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February 28, 2005
Unsung Heroines receive due recognition

BY Christi Gray

The eighth annual Unsung Heroine awards, held on the evening of Thursday, Feb. 17, recognized seven   Emory women for their dedication to issues that affect women at Emory or in the larger community, but whose efforts had not received accolades or formal recognition. The awardees were: Joyce King ('95G), Lorraine Lombardi, Allison Dykes, Elizabeth Sharp, Sarah Cordes, Emile Crosa and Rev. Susan Bishop ('75T).

Donna Bradley, chair of the Center for Woman Advisory Board, welcomed a full house of attendees in Miller-Ward Alumni House. About the awardees, Bradley said, "This is their night to get the accolades they deserve."

Mary Ellen McClellan, co-chair of the Unsung Heroines committee, and committee member Brenda Bynum, read the nomination letters for each awardee and presented the awards.

· Joyce King (faculty), assistant professor of nursing in the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, is a practicing nurse-midwife and an activist on women's health issues. She has served on the boards of Planned Parenthood and the Georgia Abortion Rights Action League, also serving as president of the latter.

At Emory, King is a mainstay at the Center for Women, sitting on the advisory board and coordinating the program committee for the Women's Health and Wellness lunch and learn series, of which one of the most popular sessions is her own seminar, "The X-Files of Women's Health: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know But Were Afraid to Ask." Finally, both at Emory and beyond, she serves as a support person for women diagnosed with breast cancer, being a survivor herself.

· Lorraine Lombardi (staff) has been a maintenance engineer in Residential Life for 16 years. She is praised for supporting student advisers at Harris complex, where she is currently assigned, making dorm life more like a home. Lombardi is known for effective problem solving, showing care in her relationships with custodial staff and administrators alike.

Outside Emory, she serves as the lighting designer for the Atlanta Shakespeare Company. She also coordinates a group of women volunteers to raise funds for Our House, a day shelter for homeless children.

· Allison Dykes (administrator) is vice president of alumni affairs in the Office of Development and University Relations. She is known for her dedication to improving the Emory workplace across the employee spectrum. Junior chair of the President's Commission on the Status of Women (PCSW), she has been instrumental in bringing gender equity to the forefront of University concerns, helping to establish the PCSW's Women in Leadership Committee, and obtaining funding from the president's office for a pilot study of gender and leadership at Emory and comparable institutions.

· Elizabeth Sharp (retiree) was recruited to Emory in 1970, then promptly launched nurse-midwifery programs at Grady Hospital, the nursing school and the School of Medicine's Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics. She also was instrumental in establishing the MSN-MPH dual-degree program. Sharp has been a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing, and served as president of the American College of Nurse-Midwives. She has been active with the March of Dimes and served on their advisory committee. And she currently is working on a book that examines ethical issues in the clinical practice of nurse-midwifery.

· Sarah Cordes (undergraduate student) is a junior at Emory College. She works with the Coalition Against Rape at Emory, volunteers at a women's homeless shelter, and is serving an internship at the DeKalb Rape Crisis Center, where she trains volunteers to serve as advocates for survivors of sexual assault.

In her sophomore year, Cordes traveled to Dharamasala, India, to intern at the Tibetan Women's Association, where she organized health fairs, sought sponsorships and monetary support for nuns and students, and helped raise awareness of injustices suffered by Tibetan women.

· Emile Crosa (graduate student) has two Emory degrees (a B.A. in religion and a B.S. in nursing) and is working toward a third--a master's in nursing supported by a prestigious Fuld Fellowship. She is the first graduate nursing student chosen to serve on the Board of Directors for Health Students Taking Action Together (HealthSTAT), and has helped lead HealthSTAT's efforts to lobby for Georgia's PeachCare for Kids. She also is legislative director for the Emory Nursing Student Association.

· Rev. Susan Bishop (alumna) is currently chief chaplain of Atlanta's Metro Correctional Institution, which serves as the intake prison for all female prisoners in Georgia. Bishop also works with the Atlanta Rape Crisis Center and the Atlanta Battered Women's Shelter, where she serves on the board. While a student at Candler, Bishop spent a summer at the Grailville Catholic Women's Community studying with pioneers of the women's movement and later became a pioneer herself when she was one of the first women ordained in the Southern Baptist church.

 

 

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