WISE Director Davis wins Power Award

The UM Academic Women's Caucus presented WISE Director Cinda-Sue Davis with the Sarah Goddard Power Award. The Sarah Goddard Power Award is aimed at recognizing the accomplishments of members of the University community who have distinguished themselves through their leadership, scholarship and sustained service on behalf of women.

Dr. Davis received the award for working for more than 25 years to support women in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields. In addition to pre-college programs, workshops and events for undergraduate and graduate women offered through the WISE program, Davis is the co-founder of UM's new M-STEM academy, a joint program of the Colleges of Engineering and Literature Sciences and the Arts, to work with top achieving high schools students in weaker k-12 systems. She educates faulty and administrators on the issues women face in STEM programs, helping to transform the university environment.

On campus she has contributed to the Diversity Outreach Council in the College of Engineering and to ADVANCE programs. Nationally, she is an executive board member of the Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology and the Advisory Board for Education and Human Resources for the National Science Foundation. She works with the Women in Engineering ProActive Network to bring more women into engineering.

She has attracted grants from companies such as Intel, the Boeing Corporation and 3M. Her Gilbert Whittaker Fund supported "An Assessment of the Effect of the First Year Experience on Underrepresented Student Retention in Engineering." With a colleague, she received a recent $1.5 million grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institution to support "Life Science at Michigan: Creating a Diverse, Intergenerational Learning Community."

Her national awards include a U.S. Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring, and a Building Engineering and Science Talent award.

Davis's co-recipients of the Sarah Goddard Power award include UM Regent Rebecca McGowan and nursing and women's studies professor and Institute for Research on Women and Gender Director, Carol Boyd.

February 2009 eNews

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