By Sarah Prince
CEW+

Four University of Michigan faculty members will be honored next month with awards for their efforts to support equity, advance human rights, mentor students and junior staff members and advocate for their concerns. The award recipients embody the spirit and courage, tenacity, and innovation of the esteemed leaders for which the awards were named: Carol Hollenshead, Sarah Goddard Power, and Rhetaugh Dumas.

All the awards will be presented from 3-5 pm Feb. 11 at CEW+.

This year’s recipient of the Carol Hollenshead Award is Michelle Bellino, associate professor at the Marsal Family School of Education, for her leadership in creating transformative learning spaces in higher education, and sustained dedication to the advancement of educational rights for marginalized populations.

“A cornerstone of [Bellino]’s scholarly work is her research in the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya, where she has directly engaged communities traditionally excluded from formal educational spaces,” said Marcela Ortiz G., a Ph.D. candidate in educational studies at the Marsal School, in a nominating letter. She has also worked to shape policy at the national and international levels, co-leads the Global Education Discussion Group on campus, and co-launched a peer mentorship program designed to support newcomer migrant youth at Melvindale High School.

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.

The Sarah Goddard Power and Rhetaugh G. Dumas Awards were traditionally presented by the Academic Women’s Caucus, which is no longer active. To honor the legacies of Goddard Power and Dumas, CEW+ has administered these awards since 2018.

Two faculty members will receive the Goddard Power Award this year: Vanessa Dalton, associate chair for research, and the co-director of the Gynecology Division at the U-M Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Shanna Kattari, associate professor at the School of Social Work, in the Women’s and Gender Studies Department (by courtesy), and director of the [Sexuality|Relationships|Gender] Research Collective.

Dalton receives the award for her sustained commitment to using her expertise and influence to break down barriers and foster opportunities for women and other marginalized identities. Dalton is the founding Director of the Program on Women+’s Healthcare Effectiveness Research (PWHER), establishing a pioneering interdisciplinary platform to address gaps in women’s healthcare that brings together diverse faculty across public health, nursing, policy, and gender studies.

Known for her “joyful mentorship,” Dalton has an “extraordinary record as a mentor and sponsor—especially for women and individuals from backgrounds underrepresented in medicine and science,” said Dee Fenner, chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the U-M Medical School, in a nominating letter.

Kattari’s work to dismantle barriers and create opportunities for marginalized students, staff, and faculty, and commitment to equity across disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, and other intersecting identities throughout her career, garners them the award.

“Shanna has embraced Universal Design as a guiding philosophy and a classroom reality. Their courses allow students to have agency over their learning experience in a way that meets their unique support needs. These choices promote autonomy, agency, and learning access in ways few instructors attempt,” said Haylie Miller, assistant professor of movement science in the School of Kinesiology, and director of the Motor & Visual Development Laboratory, in a nominating letter. Their influence extends beyond the classroom to include consulting on accessibility across the university and beyond, as well as a notable mentee-centered approach to supporting students and colleagues.

Sarah Goddard Power was 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. A U-M regent for more than 12 years, she worked to advance the position of women and minorities in faculty and administrative roles.

The Rhetaugh G. Dumas award will be presented to Ellen Rowe, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation and the Earl V. Moore Professor of Music, U-M School of Music, Theatre and Dance.

Rowe receives the award for her sustained efforts to promote gender diversity in jazz ensemble composition and arranging, and overall commitment to advancing the role of women in jazz. Professor Rowe is the first woman chair of a major university jazz department and among the first woman directors of a university jazz ensemble. As she was breaking into the music field, the jazz community lacked women role models, but over the years she has successfully advocated for more gender diversity in university and secondary school jazz programs. “Under her leadership, the U-M jazz program recruited more female students than any other jazz program of a comparable size in the country,” said Melody Racine, associate professor emerita of music, theatre and dance, in a nominating letter.

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.

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.”