Butler Center’s Violet Haas and Leadership in Action awards presented by provost Jay Akridge

Recipients of the Violet Haas and Leadership in Action awards were honored at a reception held on Tuesday (Dec. 5).

Jay Akridge, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs and diversity, co-hosted the event with Mangala Subramaniam, director of the Susan Bulkeley Butler Center for Leadership Excellence and professor of sociology. “We were pleased to present these prestigious awards to some of our most outstanding campus leaders,” Akridge said.

Many outstanding nominations were submitted for the Violet Haas Award from which two recipients were selected for 2016-17: Rosie Clawson, professor and head of the Department of Political Science, and Chris Ladisch, dean of the College of Health and Human Sciences. Each recipient received a certificate and an engraved crystal cube.

"The Violet Haas Award recognizes individuals, programs or departments at Purdue that have effectively facilitated the advancement of women in hiring, promotion, education and salary, or have generally enhanced a positive professional climate for women at Purdue University,” Subramaniam said. The Butler Center administers the award. This is the 26th annual Violet Haas Award ceremony.

The Butler Center also administers the Leadership in Action Awards, honoring a faculty member, staff member and student, each of whom must show leadership with direct effect on their work and community environments. According to Subramaniam, these individuals must demonstrate ongoing commitment to engagement at the local, state, national and/or global level; active service to the campus community; and national service to academic and/or professional organizations. This award includes an honorarium of $500.

Joint winners in the faculty category for 2017-18 are Shelley M. MacDermid Wadsworth, professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies and director of the Military Family Research Institute and Center for Families, and Pamala V. Morris, assistant dean/director of the Office of Multicultural Programs and professor of youth development and agricultural education in the College of Agriculture.

In the staff category, the winner is Michelle Ashcraft, director of Purdue Promise and site supervisor for ScholarCorps in Student Success programs. In the student category, the award went to Chanel Beebe, a PhD student in Engineering Education.

The Butler Center will announce the call for the next round of nominations in fall 2018.