Linda Fletcher served as dean of the business schools at West Chester University in Pennsylvania and the Univerity of Tennessee Chattanooga. In 1964, she was the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in applied economics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
The women scholars honored with prestigious awards are Donna S. West-Strum of the University of Mississippi, Camille Nebeker at the University of California, San Diego, and Mukta Panda of the College of Medicine at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.