University Advocates for Women and Equity Names Four Winners of Annual Awards

Three students and one staff member have been named recipients of three awards presented annually by the University Advocates for Women and Equity.

The recipients are students Olga Ivanova, Emilee Sirek and G Lee Xiong, and Susan Anderson-Benson, program manager of The Selim Center for Learning in Later Years.

Xiong and Ivanova won awards that were created to honor women on campus, or to honor scholarship or creative work on concerns related to women. Xiong won the Pauline Lambert Advocacy Award, for taking initiative in challenging problems that exist around gender issues. Ivanova won the Sapientia Award, for outstanding work with a focus on a woman or on a concern related to women.

Anderson-Benson and Sirek won Sister Pat Kowalski Women’s Leadership Awards. The award is presented annually to a female employee of the university, rotating among different constituencies (faculty, exempt staff, nonexempt staff), and to a female student.

Previous recipients of the award are:

  • Pauline Lambert, 2000
  • Amanda Rios, 2001
  • Ann Johnson, 2002
  • Elizabeth Dussol, 2003
  • Nicole Gurgel, 2004
  • Kay Egan, 2005
  • JoAnn Andregg, 2006
  • Alethea Alden and Laura Stierman, 2007
  • Jill Manske, 2008
  • Mary Ann Ryan, 2009
  • Lauren Miller and Kelly Rodriguez, 2010
  • Debra Petersen, 2011
  • Pat Alexander and Christina Weiberg, 2012

Kowalski died in May 1999. The award is dedicated in memory of her spirit and work. She was director of community partnerships at St. Thomas for seven years. She initiated and facilitated programs and contacts with the broader community. She was a member of the University Committee on Women and was interested in issues concerning women and equality.

The awards will be presented at the UAWE’s annual spring reception, which will begin at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 23, in McNeely Hall, Room 100, on the university’s St. Paul campus. The St. Thomas community is invited to attend.

For more information email Dr. Susan Myers.