Early Career, Middle, & Lifetime Achievement Awards

Early Career, Middle, & Lifetime Achievement Awards

Annually, the Center for Women & Gender recognizes the accomplishments of women at the beginning, middle, and end of their careers through the CWG campus and community career awards. The award celebration was held on March 22, 2018 in the Taggart Student Center Ballroom.

The Early Career Award focuses on women in their first six years of their career.

Mica McKinney and Amanda DeRito

Mica McKinney and Amanda DeRito received this award for their joint work addressing sexual assault issues. McKinney serves as General Counsel for USU and DeRito serves as the Sexual Misconduct Information and Outreach Coordinator in the Public Relations and Marketing Office.

McKinney directed USU to create a total of five working groups and task forces to address the issues of sexual assault, ranging from prevention, intervention training, assessing campus climate, as well as specific policies and their implementation. She leads the USU Sexual Violence Task Force.

DeRito implemented USU Sexual Violence Task Force recommendations by developing several public relations campaigns directed at students to change their attitudes towards sexual violence intervention. “These women have worked together tirelessly to assist sexual assault and gender-based violence victims at USU,” said Dr. Derrik Tollefson, department head of Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology.

Camille Hawkins

Camille Hawkins is a licensed clinical social worker and serves as the founder and executive director of the Utah

Colleen O’NeilInfertility Resource Center (UIRC). The UIRC provides support, education, and awareness about infertility and other options. “Camille’s early career accomplishments are incredible, especially in a non-profit environment,” said Dr. Susan Cutler Egbert, clinical associate professor and clinical campus MSW coordinator. Justin Barton, USU development officer, commented on her thorough approach to founding the UIRC, “Camille started with a statewide-needs assessment and then built an organization around the issues that would make the most difference to a largely underserved population.”

The Middle Career Award focuses on women who have served 10-20 years in their career.

Dr. Reyhan Baktur

Dr. Reyhan Baktur is an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering in the College of Engineering. Dr. Jagath Kaluarachchi, the interim dean of the College of Engineering, said, “Dr. Baktur is active in research and has had two NSF, one NASA, and one Navy DURIP grants as primary investigator,

and five research awards from the Space Dynamics Lab. Along with her focus on research and teaching, she also focuses on mentoring minority students.” Dr. Sanghamitra Roy, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, also nominated Dr. Baktur and highlighted that in addition to her nationally recognized research program, “Dr. Baktur has been strongly involved in women’s accomplishments and outreach activities, and actively involved in networking with new female faculty.”

The Lifetime Achievement Award is for women who have served 25+ years in their career.

Dr. Ronda Callister

Dr. Ronda Callister is a professor of management in the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business. “As the principal investigator of a $3 million NSF Advance grant, she promoted women’s advancement in USU’s STEM colleges, which has had lasting impacts on the recruitment, promotion, and retention of women faculty in STEM,” said Dr. Christy Glass, professor of sociology. She continued, “Dr.

Callister’s contributions have changed the institution in ways that make our campus more inclusive and equitable.” Dr. Alison Cook, professor of management, focused on Dr. Callister’s, “tireless efforts to improve the lives of women on the campus of USU through her serving as an advocate and mentor to women.”

Dr. Colleen O’Neill

Dr. Colleen O’Neill, associate professor of history in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, has served for more than a decade as the co-editor of the Western Historical Quarterly. “Her work mentoring scholars from around the world has brought great recognition to Logan and Cache Valley,” said Dr. Tammy Proctor, History Department head. “Beyond Dr. O’Neill’s impressive work at USU, she has been an active and engaged citizen. Perhaps most impressive of her outreach work has been her role in helping to co-fund the Utah League of Native American voters.”

Please consider nominating someone for the 2019 awards Nominations for the 2019 Career Achievement Award Nominations are accepted through February 2019. Instructions are found at cwg.usu.edu/careerawards