Professor Amy Lerner among winners of 2018 Presidential Diversity Award

Published
March 5, 2019
 Pictured: Professor Amy Lerner (middle), University President Richard Feldman (left), and Assistant Vice Provost for Diversity Maggie Cousin (right)
Amy Lerner, co-chair of the Commission on Women and Gender Equity in Academia (CWGEA) was among those honored with the 2018 Presidential Diversity Award. Former President Joel Seligman established the awards in 2009 to recognize faculty, staff, students, units, departments, or teams that “demonstrate a commitment to diversity and inclusion through recruitment and retention efforts, teaching, research, multicultural programming, cultural competency, community outreach activities, or other initiatives.”

As co-chair of the CWGEA, Amy helped to lead the commission, which is comprised of students, faculty and trainee volunteers, in evaluating campus policies and procedures. Utilizing a combination of scientific literature review and community input, CWGEA released their preliminary report with recommendations in May 2018. They continue to research, listen, and advocate for diversity and inclusion throughout the University community. When accepting the award, Professor Lerner said, “This award is a tremendous honor for us and is really rewarding to validate the very hard work that we have done so far. Perhaps just as important, I think it also goes a long way to validate the importance of the goals we are trying to achieve – real equity for all members of the University community. There are many wheels still turning to address some of the concerns we raised and we are grateful to see that many of our recommendations are being implemented. Thank you very much for the honor.”

Amy Lerner (front left) pictured with the Commission on Women and Gender Equity in Academia (CWGEA)