Press Release

Contact: Debra Humphreys
Vice President for Communications and Public Affairs
202-387-3760 ext. 422
Humphreys@aacu.org

AAC&U Senior Vice President Caryn McTighe Musil Honored with Donna Shavlik Award in Recognition of Her Continuing Work to Advance Women in Higher Education

Washington, DC—February 13, 2005—At its annual Women's Leadership Dinner, the Office of Women in Higher Education at the American Council on Education (ACE) presented its Donna Shavlik Award to Caryn McTighe Musil, senior vice president at the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U). Presented annually, the award honors an individual whose leadership has demonstrated a sustained and continuing commitment to the advancement of women through actions or initiatives that enhance women's leadership development, career development, and mentoring opportunities and improve the campus climate for women.

"Caryn is a remarkably talented and dedicated professional and a passionate advocate for women. She brings her commitments to bear on everything she does, but never loses sight of the need to work at both local and national levels--attending to individual as well as institutional concerns," said AAC&U Vice President for Communications and Public Affairs Debra Humphreys, who nominated Musil for the award and has worked with her for more than fifteen years. "In addition to being an accomplished national leader, she is a remarkable mentor to those in younger generations who will remain inspired by her leadership to continue the important work of advancing women's status in higher education and in American society."

At AAC&U, Musil has directed the Program on the Status and Education of Women (PSEW) for eleven years. AAC&U was the first national association to establish a dedicated office for women in higher education; the office was originally under the leadership of Bernice Sandler, a previous winner of the Shavlik Award. Musil, who holds degrees from Duke University and Northwestern University, was part of a pioneering generation of women who worked on feminist issues and recognized early the importance of diverse voices and histories in the new scholarship on women. Musil has drawn from women's leadership on diversity and inclusion as she has expanded the scope of AAC&U's work in these areas.

In addition to leading PSEW, Musil also leads AAC&U's Office of Diversity, Equity, and Global Initiatives, where PSEW is housed. She has led numerous national initiatives on issues of diversity and global learning in higher education, including the curriculum and faculty development project that was part of the initiative American Commitments: Diversity, Democracy, and Liberal Learning, as well as such projects as Liberal Education and Global Citizenship and the Bildner New Jersey Campus Diversity Initiative. In her capacity as director of PSEW, she serves as executive editor of the quarterly newsletter On Campus With Women and has led AAC&U's efforts to publish monographs on women of color in the academy, sponsor workshops on incorporating women's issues in the curriculum, and conduct curriculum development projects such as Women and Scientific Literacy: Building Two-Way Streets, a National Science Foundation-funded initiative. Dr. Musil also worked with other AAC&U staff members in a recent strategic planning process that brought together AAC&U's diversity work and its work on international and global issues under one institutional program office.

Most recently, Musil joined with colleagues at the American Association for Higher Education and sponsors of the teleconference "Women's Lives, Women's Voices, Women's Solutions: Shaping a National Agenda for Women in Higher Education" at the University of Minnesota to form The National Initiative for Women in Higher Education--a grassroots network of feminists and allies working collectively to mobilize the academy for the next stages of inclusive transformation.

Musil is the coauthor of Diversity in Higher Education: A Work in Progress and principal author of To Form a More Perfect Union: Campus Diversity Initiatives. She edited three publications emerging from the initiative The Courage to Question: Women's Studies and Student Learning, and edited Gender, Science, and the Undergraduate Curriculum, an anthology that emerged from the Women and Scientific Literacy initiative.

"Caryn McTighe Musil's work has been a major catalyst in AAC&U's vision of a new academy in which inclusion, educational excellence, and preparation for engaged citizenship become foundational commitments," said AAC&U President Carol Geary Schneider. "We are fortunate to have her as our colleague."

AAC&U is the leading national association concerned with the quality, vitality, and public standing of undergraduate liberal education. Its members are committed to extending the advantages of a liberal education to all students, regardless of academic specialization or intended career. Since its founding in 1915, AAC&U's membership has grown to more than 1,000 accredited public and private colleges and universities of every type and size.

AAC&U functions as a catalyst and facilitator, forging links among presidents, administrators, and faculty members who are engaged in institutional and curricular planning. Its mission is to reinforce the collective commitment to liberal education at both the national and local levels and to help individual institutions keep the quality of student learning at the core of their work as they evolve to meet new economic and social challenges.

Information about AAC&U membership, programs, and publications can be found at www.aacu.org.