PLEASE NOTE: The start/end date above is NOT the event date. This event will be held Nov. 14.

JOHNSON CITY (Posted Nov. 7, 2012) — East Tennessee State University’s Women’s Studies Program has announced Drs. Edith Seier and Leslie MacAvoy as the 2012 recipients of the Notable Women of ETSU awards.

The two award recipients will be honored at the annual Notable Women of ETSU Colloquium on Wednesday, Nov. 14, from 5-7 p.m. in the D.P. Culp University Center’s East Tennessee Room. The awards and colloquium highlight the expertise and accomplishments of women academicians at ETSU; provide a forum for the exchange of ideas, research and projects generated by women faculty; and identify women faculty whose work advances understanding of women and their lives.

The public is invited to this free event, and current and former students of the honorees are especially welcome. Refreshments will be served at the ceremony.

Seier is a professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics. Her nomination points out her extensive collaboration with faculty in other disciplines and from other institutions. Seier played a crucial role in a Symbiosis project that involved faculty from three ETSU departments in designing and implementing innovative methods and materials for integrating the instruction of biology with mathematics and statistics for undergraduates. She is also instrumental in a new National Science Foundation-funded project – CRAWL (Collaborative Research on the Arthropod Way of Life) – that will involve ETSU undergraduate students in long-term research in mathematical/quantitative biology.

“The positive impact of Edith’s personal and professional life on the community and the world is enormous, ongoing and wondrously diverse,” her nominator wrote. She “is an outstanding statistician, and she is also a genius at identifying ways that she can apply her skills to help other people. It is through this practice that she has improved the lives of so very many people.”

MacAvoy is an associate professor, chair and director of the honors-in-discipline program in the Department of Philosophy and Humanities. Her nomination states that she teaches more upper-division courses than anyone in her department and is “exceptionally well-respected in the field of contemporary continental philosophy.” She has had more than a dozen publications in journals and is currently writing a book on continental perspectives on meaning.

“Leslie is meticulous in everything she does,” her nominator wrote. “Whether it is preparing for class, writing a report (or) conducting a department meeting, she shows an amazing command of her subject and will simply not accept anything less than excellence in her own work.”

For more information, contact the ETSU Women’s Studies Program at (423) 439-4125 or womenstudies@etsu.edu.