UW System Outstanding
Women of Color In Education Awards
Award Recipients for 2010
Deborah B. Cureton, UW-Colleges
Caitlin Mai Chong Lee, UW-Eau Claire
Yvonne Roulhac Horton, UW-Extension
Amii John, UW-Green Bay
Amanda Goodenough, UW-La Crosse
Patricia A. Loew, UW-Madison
Christine Lowery, UW-Milwaukee
Flora Valtierra-Stapel, UW-Oshkosh
Fay Akindes, UW-Parkside
Christina J. Curras, UW-Platteville
Tyra Nelson, UW-River Falls
Dana E. Smith, UW-Stevens Point
Diona D. Johnson, UW-Stout
Carol May Stevens (Deceased), UW-Superior
Estela Mara Bensimon, UW System Administration
Linda Holmes, UW-Whitewater
Past Award Recipients by Campus or by Year
Deborah B. Cureton, UW Colleges
Dr. Deborah B. Cureton is the dean and campus executive officer at UW-Richland, a post she's held almost continually since July 2001. Interim dean since 2008, when she first attempted to retire and was asked to return after only a year, Dr. Cureton plans to complete her service to UW System at the end of this academic year. Deborah Cureton first received this award in 2003 for significant work improving the climate in higher education for women. In 2010 we acknowledge her continued success in this arena. Among many other efforts, Cureton chaired the UW System Working Group on the Status of Women in 2005-06, leading the review of gender equity achievement in the System and resulting in a set of recommendations sent to President Reilly for accomplishing gender equity, including equitable representation of women of color as students and as employees at all levels of the institution. Committed to student access, retention, and success efforts at the pre-college, campus and institutional levels, Dr. Cureton is known to be passionate in her support for all who seek to gain and provide higher education. Over the past decade, minority enrollment at UW-Richland has more than doubled. Upon her retirement as UW-Richland CEO/Dean (the first time), Dr. Cureton established an endowment at UW-Richland to promote the infusion of diversity into campus life, a legacy that will support women of color into the future. Dr. Cureton additionally serves as a member of the Executive Committee of the American Association of Blacks in Higher Education, and as an officer of Wisconsin Women in Higher Education Leadership.
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Caitlin Lee, UW-Eau Claire
Caitlin Mai Chong Lee is an Equal Employment Opportunity Specialist at UW-Eau Claire. Born in Thailand, she spent her first four years in a refugee camp before immigrating to the US in 1980. Upon moving to Eau Claire in 1981, she attended Eau Claire public schools and then UW-Eau Claire. She highlighted gender, culture, and diversity in her studies, and included courses in women’s studies in her curriculum. A McNair Scholar, she presented at numerous conferences and received many student recognitions. Caitlin started working in the UW-Eau Claire Affirmative Action office first as a part-time student employee. Receiving her B.A. in Political Science in 2003 she became a full-time Equal Employment Opportunity Specialist for the University in 2007. Caitlin Lee brought her expertise to the campus Affirmative Action Plan, and to the training of other UW System employees. She is a leader in UW-Eau Claire’s Dismantling Racism project and in the larger Eau Claire/Chippewa Valley community on behalf of the Hmong community. Ms. Lee is the first woman to serve as President of the Board of Directors for the Eau Claire Hmong Mutual Assistance Association. In fact she is the first woman president to serve in any of the 14 state-wide Hmong Mutual Assistance Association boards in Wisconsin. Her leadership brings change, new vision, and stability to the organization while enhancing its prominence. Caitlin Lee also mentors her six younger sisters and three younger brothers, helping them to see the opportunities that await them. Working with the UW-Eau Claire Upward Bound Program, first as a graduate of the program, then as a tutor/mentor, and finally as a summer instructor with Hmong high school students, Caitlin Mai Chong Lee acts on her beliefs that leadership can be cultivated at every age, and that Hmong teens, especially young Hmong women, must be empoweredto reach for their full potential because we all need their leadership.
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Yvonne Roulhac Horton, UW-Extension
Dr. Yvonne Roulhac Horton is Associate Dean and Associate Director of Cooperative Extension, and Associate Professor of Family Development at UW-Extension. Improving the status of and climate for women and people of color has been a guiding foundation for her life. Since she joined UW-Extension in 1999, they have benefited from her talents, skill and quiet persistence for building an inclusive environment. Yvonne brings proactive multicultural inclusion to her current division-wide responsibilities. In all her work she brings a vision of “working to develop a culture that [is] conducive to creativity, collaboration, teamwork, communication and meaningful program outcomes.” Dr. Horton is known for championing efforts that result in professional growth and encouraging collegial appreciation. She has worked hard to give classified colleagues a voice in organizational development and decision making. A facilitator with the institutional Multicultural Awareness Program, and modeling the principles of the program in her daily work, she has also advanced African American and Latino Affinity Groups that support the needs of people of color working to strengthen and further personal and organizational effectiveness through cross-cultural, multi-generational collaboration and leadership. Yvonne is a ten-year breast cancer survivor. In 2009, as a member of The Links, Inc., an organization of professional women committed to enriching, sustaining and ensuring the culture and economic survival of African Americans and others of African ancestry, she participated in a Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure event in Egypt. Yvonne Roulhac Horton is not accustomed to being center stage or taking credit for accomplishments. She only accepted the award after a nominator reminded her that she once said: “As long as you have done the work, you need to step forward and accept the rewards that you are due.”
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Amii John, UW-Green Bay
UW-Green Bay undergraduate student, Amii John, is a "positive force for change," providing much needed leadership and activism on campus and in her Tribal communities. She is recognized for her advocacy to improve the status and climate for women, particularly women of color. Amii is very proficient in a variety of indigenous craft forms including porcupine quill work, beading, regalia production, and she is a near-expert quilter. She participated in the 2008 Wisconsin Women’s Studies conference with a poster session called "Get a Head Start with Art" (chronicling her work with Native American adults and children preserving native craft traditions). John’s art was juried into the 2008 and 2009 UW-Green Bay Student Exhibition with provocative and timely works that comment on cooptation of Native culture. Her art is described as "brilliant and brave as it challenges non-Native people’s racism and stereotypes about First Nations People. Moreover, it challenges her own people to explore their internalized oppression and complicity in that oppression, calling on Native people to critically examine the ways we participate in neocolonialism." Amii John is currently working as a co-curator on an exhibition that will showcase contemporary art by Native American artists for UW-Green Bay’s Lawton Gallery in October 2010. She has taken the lead in organizing and communicating with artists, and was granted $2600 from the Oneida Nations Art Board for the exhibition. Amii John also participates in a dance group based in Oneida. She actively participates at powwows, Packer games, local public schools, and public events. A member of Phi Kappa Phi and Psi Chi honor societies, she is also active in the American Intercultural Center at UW-Green Bay providing informal support and mentoring to fellow students. Amii John does all this while raising three children with the help and support of her husband. They reside on the Oneida reservation. Amii is an advocate for those with autism, which her youngest daughter has. Amii aspires to advise First Nations college students and to continue her involvement with the arts.
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Amanda Goodenough, UW-La Crosse
Amanda Goodenough is the Communications and Program Coordinator in the UW-La Crosse Campus Climate Office. Amanda is recognized for her extraordinary efforts to improve the campus climate for all diverse students and employees. Goodenough provides outstanding leadership to Awareness through Performance (ATP), the campus “consciousness raising” theatrical troupe. This unique group uses the stage to bring together students, faculty and students to dialogue, research, reflect, write, and eventually perform real life experiences that touch on topics including racism, sexism, ageism, ableism, classism, heterosexism, privilege, hate, cultural differences, and gender expression and identity. Amanda organizes six performances annually, including the writing of scripts and staging of the productions. She recruits Troupe members and facilitates their understanding the issues (which sometimes includes reflecting on their own experiences). ATP members also appear in classes and at community events. ATP was recently recognized with the 2009 Wisconsin Office of State Employee Relations Program Achievement Award. Goodenough is also an outstanding campus advisor to the campus Diversity Organizations Coalition (DOC), a student group comprised of representatives of the 14 campus diversity organizations. She has a well-deserved reputation for working across academic boundaries with students, staff, and faculty to solve problems. Amanda conducts diversity trainings through the Campus Climate office tailored to the needs of the participating groups. She has been central in rallying collaborators, including the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS), to make connections that cross the intersections between gender identity and race, class, sexual orientation, disability status, and religious beliefs. Amanda Goodenough has distinguished herself in the classroom for several years as the leader of discussion sections of one of UW-La Crosse’s diversity-related courses, and for co-facilitating a seminar specifically designed for multicultural students. Amanda Goodenough is considered a remarkable and values resource for the entire UW-La Crosse campus.
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Patricia A. Loew, UW-Madison
Patricia A. Loew is a Professor in the Department of Life Sciences, Communication who is lauded as a history-changing activist, scholar, teacher, and mentor. Patricia Loew is known internationally for her filmmaking, nationally for leading journalists of color into broadcast newsrooms, and statewide for her best-selling books on Native nations of Wisconsin that has changed how Wisconsin's schoolchildren learn about diversity. She serves on the board of UNITY, which is comprised of the National Association of Black Journalists, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the Asian-American Journalists Association and the Native American Journalists Association. Patricia is highly sought after as a keynote speaker across the state, serving as an intellectual bridge and ambassador between the mainstream public, political leaders, and Wisconsin's tribes. Loew is perhaps most known in the state for her award-winning 2001 book, Indian Nations of Wisconsin: Histories of Endurance and Renewal. The product of a unique collaborative effort among the tribes, it reconstructs Wisconsin Indian history from Native perspectives. Professor Loew's most recent acclaim rests on her award-winning 2007 film, The Way of the Warrior, that documented contemporary warrior ethic in Indian Country. In its first airing on PBS it was viewed by 3.5 million people. Her current documentary project, Sacred Stick, examines the indigenous origins of lacrosse, the country's fastest growing sport, and will air on PBS in 2011. Loew’s approach to teaching undergraduate students is equally creative. Her course, Introduction to Digital Video Production, is organized as a service-learning course in which her students work with non-profit organizations that need informational videos to raise money, garner public awareness, or to motivate and train volunteers. Patricia Loew's popular course, Native American Environmental Issues and the Media, attracts students across campus. In it Loew requires students to share their work with any tribe that has collaborated in primary research, coming full circle in continuing the collaborative methodology she established in her first book.
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Christine Lowery, UW-Milwaukee
Dr. Christine Lowery is an Associate Professor in the Helen Bader School of Social Work and a 2009 recipient of an Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award, an award which she values highly. She is known for mentored writing; each course she teaches has 25 small and large writing assignments, all of which are graded with feedback to not only hone writing, but to shape social work values and attitudes. She is also a member of the Hopi and Laguna Tribes. Since 1994 Dr. Lowery has demonstrated with her scholarship, teaching and service a commitment to advancing women and diversity in higher education. She is a faculty affiliate and member of the Curriculum Committee of the Women’s Studies Program, as well as an affiliate with the American Indian Studies faculty in the College of Letters and Science. Her research work centers on areas of human rights and social justice, and in particular on Native American Women in recovery, Native American Elders, and shared power as a framework for professional practice and community building. Lowery has focused much of her research on Native American women and partners, working with Milwaukee area organizations on Native Americans and aging, Indian child welfare, domestic violence, sexual abuse, and the recovery process in addictions and substance abuse. Lowery is currently completing a ten-year study of socio-cultural change and aging at Laguna, New Mexico. She served on the Board of Education for the Pueblo (2002-03) the year the tribe was taking responsibility for elementary and middle-school education from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. She is also preparing ethnographic research placements for three of her undergraduate social work students in New Mexico with Laguna women over the age of 70. The research will take place in the summer of 2010. Christina Lowery is recognized for her impact on the campus and community through curriculum development and infusion, and through connecting her research to the community in tangible ways.
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Flora Valtierra-Stapel, UW-Oshkosh
A UW-Oshkosh alum, Flora Valtierra-Stapel has worked as an Admissions Counselor/Hispanic Community Liaison in the Admissions Office at UW-Oshkosh since September of 2003. During her tenure in this role the campus has enjoyed a significant increase in the number of Hispanic/Latino applicants. Ethnic and racial minority student enrollment increased by 58% in the five years from 2000 to 2005, including a 17.7% Latino enrollment increase. This is due in part because Ms. Valtierra-Stapel is a strong student advocate, respected by and sought out by continuing students. Flora Valtierra-Stapel is especially proud of three of her recent mentees who have received the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence, a recognition conferred upon seniors who demonstrate high academic achievement and leadership qualities. At the 2009 Wisconsin Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admission Officers Conference, Valtierra-Stapel co-presented an overview of the federal DREAM Act and the provisions of newly enacted Wisconsin legislation that allow nonresident tuition exemption for undocumented students. She initiated a discussion of what can be done to help them access higher education. Deeply supportive of students, Flora is co-advisor to the Student Organization of Latinos (SOL), advisor for Gamma Alpha Omega, Inc., and is advisor for Omega Delta Phi Fraternity. She has also supported the Inter Tribal Student Organization (ITSO) with various events on campus. Fluent in Spanish, she is able to offer parent/student presentations in Spanish in the high schools. Ms. Valtierra-Stapel networks with such community organizations as the Fond du Lac Hispanic Issues Forum, and has accompanied students to meetings with immigration attorneys to advocate for their pursuit of higher education and residency status. Flora Valtierra-Stapel’s outstanding performance is a continuing example of how to successfully advocate for women of color, for positive outcomes through networking and partnering with diverse groups, and for expanding circles of influence drawn from the convergence of family, community, culture, and pursuit of the dream of higher education.
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Fay Akindes, UW-Parkside
Fay Akindes has been a faculty member in the Communications Department at UW-Parkside since 1997 providing significant leadership to the campus community in her research, teaching, and service activities. Her courses, publications and conferences have often focused on women’s as well as multicultural and diversity issues. On a regular basis Fay Akindes teaches a Communication and Gender course. She has developed her courses so that students are enabled to make personal connections and grow. Fay Akindes works consistently in various capacities to infuse gender and diversity into all aspects of her work, and she knows that individual change can be the catalyst for institutional change. Fay also took the leadership role in organizing and implementing the Summer Institute on Infusing Diversity into the General Education Curriculum. As a Director of Ethnic Studies from 2003-05 and from 2007 to present, and as a Co-Director for the Center for Women’s Studies from 2001-03, Professor Akindes brings crucial perspectives and knowledge to all that she does. In 2004, she received UW-Parkside's Stella Gray Teaching Excellence Award and the Plan 2008 Diversity Award. Awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant in 2005-06 to lecture and conduct research at the Universite d’ Abomey-Calavi in the Republic of Benin, West Africa, she taught a graduate seminar on feminist methodologies and a literature class on African-American woman writer Toni Morrison. Fay Akindes has served on the campus Plan 2008 Committee, now the Inclusive Excellence Committee, focusing her efforts on the goal of closing the achievement gap and fostering multiculturalism on campus. Dr. Akindes has also played a vital role in the UW System Think Tanks organized to help us solicit ways to most effectively address the seven core strategies of the UW System's strategic framework to Advantage Wisconsin. Fay Akindes strives for inclusion and equity in all of her work as a scholar, educator and activist.
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Christina J. Curras, UW-Platteville
Dr. Christina Curras is an Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UW-Platteville. An advocate for under-represented groups in STEM, she is herself a Geotechnical engineer with a background in earthquake engineering. Christina Curras joined the faculty at UW-Platteville in 2000, teaching all levels of engineering courses. A popular and celebrated teacher and advisor, Curras has been awarded the campus Outstanding Academic Advisor Award and the College of Engineering Math and Science Faculty Teaching Award, as well as a teaching award from the Wisconsin chapter of Tau Beta Pi (a national honor society for engineering students focused on academics and in service to others). The regard with which Christina Curras is held on her campus is exemplified by her appointment to the Chancellor Search and Screen Committee that will help identify a new Chancellor. Christina’s participation on the Faculty Senate, the campus General Education Task Force, and the campus Academic Planning Council, among many others, demonstrates her ongoing commitment to campus service. When serving as the campus liaison for Wisconsin MentorNet and the Wisconsin Alliance for Minority Participation (WiscAMP), Curras worked to create opportunities for women and students of color in STEM education. A valued scholar, teacher and advocate, Christina J. Curras demonstrates how to lead through action.
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Tyra Nelson, UW-River Falls
Since Tyra Nelson joined UW-River Falls in 2004 she has served the campus in several capacities including: Student Support Services Advisor, Multicultural Student Advisor, Precollege Coordinator, and most currently as Assistant Director for the Upward Bound Program. In each position she has been a model of strength, courage, and inspiration for students, faculty, and staff. Through her actions and words she has demonstrated her commitment to cultural diversity and expression in unique and creative ways. As Multicultural Student Advisor, she received the Staff Diversity Award for her outstanding work and commitment to making a difference on campus. Her creativity spills over into all the work she does for UW-River Falls. Whether she is advising college students or facilitating workshops with high school students in her precollege programs, she has an understanding of what will engage her audience. Tyra’s frequent use of spoken word poetry demands the attention of those who hear her speak and enables her to talk openly about tough issues that many avoid. Tyra Nelson is the campus’ unofficial poet laureate: writing poems to encourage, inspire, and that bring understanding to issues like white privilege, racism, sexism, and inequality. For the past three years, she has welcomed first year students to campus with a poem. It is now a tradition in the early academic day activities. As a strong African American woman, Tyra Nelson has challenged some of her colleagues to become better critical thinkers and to learn how to think outside of the box. She is credited by students she has worked with for being the reason they have remained in school and graduate from college. Tyra Nelson is named as the person they seek to model themselves after as they follow her example of building a career focused on inspiring others to reach for their greatest potential.
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Dana E. Smith, UW-Stevens Point
Dana Smith is an undergraduate student at
UW-Stevens Point who is described by her nominators as “a captivating and intelligent individual, who demonstrates true leadership qualities.” An activist working for change with grace and sophistication, she is considered an inspiration to her campus. Through her services in various officer positions in the Black Student Union as well as in her role as the Executive Coordinator of the Women's Resource Center, Dana continuously battles for women's rights and works for greater diversity and equality on campus. She has presented workshops on women's rights and racial equality at several other conferences, including the Women's Leadership Conference held by United Council last year on campus. Whether contributing in a class, or participating in a discussion at lunch, Dana works to interrupt ignorance in whatever form it should appear. From fighting to get feminine hygiene products stocked in all academic buildings, to helping plan Inclusive Excellence on campus, to attending the American Multicultural Student Leadership Conference, Dana Smith advocates for local and larger cultural and institutional changes that embrace social justice. Dana Smith cares deeply for equality and works intentionally for social justice in all she does.
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Diona D. Johnson,
UW-Stout
Diona D. Johnson is an undergraduate student at UW-Stout who is an activist and advocate for women and diversity on campus. As a young scholar Diona has maintained a 3.8 GPA and has received Chancellors Awards for eight consecutive semesters. Diona Johnson has remained a Lawton Grant Recipient and has received numerous University foundation scholarships for academic excellence and community involvement. Diona's research abstract was accepted to the National Conference on Undergraduate Research, and she presented her research at UW-Stout Research Day in the spring of 2009. Later it was published in the Journal of Student Research. Whether working in collaboration on campus or with the community, Diona can be found advancing positive social and cultural change. Diona has volunteered her time and talents using song and “spoken word” performances for numerous events such as Take Back the Night, Empower the Purple, and many other domestic violence and sexual assault rallies on campus. Previously, during her time as a Resident Hall Advisor, she organized events on bullying, sex-education, and self-defense, as well as seminars on self-confidence and empowerment. As project manager of a student social action project in her Abuse & the Family class she helped arrange a student-led interactive presentation in the residence halls for Sexual Assault Awareness Month in 2009 advocating for nonviolence in all relationships, and then created a display for campus titled A Day In Her Bra which publicized the reactions of the students once informed about the harsh realities of Intimate Partner Violence. While President of the Black Student Union, Diona planned interactive events on campus collaborating with other student groups such as Out at Stout, and the Hmong Stout Student Association. These efforts included a play entitled, “Platanos and Collard Greens,” which focused on interracial dating, self-respect, and self-empowerment; "MLK Jr. Day Celebration," which was a community-wide program; and various other community service projects and student life activities. She has also been involved in Boxes and Walls, an award-winning interactive program to facilitate the understanding of the effects of racism and intolerance. Coming from a family of 14 children, Diona credits her mother as her greatest influence growing up. “I try to carry myself in a way my mother taught me to — with class, self, pride, and respect. I don't let people have the opportunity to define, pity, or pass influence on me because my mother always told me, ‘You are your own greatest challenge; how you present yourself is how everyone will see you.' I learned from a young age that I had the ability to choose my own path. With my parents support, I've been able to grow and to flourish. I always strive for the best because I was taught I deserve the best, and that is in all areas of life.” Diona was recently accepted to a prestigious social work program at UW-Milwaukee for Family and Child Welfare and will be working on her MSW in the fall of 2010.
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Carol May Stevens (Deceased),
UW-Superior
Carol May Stevens, a UW-Superior graduate, passed away on September 26, 2009. The UW-Superior honors her posthumously because of her significant work in the educational community. Carol was employed by the School District of Superior from September 1980 until she retired on June 10, 2005 from her position as Indian Education Coordinator. Hired originally as a home-school coordinator, she initiated the Indian Education program in which she taught Indian History and Arts & Crafts. Her regular travels between Superior, Madison, and all of Wisconsin exemplified her commitment to the betterment of all people, especially Natives and women. Carol made weekly contact with every Native American child and parent in the school district. There are many personal testimonials describing how she visited classrooms and homes to make sure that communication was open and frequent. When she taught crafts and history during lunch hours many non-Native students and adults joined in. Her storytelling skills and people skills were awe-inspiring. Carol May Stevens defused many potentially explosive situations by using common sense, changing the focus, or applying humor. After graduating from high school many of Carol's students, especially Native women, continued to seek her advice and friendship. Her commitment was so thorough that she took pay cuts so that her program could survive. Native and foster parents were encouraged to be proud, involved, and knowledgeable about the culture and to take advantage of the rewards of education. By her example many were encouraged to seek post-secondary degrees. Carol was the glue in her own family. She is greatly missed by them and her extended family, which includes most of the Native American community in the Superior area. We take this opportunity to remember Carol May Stevens and her fight for Native rights, Women's rights and equal rights.
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Estela Mara Bensimon,
UW System Administration
Dr. Estela Mara Bensimon is a professor at the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education and founding director of the school’s Center for Urban Education (CUE). The University of Wisconsin System recognizes Estela Bensimon for her dedication to understanding and addressing racial and ethnic inequalities in higher education. Under Bensimon’s leadership CUE has fostered research that has helped institutions of higher education across the country, including the University of Wisconsin, to become more accountable to students from underserved racial and ethnic communities. Eleven volunteer UW institutions are currently using Bensimon’s “Equity Scorecard” as a multi-disciplined process of sustained inquiry, using disaggregated data to identify more refined pathways and strategies for eliminating inequities in educational opportunities and outcomes. Estela Bensimon is also a co-principle investigator on the Wisconsin Transfer Equity Study, a collaboration between the University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin Technical College System, and the USC Center for Urban Education, supported by funding from the Ford Foundation. An outgrowth of her Equity Scorecard work with the UW System, its goal is to increase collegiate transfer for minority students. The project ties into the Growth Agenda, a larger statewide effort to increase the pool of baccalaureate degree holders in Wisconsin. Closing the gap in baccalaureate degree attainment between white and minority students will improve Wisconsin’s overall educational profile, benefiting all Wisconsin residents. Currently, transfer is not reaching its full potential to enable minority students to earn baccalaureate degrees in Wisconsin. By participating in the Wisconsin Transfer Equity Study, two- and four-year institutions can have a meaningful impact on minority degree attainment as a better understanding is developed of the most effective transfer practices and policies that can further successful transfer outcomes across racial and ethnic groups. We thank Dr. Estela Mara Bensimon for her commitment to research based solutions to educational equity that will benefit all of Wisconsin. Bensimon calls upon educators and policymakers to “move beyond talking about diversity in terms who goes to college so we can have the harder, more substantive and urgent conversation about who finishes.” For this and so much more, we honor her.
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Linda Holmes, UW-Whitewater
Linda Holmes is an Associate Professor of Accounting at UW-Whitewater. She has been coordinator of Accounting 244, a gateway course for the business major, for 1½ years. Linda makes herself available to students for their undergraduate research, and helps with schoolwork, listening, and advice. She served as Interim Chair of the Department of Accounting during spring 2009. During that time she facilitated several interesting and useful culture changes within the department, the most important being three meetings where the faculty met to work on strategic planning for the department using SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis techniques. This approach enhanced communication among faculty in a way that has persisted under new leadership. Another important contribution as Interim Chair was to facilitate a place for the Low Income Tax Payer Clinic and the Volunteer Income Taxpayer Assistance programs on campus. These programs, run by members of the department and students, provide significant help to people of color and low-income people. Linda Holmes is active professionally. She holds membership in the Institute of Management Accountants; has served as an advisor to the UW-Whitewater chapter of the Institute of Management Accountants; and was keynote speaker at the National Association of Black Accountants (NABA) banquet, Spring 2009. Holmes received the outstanding research award for the article she co-authored with Anne Hendricks, “Considering Using the Theory of Constraints? Here are Five Things to Remember” published in Strategic Finance in 2005. On campus she serves as a member of Faculty Senate, the Grievance Committee, and the Personnel Rules committee, as well as serving as faculty mentor for three King/Chavez Scholars, guiding them through preliminary research projects. Linda Holmes contributes to the UW-Whitewater campus community in ways that have immeasurable returns with regard to campus climate and multicultural student retention and graduation.
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