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Additional Text for the 04/01/06 Alumni Sandstorm 
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>>From: Vicki Owens ('72)


WSU Honors Five Women of Distinction for 2006

PULLMAN, Wash. ­ The five women awarded the 2006 Washington State
University Women of Distinction awards have been announced and
will be honored with presentations by President V. Lane Rawlins
at the Women's Recognition Luncheon beginning at noon March 21 in
the Compton Union Building Ballroom.

The 2006 Women of Distinction--each of whom is eligible to be
naamed WSU Woman of the Year--are Judy Allen, who received the
award as a WWSU alumna; Samantha Swindell, who received the award
as WSU faculty member; Barbara Aston, who received the award as a
WSU staff employee; Dana Murray Patterson, who received the award
as a WSU student; and Vicki Owens who received the award as a
woman outside WSU.

The theme of this year's awards program is "Women, Builders of
Communities and Dreams." To be considered for the award,
candidates had to distinguish themselves in academic work,
career, leadership and public service. Also, each had to
contribute to the personal growth and success of others,
especially women, through education, research and public or
outstanding volunteer service.

Judy Allen, WSU Alumna Award recipient, earned her two master's
degrees in child development and regional planning from WSU. She
founded the Community Action Center in Whitman County and worked
as the center's executive director for 18 years. She was
nominated for her dedication to bettering the plight of those
living in poverty, to providing training needed to advance their
potential in the work place and to providing quality childcare to
help enhance the communities in which they live. She has led
agency projects which enhanced the quality of life for local
residents such as Change Point!, My Family and Soups On. She also
has helped with issues of nutrition, budgeting, GED, community
jobs and literacy. Allen has served on a countywide Public Health
and Safety Network Board; a state-level Economic Services
Advisory Committee during planning, build-up and early evaluation
efforts for Washington State Workfirst; and on an Advisory Board
for the WSU Community Services Learning Center. One of her
nominators said that Allen believed strongly in the mission
statement of the Community Action Center, "To empower the people
and communities of Whitman County to be self-sustaining by
promoting the self-reliance of people with low to moderate
income, to encourage their active participation in community
life, foster mutual support among people and promote cooperation
between local communities."

Samantha Swindell, WSU Faculty Woman Award recipient, completed
her master and doctoral degrees at WSU under the direction of
Frances McSweeney. She conducted post-doctoral research with
Barbara Sorg in the Department of Veterinary and Comparative
Anatomy, Pharmacology and Physiology and served as a temporary
instructor for the Department of Psychology and the Honors
College for several years. In 2002, Swindell was appointed to the
position of undergraduate program director for the Department of
Psychology. As such, she teaches a variety of courses for the
department and oversees various aspects of the undergraduate
program, including recruitment, program assessment, advising and
retention. She has been recognized for her teaching abilities
both as a graduate student and a faculty member. To date, she is
the coauthor of 31 journal articles and 26 conference
presentations. Her nominators believed that Swindell is an
example of what a WSU professor can achieve.

Barbara Aston, a WSU alumna, is the WSU Employee Woman Award
recipient. She has been the assistant to the provost as the
tribal liaison since 1998 providing support for the Native
American Advisory Board to the president and facilitating Native
American initiatives. She also serves as WSU tribal liaison with
the Native American tribes in the region and provides joint
oversight for WSU Native American Recruitment and Retention
Services. Aston, who is a member of the Wyandotte Nation of
Oklahoma, collaborated with the College of Liberal Arts in the
development of the Plateau Center for American Indian Studies and
works closely with College of Education in support of the
Clearinghouse for Native Teaching and Learning and the
coordination of the Coeur d'Alene Tribe/WSU Education Plan. She
has provided coordination and instruction for the Colville
Confederated Tribes Summer Internship Program. Barbara
facilitated three tribal language roundtable discussions at WSU
and two major Native Language and Culture Conferences in response
to the critical needs surrounding the preservation and
revitalization of tribal languages. Prior to her appointment as
tribal liaison, she served in the WSU Native American Student
Center for 11 years, first as an assistant and then as counselor.
In the words of her nominators, Aston has through her commitment,
integrity, respect and faith laid the way to a foundation of
trust and mutual respect. Her positive influence had extended to
countless students across the university, these students going on
to graduate and become leaders in their own tribal communities.
She is building the foundation for a future of increased
understanding and collaboration across multi-dimensional
boundaries of institutions, disciplines, geography and tribal
nations.

Dana Murray Patterson, WSU Student Award recipient, will graduate
this May with a doctorate in higher education from the Department
of Educational Leadership and Counseling Psychology. She has
worked as the graduate director for the Talmadge Anderson
Heritage House for the last three years and has extensive
professional experience from various aspects of student affairs
and diversity education from major universities across the
country. She serves as a student advocate and mentor with Student
Athletes of Color, Black Women's Caucus, Society of Spoken Word
Artist and as a board member of the YWCA of WSU. Murray Patterson
is a third-year member of the Student Conduct Board and recently
co-chaired the Martin Luther King planning committee. Recognized
by Black Student Union for her service and contribution to the
African American community, she is also a 2005 winner of the
President's Award for excellence in leadership and service to the
WSU community at large. Her nominators described her
extraordinary character, generosity of spirit, tenacity, grace,
optimism, clear-sightedness and humor, and mentioned that her
greatest strength is to inspire students and colleagues to
similar heights.

Vicki Owens, Woman Outside WSU Award recipient, first visited
Uganda in 1985 on a two-year contract to help start a primary
school. Ten weeks into her stay, she woke up one morning to find
herself on the front lines of a military coup. Despite that
ignominious beginning, or perhaps because of it, she became aware
of an intensity of human needs unknown during her years in
Richland and Pullman. She completed her doctoral studies in
educational psychology from WSU and sought a position lecturing
at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, in 1989. During her
time there, she's grown increasingly aware of the
disproportionate burden Ugandan women encounter in STD infection,
psychosocial effects of war, and physical and emotional
consequences of caring for relatives dying of AIDS. After
realizing that a single counselor can only help a finite number
of people, she moved from training teachers to training
counselors in 1997, founding the first graduate program in
counseling psychology in Uganda. She has been formally involved
in community service in many ways, including participating on the
committee charged with developing Makerere University's policy on
sexual harassment, serving on the Senate Gender Mainstreaming
Committee and assisting in planning and coordinating the Women's
Worlds International Multidisciplinary Conference hosted at
Makerere University in 2002. Informally she has mentored scores
of women and men to envision and empower them to build healthy
communities and to achieve their dreams. Her nominator said, "She
has the best type of impact--changing women one-on-one, face-to-
face and by personal example."


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