Surprise! Jean East Receives Award at University of Denver Conference

Jean East is not easily taken by surprise, yet that happened on April 1 when she received the “Robin Morgan Outstanding Woman Award for Faculty 2016” during the University of Denver Annual Women’s Conference. Even when friends who are not usually at DU events arrived for the luncheon, Jean had no idea what was coming. It was fun to watch her reaction. Why the award? The following nomination statement from a colleague says it all:

“Jean East’s entire career has been focused on recognizing and supporting women’s voices at every level of society. She has promoted the voices of women through every role she has encountered in her life, and most recently as a professor at GSSW (Graduate School of Social Work). Her promotion of women receiving social welfare services resulted in her developing a not-for-profit organization, Project Wise, that encouraged and supported the most powerless of women to find their voices, engage in political processes to have their voices heard and find that they could make a difference in the perspectives of policymakers whose policies impacted women and children.

“Her work with Ph.D. and graduate students as a mentor was consistently focused on empowering women who had the most difficulty within the formal educational system to achieve their goals and contribute to social work practice and social work research. She never gave up on a student; she would spend countless hours mentoring women students, particularly those from non-traditional backgrounds. The result was that many students who had not yet discovered their voices or were unable to express their voices found within themselves a rich and productive contribution to the academic enterprise.

“Dr. East is a master teacher. She stresses the development of leadership in women, not only in leadership courses that she has developed and taught, but also in every course on social work practice. Women in her classes finish the course with a new or renewed sense of the connection of their voices to leadership as a graduate social worker.

“Her work as a faculty leader was consistent with her work as described above. She used her leadership to bring forward changes in curriculum and policy from the voices of the faculty, as opposed to imposing changes from the power of the role. While this approach is more time-consuming, it has resulted in curriculum development that is fully supported by the faculty involved and reflective of their voices, experience and expertise.
“This is an award that is given annually to a DU woman who goes beyond her job responsibilities to advocate for women in the University of Denver community.”

Congratulations, Jean!