Academics

Ramsey receives Women Commission's Achieving Women Award

Michele Ramsey, associate professor of communication arts and sciences and women's studies and coordinator of the Communication Arts and Sciences (CAS) degree program at Penn State Berks, has received the Women’s Commission 2010 Achieving Women Award in the faculty category. Ramsey was nominated by her peers in recognition of her record of leadership and commitment to diversity at Penn State Berks.

Ramsey joined the college in 2000. She helped to facilitate the adoption of the CAS major, which has been offered since fall 2008. Under her tenure as program coordinator, enrollments in the CAS major have increased by 158 percent. She has organized many events for the majors to help them get involved and stay connected, including a picnic at the beginning of the academic year.

She organized the CAS Colloquium Series, which focuses on undergraduate research. She also has provided CAS majors with connections to local political candidates and business organizations that turned into internships, and has taken student to local, state, regional and national conferences.

In addition, she has published research with students in “Feminist Media Studies” and has presented research at the national level with other students.

Ramsey established the Upsilon Gamma chapter of Lambda Pi Eta (National Communication Honor Society) in 2005, and coordinated all induction ceremonies and dinners from 2005-2008.

She supports community service by cooking and serving dinner at the Reading Homeless Shelter with students and working with them to create the Penn State Berks Hurricane Katrina Relief response, raising nearly $4000. Currently, Ramsey is supervising student relief efforts for Haiti.

Commited to diversity, Ramsey has organized the Berks Film Series, dealing with issues such as immigration, media, racism, gender issues and health care. She has organized several events on campus, including World AIDS Day and Day of Silence events with the campus Rainbow Coalition of LGBT students. She also brought The Race Project to campus to discuss issues of race and political communication.

Ramsey received the 2008 Commission on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Equity Award for Excellence in Curricular Integration for her work in and out of class with students on issues of importance to the LGBT community.

The Women’s Commission Achieveing Women Award recognizes Penn State women who have shown notable leadership and are accomplished in their fields, and have supported the University’s diversity efforts and promoted equal opportunity, or have contributed to human causes and public service activities. Eligible women are current employees and students of Penn State in the following categories: faculty, staff exempt, staff non-exempt, administrator, technical service, undergraduate student and graduate student. One award is typically given in each of the seven categories. 

Michele Ramsey, associate professor of communication arts and sciences and women's studies and coordinator of the Communication Arts and Sciences (CAS) degree program at Penn State Berks. Credit: Penn StateCreative Commons

Last Updated January 9, 2015

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