History of UW System
Outstanding Women of Color in Education Awards

The UW System Outstanding Women of Color in Education Awards are organized and supported annually by the UW System Women's Studies Consortium and Office of Academic Diversity and Development.   The awards and recognition ceremony was initiated in 1994 to acknowledge the ties and shared concerns among administrators, faculty, staff, and students within women's studies and ethnic studies, and to uphold a continuing commitment to Plan 2008: Educational Quality through Racial and Ethnic Diversity.  At the annual awards ceremony and luncheon, award recipients receive well-earned acknowledgement by both the UW System and their home campus community.  The selection process for the award is campus based.   Chancellors consult with their campus community to identify a faculty, student, staff or community member who has worked in one or more of the following areas of diversity or women' studies scholarship and activism, and served to improve the status and climate for women, particularly women of color.  The charge is to identify women of color who have consistently demonstrated their ability to rally diverse forces together to advance the agenda of women; who have created positive changes at their institutional level, i.e., curriculum development and infusion, receiving grants, mentoring women; and who have demonstrated an understanding of the interplay of family and community and culture in the lives of women of color.