Three women at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill received University Awards for the Advancement of Women in honor of their dedication to the empowerment of women. The awards, created in 2006, go to one faculty member, one staff member and one student, graduate student or postdoctoral scholar.
This year’s honorees are:
- Donna M. Bickford of Chapel Hill, associate director of the Office for Undergraduate Research in the College of Arts and Sciences;
- Karen Booth of Durham, a professor in the women’s and gender studies department in the College of Arts and Sciences; and
- Audrey Rose Verde of Durham, a graduate student in the neuroscience curriculum in the School of Medicine.
Verde, originally from Wilmington, designed a course of study that provided exposure to a broad range of neurology rather than the traditional path of job-shadowing a physician. A peer mentor, she also created the student organization Advocates for M.D.-Ph.D. Women in Science.
As the previous director of the Carolina Women’s Center, Bickford worked to improve campus policies affecting women staff, faculty and students as well as to raise awareness about the illegal human trafficking in North Carolina. Currently, Bickford serves on the Faculty Welfare Committee and the Alt-Ac Working Group Initiative.
Booth serves as director of undergraduate studies and as the faculty adviser for Students United for Reproductive Justice and for Choice USA. She is also a member of the University’s Title IX Task Force and helped create the Provost’s Committee for LGBTQ Life and the Sexuality Studies Program.
