UAMS Celebrates Phenomenal Women, Women’s History Month
| March 22, 2016 | UAMS honored 32 Phenomenal Women on March 17 for their many contributions to the institution and its health care mission.
Thirty-two Phenomenal Women were honored for their contributions to UAMS.
The event was part of the annual UAMS celebration of National Women’s History Month in March. This year’s group of Phenomenal Women was one of the largest in the seven years since UAMS began asking peers and colleagues to nominate women to be honored at the event planned by the Women’s History Committee and co-sponsored by the Office of Human Resources and the UAMS Center for Diversity Affairs.
Nomination criteria included considering women who 1) championed basic human rights by demonstrating a UAMS core value of integrity, respect, diversity, teamwork, creativity or excellence; or 2) used the art of collaboration to create inclusive solutions and/or non-partisan policies; or 3) despite obstacles, utilized their skill and determination to serve and inspire future generations.
“We have a group that represents many cultural backgrounds, every level of service and unit, coming together,” said Jean Chi-Jen Chen, Ph.D., a member of the Chancellor’s Diversity Committee.
Dawn Prasifka, president and chief executive officer for the Girl Scouts Diamonds of Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma District, gave the keynote address as UAMS honored 32 Phenomenal Women.
Keynote speaker Dawn Prasifka, president and chief executive officer for the Girl Scouts Diamonds of Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma District, told of her journey to become a “servant leader” working for more than 10,000 girls, thousands of volunteers, 70 staff members and a $5 million annual budget.
She credited the lessons of her parents, who she said implanted in her and her siblings the value of service and “doing something that mattered.” Those lessons, she said, helped her on a journey from being a college student who saw one track — thinking that happiness was having a husband and raising a family — to being a single mother of three young children (including two with medical problems) teaching herself computer skills as she worked as an administrative assistant at the Centers for Youth and Families.
“The message I’ve learned on my journey is like what I tell my boys: I can’t be with you every day, but I love you every day and I want you to make wise choices,” said Prasifka, who has led the Girl Scouts since 2013. “I want you to make choices that move you forward and not backward or keep you in one place.”
She praised the phenomenal women in her life, along with those UAMS women being honored.
Professional dancer Lucretia Cole, who works in UAMS Rehabilitation Services, performed a special interpretive dance as a tribute to phenomenal women everywhere. Her routine was to the song “Phenomenal Woman” by Andrea Pace that included the chorus: “I’m a powerful, beautiful, intellectual, phenomenal woman — that’s me.”
The event began with a reading of Sonny Carroll’s poem “The Awakening” by Gisele Hudson of the Arkansas Department of Health.
National Women’s History Month, celebrated during the month of March in the United States, highlights the contribution of women to history and to society. This year, UAMS joined the country in honoring women who shaped America’s history and its future through their public service and governmental leadership with the theme: “UAMS Phenomenal Women: Working to Form a More Perfect Union — Honoring Women in Public Service and Government.”
The 2016 UAMS Phenomenal Women are:
- Paula Alonso, Institutional Compliance
- Audra Arant-Choate, Integrated Clinical Enterprise (ICE) Surgical Specialties Trauma
- Tammy Brooks, Nuclear Medicine Imaging Sciences
- Melissa Clark, College of Health Professions
- Nancy Dockter, College of Public Health (CPH)
- Jessica Ellis, Regional Programs
- Sharon Farris-Hester, College of Public Health
- Gloria Flowers Williams, ICE Core Business
- Patricia Franklin, ICE Cancer Outpatient Clinical Services
- Stephanie Gardner, Academic Affairs Administration
- Angel Holland, UAMS Northwest Campus
- Suzanne Homsley, Finance
- Laverne Jones, Office of Human Resources
- Virginia King, UAMS West Family Practice
- Wilma (Jean) Lampkin, ICE Core Hospital Billing Services
- Sharon Lawson, College of Medicine (COM) Emergency Medicine
- Leanne Lefler, College of Nursing
- Alexandra Marshall, CPH Health Behavior & Health Education
- Sandra Meredith-Neve, ICE Medical Specialties Clinics
- Sandra Morrison, COM Microbiology & Immunology
- Burcu Ozdemir, COM Geriatrics
- Tamara Perry, Arkansas Children’s Hospital Research Institute
- Susan Porter, ICE Nursing Services Inpatient Care
- Margaret Portlock, Office of Human Resources
- Carol J. Price, Campus Occupational Health & Safety
- Laura Rule, ICE Primary Care Clinics & Care Management
- Mary Ann Scott, COM Pediatrics Schmieding Center
- Belinda Shelton, COM Pediatrics
- Jeannette M. Shorey, Academic Affairs Faculty Affairs/Continuing Education
- Laura Sisterhen, COM Peds Hospital Medicine
- Kristen Sterba, Graduate School
- Wendy Ward, COM Pediatrics