| Alice Paul Award winners honored for work on behalf of women by adrienne frank The spirit of suffragette and WCL alumna Alice Paul lives on in four AU women, honored last Tuesday by the Women and Politics Institute. Named for the author of the Equal Rights Amendment, the annual Alice Paul Awards recognize an AU faculty member, staff member, student, and alumna or alumnus committed to feminist issues. The awards are also sponsored by the Women’s Initiative. 
Photo by Jeff Watts
The 2006 Alice Paul Award winners are, from left, Eileen Findlay, Andrea Peterson Bilotto, Amy Dacey, and Katherine Haldeman. This year’s winners include Eileen Findlay, a professor in the Department of History, who was honored for her work at a Philadelphia legal services center that represents battered women. While living in Philadelphia, Findlay also organized women’s study groups and advocated for bilingual gender equity in employment practices. “I’m especially honored to receive this award because it recognizes my work in all facets of my life—as an organizer, a musician, a radio programmer, a legal worker, and social service provider, as well as an educator and a scholar,” said Findlay. “Advocating for women’s empowerment has been an important focus of my life for the past 30 years, stretching far beyond the academy, and it’s quite lovely to be able to acknowledge it all.” Katherine Haldeman, director of the Wellness Center, was recognized for her work with AU’s Naked Truth Wellness Advocates Program, which educates dorm residents about stress management, healthy eating habits, and sexual responsibility. A graduate student in the School of Education, Teaching and Health, Andrea Peterson Bilotto was honored for her work as an English teacher at a Prince George’s County high school, where she works to empower the young women in her class. Bilotto is also active with AU’s Creative Peace Initiative. Alumna Amy Dacey was recognized for her work with Sen. John Kerry’s Keeping America’s Promise PAC and EMILY’s List, where she recruited and trained women to run for political office. Dacey, who received her master’s in political science in 1995, also serves on the Women and Politics Institute’s Young Women Leaders Board. |
