FEATURED WOMEN
Jean DeSaix (left) and Peggye Dilworth-Anderson
Meet the 2012 Faculty Mentoring Award
winners
Professors Jean DeSaix and Peggye
Dilworth-Anderson are the 2012 winners of the Carolina
Women’s Leadership Council's Faculty Mentoring
Awards. Council members Julia Grumbles and Sarah Carey
presented the awards during the council's annual meeting,
held March 1 in the Blue Zone inside Kenan Stadium.
Jean DeSaix (pronounced De Say), a senior lecturer in the
biology department in the College of Arts and Sciences,
received the faculty-to-student mentoring award. The
faculty-to-faculty mentoring award went to Peggye
Dilworth-Anderson, a professor of health policy and
management in the Gillings School of Global Public Health.
The awards include a $5,000 stipend.
Now in their seventh year, the awards recognize outstanding
faculty members who make extra efforts to guide, mentor and
lead students or junior faculty members as they make career
decisions, embark on research challenges and enrich their
lives through public service, teaching and educational
opportunities.
“With each year, the strong culture of mentoring at
Carolina becomes even stronger,” said Carol
Tresolini, vice provost for academic initiatives.
“Many thanks to the council members for sponsoring
these awards, and congratulations to the outstanding
faculty members who received them.”
DeSaix earned both her master’s degree and doctorate
at UNC and has taught about 800 students in each of her
nearly 40 years at Carolina. She has also been active in
the Episcopal Campus Ministry, UNC Habitat for Humanity,
Pre-Health Advising and Carolina Covenant, a UNC program
that enables low-income students to graduate debt-free. She
serves as an adviser, participates in department and campus
committees, and has held leadership positions in the
Faculty Council.
“She was incredibly supportive of my intellectual
pursuits, often encouraging me to pursue topics of interest
in research papers and course presentations,” said
Paul Shorkey, a former student who went on to become a
Rhodes Scholar. “[A]s I entered my senior year, she
was one of my biggest advocates in applying for the Rhodes
Scholarship. It was through her incredible support, both
written and verbal, that I even had the confidence to
apply.”
Dilworth-Anderson, who came to UNC in 2002, earned her
doctorate at Northwestern University. A sociologist by
training, she has researched aging for nearly 40 years,
with a focus on caregiving among minority elders and
Alzheimer’s. She currently serves as the interim
co-director of the Institute on Aging at UNC.
Dilworth-Anderson secured a federal grant from the National
Institute on Aging in 2005, awarded to senior leaders and
scientists in the field of aging to promote and advance
aging research. She has used the funds — more than
$500,000 over six years — to help support six junior
investigators and to establish a mentoring group at UNC
that focuses on minority aging and health disparities. The
group has met monthly since 2005.
During her career, Dilworth-Anderson has mentored more than
20 doctoral students, as well as many junior and mid-career
faculty members, from a variety of disciplines. At UNC, she
has served on the Provost’s Task Force on Promotion,
contributing to its mentoring section.
“Mid-career and even senior scholars often seek her
out for her advice in working effectively with more junior
colleagues,” said one nominator. “She is seen
as a role model for minority and women scholars and
trainees doing scholarship in minority aging across the
University and throughout the United States.”
First awarded in 2006, the Faculty Mentoring Awards are
open to tenured and tenure-track faculty, as well as
fixed-term faculty who have taught at UNC for at least
three years. A selection committee appointed by the
executive vice chancellor and provost reviews and
recommends the award recipients.