“At WSU, we’re blessed with women leaders that excel in many, many fields while balancing an awful lot of challenges,” WSU President Kirk Schulz said at the awards ceremony.
Dasgupta is passionate about advancing women in the field and currently serves as the president of the Caucus for Women in Statistics and is a member of the American Statistical Association’s Council of Women in Statistics.
As associate vice president for facilities services and university architect, Yang has transformed the capital budgeting and facilities operations processes for the WSU system, instituted a facilities liaison group that provides important feedback on facilities projects, and won multiple awards for her work on projects such as the Elson S.
Yang’s exceptional work has been recognized outside of WSU: she was appointed by the governor to Washington’s Capital Projects Advisory Review Board, which advises the state legislature on public works procurement, and she authored a change to the state’s capital works procurement statute to create a pilot project at WSU that increases opportunities for small and diverse businesses to compete for contracts.
This year’s Faculty Woman of Distinction is dedicated to advancing underrepresented communities in her field.
Her research into information technology’s involvement in identity and social change has appeared in leading journals, she raises awareness of gender equity issues in the field by speaking regularly on the topic, and she participates in the Provost’s Leadership Academy, examining student evaluations from an inclusion perspective.
As a WSU Global Campus student, Undergraduate Woman of Distinction Amanda Westbrook balances school, work, and a host of extracurricular activities aimed at enhancing the student experience.
She also created Coug Tales, a book club open to all WSU students, and hosts diversity movie nights for students to experience films from different cultures and perspectives.
Manawadu, a civil and environmental engineering , and serves as the diversity and inclusion team lead in the national GradSWE chapter.
Manawadu is also an accomplished scholar.
After leaving active duty with the rank of captain, she joined the Washington Army National Guard and is currently an instructor with WSU ROTC, leading and mentoring more than 115 cadets and managing the WSU Army ROTC Recruiting Club.
Kelly is the owner of Michelle’s Closet, a clothing business in downtown Pullman, and is part of the Downtown Promotions Foundation.
Jesse Cogdill could have given up on her dreams of becoming a veterinarian at many points.
“Language Matters: How to talk about Native Nations” will be conducted at 1 p.m.