UW System Outstanding
Women of Color In Education Awards

Mary Council Austin, UW Colleges

Reverend Mary Council-Austin has contributed countless efforts to promote understanding and justice across the Fond du Lac community and surrounding areas. As coordinator of Diversity at Marian College, she works campus wide to develop comprehensive strategies for diversity work with students, faculty and staff. She works in partnership with campus, religious, business and civic organizations to foster the embrace and celebration of diversity. She works closely with Fond du Lac City and County agencies to inspire the development of programs policies to ensure that all members of the community will live free from hostility and experience equitable treatment through community service providers. On the campus, she coordinators the work of the Marian College Diversity Advisory Committee and works in partnership with The Offices of Student Life, Women's Studies, Social Justice and Community Relations and Mission. In the city she assisted in the founding of Community First (a diversity advisory committee to the Fond du Lac City Council), Unity for Diversity (formerly Peace Fest, INC.), Fond du Lac Diversity Study Circles, and is a founding member of The Martin Luther King, Jr Holiday Observance Program Planning Committee. Rev. Council-Austin works with equity and diversity concerns with students and teachers in the Fond du Lac public and parochial schools to promote diversity and multicultural education. She works to ensure that the voices of all members of the community are heard and included in shaping the decisions affecting community life. Before coming to the position at Marian College, Rev. Council-Austin served as Pastor of Salem United Methodist Church in Fond du Lac. She has coordinated the United Methodist Seminars on National and International Affairs, with Women's Division and the National Division of Global Ministries, and coordinated United Methodist involvement with Impact. As a member of the Wisconsin Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, Rev. Council Austin was the first racial ethnic women to serve under appointment. Serving in cross-cultural appointments, she was a pioneer in the church's efforts to demonstrate its commitment to open itinerancy and cross- racial / cross-cultural appointments. Rev. Council-Austin was the first female to serve as Assistant to the Dean of the historical Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel, Howard University in Washington, DC. Mary is the recipients of numerous honors and awards. She was most recently honored as the 2004 recipient of the Donald Jones Leadership Fond du Lac Award for her volunteer efforts with the community diversity projects, programs with women in recovery, Fond du Lac Area United Way, and worship services with Taycheedah Correctional Facility - Maximum Security Unit. Rev. Mary is sort after as a speaker, preacher, civic and spiritual leader across Wisconsin and locations across the United States. Since 2001, she has been serving as Special Assistant to the President at Marian College for Diversity.

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Carolyn Nelson, UW Colleges

Phonetala X. Yang, UW Colleges

Shamim Naim, UW Colleges

Debbie Ledo-Ander, UW-Eau Claire

Houa Vue Moua, UW-Eau Claire

Selika Ducksworth, UW-Eau Claire

Kalyani Rai , UW-Extension

Geraldine Jackson, UW-Extension

Ka Youa Kong, UW-Green Bay

Peres Owino, UW-Green Bay

Houa Xiong, UW-La Crosse

Karen Reed, UW-La Crosse

S. Vera Fowler, UW-La Crosse

Sarah Shillinger, UW-La Crosse

Lucille Badgers, UW-Madison

Nancy Rodriguez, UW-Madison

Stanlie M. James, UW-Madison

Karma S. Rogers, UW-Milwaukee

Liliana Amporo, UW-Milwaukee

Sandra Millon Underwood, UW-Milwaukee

Over the past ten years Dr. Underwood has committed herself to developing strategies/interventions aimed toward improving the access of minority, economically disadvantaged, and medically underserved populations to state-of-the-art breast cancer detection and control programs. Her educational background -- a Bachelors Degree in Nursing (Loyola University, Chicago, IL), a Master's Degree in Nursing (Loyola University, Chicago, IL) and a Doctorate in Education and Social Policy (Northwestern University, Evanston, IL) -- helped launch her into an academic forum where she was able to actualize a career of research, teaching, and advocacy. As a Professor at the University of Wisconsin she has facilitated the development of courses that aim to enhance student knowledge relative to cancer detection and control and the care of culturally diverse and vulnerable populations. She was the Founding Director of the House of Peace Community Nursing Center. In this capacity she developed educational and research opportunities for faculty and students within high-risk community settings. In addition, most recently she has been involved in the development of a series of initiatives aimed toward reducing disparities in breast cancer detection and control among African American women and in the development of a national research institute for nurse scientists aimed toward expanding and strengthening nursing research focused on breast cancer in African American women.

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Lisa Pertillar Brevard, UW-Oshkosh

Alia S. Rouf, UW-Oshkosh

Yolanda Delaney, UW-Oshkosh

Anne Bailey, UW-Parkside

Deanne Ding, UW-Parkside

Josephine McCool, UW-Parkside

Diane Spence, UW-Platteville

Rosalyn Broussard, UW-Platteville

Shayla Neal, UW-Platteville

Lidia Mullenax, UW-River Falls

Sharraine Smith, UW-River Falls

Georgia Wettlin-Larsen, UW-River Falls

Lorraine Avery Blair, UW-Stevens Point

Andrea Turner, UW-Stevens Point

Sunu Cherain, UW-Stevens Point

Pather Fowlkes, UW-Stout

Su Darshan Perusek, UW-Stout

'Ivy' Yvonne Vainio, UW-Superior

Yvonne (Ivy) Vainio has been the Multicultural Student Specialist in the Office of Multicultural Affairs at UW-Superior for the past 7 and a half years. Ms. Vainio is Grand Portage Ojibwa and African American, and is very active in both the local Native American and African American communities of the Twin Ports (Duluth, MN and Superior, WI). She is also supportive and attends many Hmong community celebrations and events. As a graduate of the University of Minnesota-Duluth in History, Ms. Vainio has been instrumental in developing various successful pre-college one day recruitment programs called "College Student For A Day" which targets American Indian, African American, Hmong and Hispanic/Latino local high school students. These students attend UW-Superior for the day and shadow a UW-Superior student of color. She also coordinated a one week Native American Youth Summer pre-college program from 1999 - 2003. Ms. Vainio is involved with Students of Color on a daily basis and helps to create a warm, caring atmosphere at UW-Superior for these students. She is creative and hard-working, always looking for ways to make diversity initiatives at the forefront of everything the university does. She is a Co-Advisor for the Black Student Union. She is also a member of the Affirmative Action/Equal Employment Opportunities Committee, the LGBT Working Group, UW-Superior Woman of Color Committee and most recently the NCA Climate Committee. She is very passionate about equal rights for everyone and enjoys working with these committees to help solve problems and create much needed awareness on these issues. Ms. Vainio has received the Woman of Color Award twice; once in 1998 and again in 2001.

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Sandra Wright, UW-Superior

Angela Moore, UW-Whitewater

Freda Briscoe, UW-Whitewater

May See Yang, UW-Whitewater

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