored for her discovery of intercellular bacterial communication, known as quorum sensing.

Dr. Bassler holds a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from the University of California, Davis and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Johns Hopkins University.

Kay L. Schlozman, the Joseph Moakley Professor of Political Science at Boston College, is the first woman to receive the Warren E. Miller Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Political Science Association. The award honors the outstanding careers of professionals in the field of elections, public opinion, and voting behavior. Dr. Schlozman is a graduate of Wellesley College in Massachusetts, where she majored in sociology and minored in English. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Chicago.

Mirya Holman, an associate professor of political science at Tulane University in New Orleans, has been awarded the Clarence Stone Scholar Award by the urban politics section of the American Political Science Association. She is being recognized for her significant contributions to the field of urban politics through her study of women and politics, local politics, research methods, and environmental politics.

Dr. Holman is a magna cum laude graduate of Loyola University in New Orleans where she double majored in political science and history. She holds a master’s degree in public policy and a Ph.D. in American politics and public policy from Claremont Graduate University in California.

Monika Gulia-Nuss, an assistant professor of molecular biology at the University of Nevada Reno, has won the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve’s Service Member Patriot Award from the United States Department of Defense. She is being recognized for her efforts to support students in the military.

Dr. Gulia-Nuss holds a bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, and Ph.D. in biosciences from Maharshi Dayanand University in Rohtak, India.

Christy Ashley, an associate professor of marketing in the College of Business at the University of Rhode Island, is the recipient of the Pearson Prentice Hall’s Solomon-Marshall-Stuart Award for Innovative Excellence in Marketing Education. She is being recognized for her implementation of a class assignment that is similar to fantasy sports, but instead of tracking players’ statistics, students followed marketing-related news about popular brands.

Dr. Ashley holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut, an MBA in telecommunications management from the University of Miami, and a Ph.D. in marketing from the University of Rhode Island.

Sherry Farra, an associate professor in the College of Nursing and Health at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, is the recipient of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing 2018-2019 Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Excellence Award. The award is given to a faculty member who researches student learning and ways to improve it.

Dr. Farra holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Wright State University and a Ph.D. in nursing from the University of Cincinnati.