Women’s Philanthropy Council ‘Champion Award’ winners named

Jennifer Sheridan, executive and research director of the Women in Science and Engineering Leadership Institute (WISELI), and Richard L. Barrows, emeritus professor of Agricultural and Applied Economics and former associate dean for Student Academic Affairs, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS), are the winners of Champion Awards, presented by the Women’s Philanthropy Council (WPC) of the University of Wisconsin Foundation.

Sheridan won for her work on behalf of WISELI, and Barrows is being recognized for his efforts to develop and support the Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) Residential Learning Community. Sheridan and Barrows each have earned the opportunity to designate a $5,000 grant to a program at UW–Madison. Sheridan indicated WISELI will be the beneficiary of her grant, while Barrows said he will direct his to the WISE Residential Learning Community.

The awards were presented today at the WPC’s Biennial Forum at the UW–Madison Memorial Union. The WPC, founded in 1988, pioneered new national standards for women as philanthropists, and it is the first major-gift organization for women at a co-ed educational institution. Gifts from council members made the awards possible.

"I always wanted a career where I could feel I was making a difference in this world," Sheridan says. "In my first job out of college, as one of the few women in the computer science work force, I realized I wanted to do something about leveling the playing field for women in male-dominated occupations.

"I joined WISELI in order to be part of that change," she adds. "The nomination and receipt of this award is meaningful to me at such a deep level because it means that my work must be making a difference, just as I always wanted. I’m very grateful to my colleagues who nominated me, and to the Women’s Philanthropy Council for the award."

For his part, Barrows says, "I am extremely honored by the recognition, but also humbled because I was nominated by faculty members who have been WISE directors over the years. They are the ones who deserve the award because they voluntarily donated their time and contributed their tremendous energy that made the program successful."

He says he became involved with WISE because "it seemed like a reasonable thing to do. We knew from both research and experience that many young women with interests in science dropped out of science majors after the first year of college. The idea of WISE was to enrich the academic experience by integrating the living-social environment and the academic environment, and to provide a strong support network from both peers and faculty and staff."

Sheridan received her BS in mathematical and computational sciences from Stanford University in 1989. After a brief stint as a computer programmer at IBM Corp., she enrolled at UW–Madison in 1994 and received her doctorate in sociology in 2001, specializing in quantitative methodology and social stratification. Sheridan joined WISELI as executive and research director in 2002. In this role, she develops and oversees workshops and grant programs, as well as the research and evaluation produced by WISELI, including two all-faculty climate surveys administered in 2003 and 2006.

Barrows joined the faculty of agricultural and applied economics in 1972, specializing in natural resource economics and policy, including both domestic and international policy issues, rural land use, and state and local public finance. Barrows worked extensively with Wisconsin counties and local governments on land use policy and public finance, as well as with state agencies and the Legislature on land use and natural resource policy and with federal agencies and commissions on agricultural land policy.

In addition to his work on the faculty, Barrows served in numerous administrative roles for the UW–Madison, including associate vice chancellor from 1988 to 1992, interim vice chancellor for Academic Affairs in 1993, and other positions at UW–Madison and UW-Extension.

"We are nominating Dr. Jennifer Sheridan for the Women Philanthropy Council’s Champion Award to recognize her pivotal role in transforming the Women in Science and Engineering Leadership Institute from a vision, to a fledgling organization, to a powerful force for institutional change at UW–Madison and nationally," reads the letter the award committee received on behalf of Sheridan.

The letter nominating Barrows states, "The UW–Madison WISE Residential Learning Community is now in its 13th year and has contributed significantly to the retention and success of female undergraduate students who entered the university with an interest in science and engineering. As associate dean for Academic Affairs in CALS, Dick Barrows provided early leadership to get the program started and continued to play a key role in it until his retirement."