Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
06/10/2011
Contact:
Katie Broendel, broendelk@aauw.org
202/785-7761
Lisa Goodnight, goodnightl@aauw.org
202/785-7738
University of Michigan Professor to Accept Prestigious AAUW Award in Washington
AAUW Names Abigail J. Stewart 2011 Eleanor Roosevelt Fund Awardee
WASHINGTON — Abigail J. Stewart, a leading researcher and distinguished professor of psychology and women's studies at the University of Michigan, will accept the Eleanor Roosevelt Fund Award Saturday, June 18, during the American Association of University Women's (AAUW's) 2011 National Convention.
"AAUW's prestigious Eleanor Roosevelt Fund Award this year goes to a truly remarkable and accomplished woman," said AAUW Executive Director Linda D. Hallman, CAE. "We are proud to celebrate the achievements and work of Dr. Stewart, a champion of equity for women and girls."
"I feel a great sense of pleasure that this award symbolically links me to Eleanor Roosevelt — not only someone I deeply admire but someone my mother deeply admired and worked for during World War II. She would have really loved this connection," Stewart said. (Visit AAUW Dialog to read a Q&A with Stewart.)
In addition to being an associate dean of the University of Michigan's Rackham Graduate School, Stewart is also the founder and director of the university's ADVANCE program at the Institute for Research on Women and Gender. The program promotes institutional transformation in the areas of recruitment, retention, climate, and leadership.
As the Sandra Schwartz Tangri Distinguished University Professor, Stewart has published many scholarly articles and several books, focusing on the psychology of women's lives, personality, and adaptation to personal and social changes. She holds degrees from Wesleyan University, the London School of Economics, and Harvard University. She has received the Henry Murray Award in personality psychology and the Carolyn Wood Sherif Award in psychology of women from the American Psychological Association.
Established in 1989, the Eleanor Roosevelt Fund Award honors an individual, organization, project, or institution for outstanding contributions to equity and education for women and girls. The Eleanor Roosevelt Fund Award includes a $5,000 honorarium and a trophy, as well as paid travel expenses to the AAUW National Convention. Past recipients include Wanda P. Hardy, founder and president of CreditWorthy, Inc., a financial education organization, and the Ophelia Project at Penn State, Erie.
While the award focuses on education, the recipient need not be an educator. The award is given for a broad range of activities including classroom teaching, educational and research contributions, and legal and legislative work in equity for women and girls.
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The American Association of University Women (AAUW) advances equity for women and girls through advocacy, education, philanthropy, and research. Since 1881, AAUW has been one of the nation’s leading voices promoting education and equity for women and girls. AAUW has a nationwide network of more than 100,000 members and donors, 1,000 branches, and 600 college/university institutional partners. Since AAUW's founding 130 years ago, members have examined and taken positions on the fundamental issues of the day — educational, social, economic, and political. AAUW's commitment to educational equity is reflected in its public policy advocacy, community programs, leadership development, conventions and conferences, national partnerships, and international connections.
