KU News Release

KU Medical Center leader to speak at annual Women’s Recognition Program

Barbara Atkinson

LAWRENCE — Outstanding women in the University of Kansas community will be honored at the annual Women’s Recognition Program at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 17, at the Big 12 Room in the Kansas Union.

Barbara Atkinson, executive vice chancellor of the KU Medical Center and executive dean of the School of Medicine, will be the keynote speaker. A reception will follow the program to congratulate recipients and celebrate their accomplishments.

Student awards honor outstanding women in athletics, community service, the international arena and leadership and a nontraditional woman and a woman in partnership. A new award for student mothers, the Ethel Bohning Single Mother Award, will also be given.

Awards will also go to female faculty and staff members. Dorothy Knoll, dean of students at the medical center, will receive the Outstanding Woman Staff Member Award. Elizabeth Friis, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, is the Outstanding Woman Educator.

Exemplary women leaders will be inducted into the KU Women’s Hall of Fame, a tradition since 1970. The new inductees are Atkinson; Helen Alexander, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology; Joan Hunt, professor of anatomy and cell biology; and Marynell Dyatt Reece of Scandia, a 1942 alumna, founder of Reece Construction and civic leader.

The late Martha Peterson, a KU leader and administrator in the 1940s and ’50s who served as president of two colleges, will be recognized as this year’s Pioneer Woman. Peterson died in 2006. She was a native of Jamestown and a 1933 Salina High School graduate who earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mathematics in 1937 and 1943, respectively, from KU. As a faculty member she taught math and was assistant dean of women and dean of women. She left KU in 1956 to become the dean of women at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 1967, she became president of Barnard College in New York. In 1975, she became the first woman president of Beloit College in Wisconsin. She was also the first woman to serve on the board of directors of Exxon, Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. and Dry Dock Savings Bank. Peterson was a 1972 Women’s Hall of Fame inductee, a 1968 Alumni Distinguished Service Citation recipient and a 1993 School of Education Apple Award recipient.

KU’s Commission on the Status of Women and Emily Taylor Women’s Resource Center sponsor the Women’s Recognition Program.

Students receiving awards are listed below by hometown, level in school and major, parents’ names, high school (when available) and award.

DOUGLAS COUNTY
From Lawrence 66046
Cynthia Lynn, senior majoring in English and African-American studies, received the Ethel Bohning Singler Mother Award. Lynn is the daughter of Laurel Havlicek and a graduate of Nebraska City High School.

Diedre L. White Man, master’s student in indigenous nations studies, received the Outstanding Nontraditional Woman Student Award. She has a bachelor’s degree from Haskell Indian Nations University and is a graduate of West High School in Davenport, Iowa.

HARVEY COUNTY
From Newton 67114
Stephanie Diane Gomez, junior majoring in human biology, received the Outstanding Woman Student in Partnership Award. She is the daughter of Steve and Diana Gomez and a Newton High School graduate.

JOHNSON COUNTY
Prairie Village, KS 66207
Ellen C. Stolle, senior majoring in biochemistry, biology and Spanish, received the Outstanding Woman Student in Leadership Award. She is the daughter of Calvin and Susan Stolle and a Shawnee Mission East High School graduate.

From Overland Park 66214
Bridey Aleeza Maidhof, junior majoring in American studies, received the Outstanding Woman Student in Community Service Award. She is the daughter of James and Jill Maidhof and a Shawnee Mission East High School graduate.

PENNSYLVANIA
From Washington 15301
Chelsey Alexandra Pryor, senior in communication studies, was named Outstanding Woman Student in Athletics. She is the daughter of Charles and Marianne Pryor and a graduate of Canevin Catholic High School in Pittsburgh, Pa.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA and PARAGUAY
From Washington, D.C., and Ascuncion, Paraguay
Cristina Avelina Fernandez, junior majoring in economics and political science, received the Outstanding International Woman Student Award. Fernandez is a U.S. citizen who was born and raised in Paraguay and is attending KU through an exchange program with Catholic University in Asuncion. She is the daughter of Maria Guzman and Wilfrido Fernandez of Asuncion and a graduate of Goethe Schule High School in Paraguay.

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