CEW+ Inspire Awards

The Carol Hollenshead Award was created in honor of former director Carol Hollenshead’s twenty-year tenure at the Center for the Education of Women and honors awardees who, like Carol, have proven that social change is possible through persistent hard work and who demonstrate that one person can make a lasting difference in their communities.

Carol served as director of CEW+ for 20 years and was responsible for establishing the Center as a foundational component of the University of Michigan, especially concerning Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. In her first year in this role, she turned the Center for the Continuing Education of Women, an organization with limited funding and exposure, into the Center for the Education of Women, engaging in national projects and greatly expanding its campus presence. Carol built on the incredible work of the women who came before her and put CEW+ on the map and for that, we are forever grateful.

In honor of her impactful, dedicated efforts, the Carol Hollenshead Award was established upon her retirement from the Center in 2012. This award honors faculty, staff, and students (either an individual or a group) whose sustained efforts have resulted in greater equity with regard to gender, race, class, age, disability, gender identity, or sexual orientation.

Applicants must be affiliated with any University of Michigan campus, however, the focus of their efforts may be either within or beyond the university. Honorees will be those who, like Carol, have proven that social change is possible through persistent hard work and who demonstrate that one person can make a lasting difference in their communities.

Carol Hollenshead changed CEW+ and the University of Michigan for the better and her legacy, though impossible to measure, will be felt for generations.

Click here to read more about the Carol Hollenshead Award and previous recipients.

Sarah Goddard Power was widely acclaimed as a major contributor to the advancement of higher education, an advocate for affirmative action and human rights, and a champion of freedom for the international press. As a Regent of the University of Michigan for more than 12 years, Sarah Goddard Power worked tirelessly to advance the position of women and minorities in faculty and administrative roles.

When Eugenia Carpenter, co-chair of the Academic Women’s Caucus, suggested that an award should be established to honor scholarship focused on women and gender, Regent Sarah Goddard Power was very supportive.  In 1984, an Awards Committee was established to select the first recipients of the Academic Women’s Caucus Awards, and the reception was hosted at Regent Power’s house. Thus, it seemed appropriate that the Academic Women’s Caucus Award be renamed to honor Regent Power. In 1988, Regent Philip H. Power graciously consented to allow the Caucus to rename its awards the Academic Women’s Caucus Sarah Goddard Power Award. In 1998, President Lee Bollinger enabled the Award to be offered with an accompanying stipend. Each year, nominations are selected for the Sarah Goddard Power Awards.

Click here to read more about the Sarah Goddard Power Award and previous recipients.

Rhetaugh G. Dumas, a vice provost emerita, was an esteemed leader with vision, insight, and wise counsel who had a significant impact on the advancement of nursing, healthcare, and academic programs at U-M. Dumas was the first African American woman to serve as a dean at U-M when she was appointed to that role at the School of Nursing in 1981. She remained dean until 1994, when she was named the inaugural vice provost for health affairs and the Lucille Cole Professor of Nursing.

Click here to read more about the Rhetaugh G. Dumas Award and previous recipients.

Members of the Academic Women’s Caucus lobbied for the hire and promotion of top female administrators, equitable salaries for female faculty, and anti-discrimination policies within the University. Prior to its official formation in the summer of 1975, women faculty and staff who would eventually make up the Caucus fought for equal rights, among such other issues as making the role of women faculty more visible. Supported by the offices of Human Resources and Institutional Equity, its charge was to “develop an inclusive organization of all academic women and men of the Ann Arbor, Dearborn and Flint campuses of the University of Michigan… to serve as forum for the exchange of information about the status of academic women at the University and as a focus necessary to the investigation and resolution of their special concern.”