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News Release

Last modified: Friday, April 4, 2008

IU Office of Women's Affairs gives 2008 staff and scholar awards

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 4, 2008

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University's Office for Women's Affairs presented its 2008 Outstanding Staff Award and its 2008 Distinguished Scholar Award last week at an award ceremony and reception.

Debbie Melloan, a counselor for the sexual assault crisis service at the IU Student Health Center, received the 2008 Outstanding Staff Award. The Distinguished Scholar Award for 2008 went to Marianne Kielian-Gilbert, professor of music theory at the Jacobs School of Music.

"These awards are presented annually to recognize service to the campus and excellence in scholarship," said Karen Hanson, provost and IU executive vice president. "The recipients are outstanding members of the university community who selflessly devote their time, energy and resources to helping others."

The Outstanding Staff Award honors a staff person on the Bloomington campus who has contributed to advancing women's status on campus and in the community.

Melloan is cited for 18 years of assistance to students who have been victims of sexual assault and also for leadership in developing sexual assault awareness and prevention programs on the Bloomington campus. She frequently addresses various student groups of men and women on these topics and wrote a play, Puzzle Pieces, about sexual assault. The play is produced during IU's Rape Awareness Week. Melloan is a member of the Governor's Indiana Domestic Violence Prevention and Treatment Council. At IU she has been a member of the Commission on Personal Safety and the GLBT Anti Harassment Team. Recently she worked with the Code of Student Ethics Revision Committee.

The Distinguished Scholar Award goes to an outstanding scholar whose work involves efforts to enhance women's lives through research, teaching or service.

Kielian-Gilbert is noted as being a central, senior figure in the field of feminist musicology and music theory, and her work is recognized internationally for its pioneering character. The author of one letter of nomination written on Kielian-Gilbert's behalf said that her most ground-breaking scholarly contributions have come in her work on feminist thought and how this mode of thinking suggests new paths for music theory. She also has focused much of her research on the music of women composers. Kielian-Gilbert has chaired and been active on the IU Committee on the Status of Women, has been a senior mentor in the Women Faculty Mentoring Program, and has provided national leadership for the Society for Music Theory and the journal Perspectives of New Music.

The Office of Women's Affairs also gives an Award of Excellence in Supporting Women in Athletics. The recipient, Jerry D. Wilkerson, executive associate dean of the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, was honored with the award on Feb. 17, National Girls and Women in Sport Day, during halftime of an IU women's basketball game. She also was acknowledged at the reception.

Created in 1972, the IU Office of Women's Affairs exists to establish a climate in which women faculty, students and staff are provided with full opportunities for the development of their abilities. For additional information regarding OWA, go to https://www.indiana.edu/~owa.

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