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Faculty Women’s Forum celebrates 2022 award winners

The Faculty Women’s Forum recognizes 14 faculty members and one staffer for their outstanding work supporting women at Stanford through role modeling, allyship, leadership, and sponsorship.

The Faculty Women’s Forum presented its 2022 awards at a ceremony Monday afternoon. These awards honor individuals for their outstanding work supporting women at Stanford through role modeling, allyship, leadership, and sponsorship.

This year’s Faculty Women’s Forum Awards honor 14 faculty members and one staffer across six categories. Top row, left to right: Grace Gao, Sheri Sheppard, Magali Fassiotto, Allison Okamura, Jennifer Cochran. Middle, left to right: Martha Cyert, Holly Tabor, Gretchen Daily, Sylvia Yanagisako, Lauren O’Connell. Bottom row, left to right: Nancy Ewen Wang, Danielle Mai, Margot Gerritsen, Celina Yong, Glenn Chertow. (Image credit: Andrew Brodhead)

The forum, which is affiliated with the Office of Faculty Development, Diversity and Engagement, provides opportunities for faculty members to discuss shared interests, concerns, and ideas, and to engage in action promoting greater faculty equity, inclusion, and success. Its programs are open to all faculty members, regardless of gender identity.

“We received a record number of outstanding nominations for this year’s awards,” said Maureen McNichols, the Marriner S. Eccles Professor in Public and Private Management at the Graduate School of Business and co-chair of the forum’s steering committee. “It is encouraging to know that so many members of the Stanford University community are committed to promoting greater faculty equity, inclusion, and success.”

Paula Welander, associate professor of Earth system science and steering committee co-chair, noted that this is the first time since the awards were created in 2020 that the ceremony honoring recipients was held in person. She added, “One aim of the Faculty Women’s Forum is to help foster a sense of community. We are pleased this year to organize an event that celebrates and brings together so many inspiring individuals.”

15 winners in six categories

The forum’s steering committee reviewed nominations from the Stanford community and selected 15 winners in six categories: Inspiring Early Academic Career, Allyship, Outstanding Sponsor, Outstanding Leader, the Deborah Rhode Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Carol Muller Outstanding Service Award.

The Lifetime Achievement Award was named in honor of Deborah Rhode, the late Ernest W. McFarland Professor in Law and director of the Center on the Legal Profession at Stanford Law School. Rhode was a former co-chair of the Faculty Women’s Forum Steering Committee and was a pathbreaking and world-renowned scholar, teacher, and advocate in the fields of legal ethics, access to justice, gender and the profession, and leadership.

The Outstanding Service Award was named in honor of Carol B. Muller, former executive director of Stanford Wise Ventures, a 2012-2021 initiative designed to support and advance greater gender equity for individuals working in science, technology, and engineering fields at the university.

This year’s winners are:

Inspiring Early Academic Career Award

Grace Gao, assistant professor of aeronautics and astronautics and, by courtesy, of electrical engineering
Danielle Mai, assistant professor of chemical engineering
Lauren O’Connell, assistant professor of biology
Celina Yong, assistant professor of medicine (cardiovascular medicine)

Allyship Award

Allison Okamura, professor of mechanical engineering
Holly Tabor, associate professor of medicine (primary care and population health) and, by courtesy, of epidemiology and population health
Nancy Ewen Wang, professor of emergency medicine and, by courtesy, of pediatrics

Outstanding Sponsor Award

Glenn Chertow, the Norman S. Coplon/Satellite Healthcare Professor in Medicine, professor of medicine (nephrology) and, by courtesy, of epidemiology and population health
Gretchen Daily, the Bing Professor in Environmental Studies, professor of biology and senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and, by courtesy, at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies

Outstanding Leader Award

Martha Cyert, the Dr. Nancy Chang Professor, professor of biology and chair of the Department of Biology
Jennifer Cochran, the Shriram Chair of the Department of Bioengineering, professor of bioengineering and, by courtesy, of chemical engineering

Carol Muller Outstanding Service Award

Magali Fassiotto, associate dean, Office of Faculty Development and Diversity, Stanford University School of Medicine

Deborah Rhode Lifetime Achievement Award

Margot Gerritsen, professor emerita of energy resources engineering
Sheri Sheppard, the Richard W. Weiland Professor in the School of Engineering, Emerita, and professor emerita of mechanical engineering
Sylvia Yanagisako, the Edward Clark Crossett Professor in Humanistic Studies, professor of anthropology