Association for Women in Mathematics Service Award 2016

The Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) presented Bettye Anne Case with an AWM Life Time Service Award and Heather Lewis, Heather Russell and Rebecca Segal with AWM Service Awards at the AWM Reception and Awards Presentation held during the Joint Mathematics Meetings in Seattle, WA, January 6– 19, 2016. The AWM Service Award, established by the AWM Executive Committee (EC) in November 2012, recognizes individuals for helping to promote and support women in mathematics through exceptional voluntary service to the Association for Women in Mathematics. The award is given annually to a select group of AWM volunteers in recognition of their extensive time and effort devoted to AWM activities during the previous seven years. Presidents (past, present, and -elect) and current officers are not eligible for the award.

Bettye Anne Case, Olga Larson Professor Emerita, Florida State University is recognized for her long-term service to the Association for Women in Mathematics. While she has been a strong supporter of and involved with the Association since the seventies, it’s in her decades-long role as the Meetings Coordinator that she has had the most profound impact. Bettye Anne’s familiarity with AMS and organizing activities at the JMM has been extremely helpful over the years, especially when AWM switched offices or staff. In addition to overseeing the committees that organized the AWM’s activities at the JMM, SIAM Annual Meeting and MathFest (formerly the Summer Meetings) every year, Bettye Anne served on the organizing committees for conferences honoring Julia Robinson (1996; member) and Olga Taussky Todd (1999; chair). These stand-alone AWM research conferences were precursors to the AWM Research Symposia. The Proceedings for the Taussky Todd conference appeared as a chapter in Complexities: Women in Mathematics, co-produced with Anne Leggett. In 1977 and again in 1980, Bettye Anne was elected to the AWM Executive Committee as a Member-at- Large. In 1984 she was appointed as the Meetings Coordinator, a new position created to encompass work she was already doing. Thus her service on the Executive Committee of the Association stretched from January 1978 through March 2015. From a vast list of volunteers, the 2016 awardees were chosen for their extraordinary work and service to the AWM during recent years.

Heather Russell, University of Richmond, is recognized for her active involvement with the AWM Programs Committees since 2012. She is the Committee’s liaison with the Student Chapter committee. In that capacity she helped design an annual survey sent out to Student Chapters, was instrumental in setting up the Student Chapter Speaker Survey and helped redesign the Student Chapter page on the AWM website. In 2014 she took over as chair of the Programs Committee when there was no EC member available for that position. In 2015 she agreed to serve another 3-year term on the Programs committee and chair it for one more year.

Heather Lewis, Nazareth College, is recognized for her active involvement with the AWM Essay Contest Committee since 2009. In 2012 she became chair of the committee; she was recently appointed to a third 3-year term on the Committee and will continue as its chair. She has been instrumental in revising the online form used to submit the essays and helped set up a system that allows us to recognize the schools and universities that have students submitting essays. Heather has also been a driving force in revising/updating the Essay Contest page on our website and is a member of the Programs Committee.

Rebecca Segal, Virginia Commonwealth University, is recognized for her active involvement with the AWM Membership Committee and service on the AWM Executive Committee. She served as the AWM Clerk on the Executive Committee for four
years and as a member of the Membership Committee during her last two years on the EC. In 2014, at the completion of her term on the EC, Rebecca graciously accepted an invitation to continue on the Membership Committee for one more year and serve as its chair since there was no EC member available for that position. The one-year term was subsequently extended through 2015.