Annual Awards
Honoring Our Women Leaders 2004
Kristen Kelso, Edie Posselt, Susan Franzosa and May-Win Thein
were honored for their work on equity and inclusion at the 20th Annual Women's Commission Awards Ceremony on April 22, 2004.
Women's Commission Chair, Aline Kuntz, Political Science, thanked those who worked on policy change. She recognized faculty members Mary Banach, Gale Carey and Kate Hanson for their advocacy in promoting the newly instituted family leave policy for faculty.
Cari Moorhead, Director of Advising and Undergraduate Programs at the Whittemore School, spoke of the importance of the risks taken and the changes made. She praised women for the large and small ways they have supported the increase in faculty women at UNH over the years.
Keynote speaker, Dr. Regina Barecca, talked about learning to love our own laughter, to see that it can help us make sense of our world. She explained that often her students at the University of Connecticut, where she teaches American Literature and Feminist Theory, will come to her classes in the fall thinking that feminism means not being able to laugh out loud. She helps them to realize that feminism is about things that women can do and about choices they can make.
Barecca used her own special brand of humor to illustrate how women often tell stories while men prefer to tell jokes. She explained, "Neither one is better than the other; they're just different expressions." She told her audience that our laughing voice is important: "We have to laugh out loud for those voices that haven't been heard."
During the awards ceremony, Assistant Professor May-Win Thein was awarded for promoting the status of women through her advisory work with the Society of Women Engineers. As the only woman in the department of Mechanical Engineering, she has helped to motivate women to achieve full potential in engineering careers; demonstrated the value of diversity; and expanded the image of the engineering profession. SWEs annual outreach activity, Reach for the Stars, offers young girls a day of learning about women in engineering. One of Thein's students said, "You don't want to let her down because you know how hard she works for you."
The student award winner, Kristen Kelso, has been willing to share her skills and talents with others through her active membership in the Society of Women Engineers. She is co-founder and executive chair of a new group called Robo Chicks Union, established to inspire girls to value studies in engineering and science. Her work off campus includes being a mentor at Girls, Inc. As one of 6 females in a class of 49 males, she is actively working to recruit women to her department.
Professor Susan Franzosa earned the Joyce Gibbs Award created in 1997 to honor Joyce James Gibbs, who served as a senior administrative assistant to the Women's Commission from '91 - '97, and was the support and anchor for a wide circle of activists. Susan Franzosa has made a difference in UNH women's lives through her scholarship and service for issues of equity and inclusion for women. Current coordinator of the Women's Studies Program, Franzosa was also a long-time member of the Diversity Committee, and, in the 80s, she co-authored the Guidelines to Non-Sexist Language.
This year, she has hosted receptions for new faculty, discussions on women's scholarship, women's writing groups, and a promotion and tenure workshop.
She will be missed as she is leaving UNH to become a faculty member at the University of Washington in the fall.
The Stephanie Thomas Staff Award was given to honor the work of a former registrar who lived a life of strong advocacy for staff on the UNH campus. This year's Stephanie Thomas Award winner was Edie Posselt, a counselor who has shown how to value women on this campus by meeting with students in distress (most often women). She has been working at the UNH Counseling Center for over a decade and has helped women with eating disorders and victims of sexual assault. She has listened to women who have simply lost heart or lost their way, helping them to re-discover strength or find it for the first time. Her quiet, hard work has helped many heal themselves and stay strong.
The commission chair praised all of the nominees and award winners in saying: "It's important to acknowledge how hard everyone has worked and is still working on women's issues of equity and respect."