Outstanding Professors Receive $375,000 for Inspiring Their Students

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Fifteen distinguished professors from universities around the United States will each receive a $25,000 one-time cash award from the Gail McKnight Beckman Trust for inspiring their students to make a difference in their communities. The awards ceremony will take place at The Carter Center in Atlanta on Saturday, January 7, 2012 at 6:00 p.m.

“The awards were created to benefit current or former academic faculty members who have inspired their students to create an organization which has demonstrably conferred a benefit on the community at large”

“The awards were created to benefit current or former academic faculty members who have inspired their students to create an organization which has demonstrably conferred a benefit on the community at large,” said Joyce Yamaato, Vice President of Wells Fargo and Senior Trust and Fiduciary Specialist. “The academic faculty member must have inspired a student to establish, on a lasting basis, a concept, procedure, or movement of comparable benefit to the community at large.”

(A complete list of the award recipients and their universities follows this press release.)

The trust was founded in 2008 under the will of Gail McKnight Beckman in honor of her mother Dr. Elizabeth Hurlock Beckman. Dr. Beckman was an educator, a renowned author and a pioneer in the field of psychology. She was one of the first female psychology professors at Columbia University and later taught at the University of Pennsylvania.

“These outstanding faculty members have inspired their former students to change the world. The trust recognizes the benefits of what an extraordinary professor can produce,” said Dr. Carol Goodheart, Beckman Trust Committee Member and Past President of the American Psychological Association. “We learn how remarkably professors have motivated their students, and see how students have created a real-world success because of this inspiration.” The Advisory Committee comprised of Dr. Carol Goodheart, of the American Psychological Association, Dr. Karen Tidmarsh of Bryn Mawr College, Dr. Geraldine Downey of Columbia University and Joyce Yamaato of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.

The recipients must meet these additional qualifications. Recipients must be current or former professors or instructors at a college, university, junior college, community college or technical school in America. Preference is given to those who teach in the fields of psychology, medicine or law.

Since its inception in 2008, the Beckman Trust has awarded $150,000 to six professors and/or faculty members. Anyone (including the candidate) may nominate candidates for the award. Each year the award committee prescreens the nominees for qualification. The students of those nominees who are determined to be eligible will then be invited to apply for the award through an application process. The Trust is supported by the Wells Fargo’s Philanthropic Services group. For more information, go online at www.wellsfargo.com/privatefoundationgrants/beckman.

Recipient Name	Current College or University
Etiony Aldarondo, Ph.D.	University of Miami
Jessica Henderson Daniel	Harvard Medical School
Michelle Fine	City University of New York
Howard S. Friedman	University of California, Riverside
Elizabeth Louise Glisky	University of Arizona
Janet E. Helms, Ph.D.	Boston College
Marsha Marie Linehan	University of Washington
Raymond P. Lorion, Ph.D.	Towson University
Susan McDaniel, Ph.D.	University of Rochester
Layli Phillips Maparyan, Ph.D.	Georgia State University
Dr. Alice Anne Medalia	Columbia University
Frances V. Mervyn, Ph.D.	Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology
Bonnie Ruth Strickland, Ph.D.	University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Stanley Sue, Ph.D.	Palo Alto University
Bruce Wampold	University of Wisconsin, Madison