The St. Thomas community is invited to the annual spring reception of the University Advocates for Women and Equity on Thursday, March 17. The event will feature the presentation of the Sister Pat Kowalski Women’s Leadership Award along with three new awards developed by UAWE.

The reception will be held from 3 to 4:30 p.m. in Room 100 (the Great Room), McNeely Hall.

The Sister Pat Kowalski Women’s Leadership Award will be presented to Dr. Debra Petersen, associate professor in the Communication and Journalism and Women’s Studies departments. The new awards were created to honor women on campus for their support of other women, or their scholarship or creative work on topics of concern for women.

The new awards and recipients are:

• Good Sister Award: Sue Focke – for providing help and support to women on campus in formal and informal ways.
• Pauline Lambert Advocacy Award: Theresa Malloy –  for taking initiative on challenging problems of gender issues on campus.
• Sapientia Award: Students Hannah Gikling and Sara Joyce, and faculty member Julie Risser, Art History Department. Gikling wrote a research paper on the presentation of gender in the early Christian martyrdom of Perpetua; Joyce wrote a research paper on the child psychologist Florence Goodenough; Risser has brought a focus on women’s art to the university’s Asmat art collection.

For more information about the reception contact Susan Myers, (651) 962-5321.