 |
The Women of Maryland
Alumni Who Have Made A Difference
Alumni Hall of Fame - celebrates individuals whose personal and professional achievements have brought honor and distinction to the University of Maryland.
Carmen Balthrop - Balthrop is a world-class soprano whose voice critics have described as "pure silver." She enjoys an internationally acclaimed vocal career spanning both modern and classical repertoire. A 1971 graduate, she mixes her time on the stage with classes at Maryland, where she is both teacher and mentor to aspiring vocalists. As an associate professor of voice, she has taught master classes for the past 10 years. Hall of Fame inductee.
Anita Beier ('77) - Beier is the chief accounting officer of USAirways Group.
Gail Berman ('78) - In March, 2005, Berman was named the President of Paramount Pictures after serving as Entertainment President for Fox Broadcasting since May, 2000. In December, 2002 she was named No. 5 on the "Power 100" list in the 2003 Women in Entertainment report.
Bonnie Bernstein
|
Bonnie Bernstein ('92) - Bernstein (pictured left) joined CBS Sports in 1998 after working in local radio and television and at ESPN. Bernstein was an Academic All-America selection in gymnastics while at Maryland.
Pam Ward - Ward, a 1984 graduate, became the first woman to do play-by-play coverage of college football on national television when she broadcast three games for ESPN during the 2000 season.
Susan Braun (right) - (M.A. - Health Sciences) Chairman and CEO of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation since 1996.
|
Susan Braun
|
Sheila Cherry
|
Sheila Cherry (left) - Cherry, a freelance writer, was the first African American president of the National Press Club (2004).
Connie Chung (right) - Chung is one of the most successful women in the field of television news. After graduating in 1969, she worked at WTTG-TV in Washington, DC, before moving on to CBS. She covered Watergate and the 1972 Presidential election and handled anchor duties from Los Angeles. She has also worked at NBC, ABC and, CNN. 2005 Alumni Hall of Fame inductee.
|
Connie Chung |
|
Sarah Cohen - Cohen, an adjunct professor of journalism, earned a Pulitzer Prize in 2002 for investigative reporting for a series in the Washington Post examining deaths of children in Washington, DC.
Ivonne Cunarro - Cunarro served as the executive director of the National Association of Hispanic Publications (NAHP). The NAHP is a non-profit organization representing more than 200 Hispanic publications nationwide, with a combined circulation of more than 10 million.
|
Mary Stallings Coleman
|
Mary Stallings Coleman (left) - Coleman is the first woman ever to receive Maryland's Distinguished Alumnus Award (1973). A national figure in developing many innovative programs for child welfare, she became the first woman elected as a justice of the Michigan Supreme Court (1972). Seven years later she became the court's chief justice. During her undergraduate work in the 1930s, Stallings was twice named Miss University of Maryland. Hall of Fame inductee.
Anne Truax Darlington - Darlington is the creator of "Wall Street Week" and other Maryland Public Television programs. |
Ruth Davis |
|
|
Ruth Davis (right) - Davis was one of the first women to receive a Ph.D. in mathematics (1955) from the university. She served a long and distinguished career in government and private industry. In 1993, Maryland honored Davis with the Distinguished Alumnus Award. Hall of Fame inductee.
|
|
Carleton S. "Carly" Fiorina - Fiorinia served from 1999 until February, 2005 as chief executive officer and then chairman of Hewlett-Packard. Her efforts to reinvent HP included a merger with Compaq in 2002. She holds a master's degree in business administration from the Robert H. Smith School of Business among other degrees. During an October, 2003 CIO Forum sponsored by the Smith Business School, Fiorina said of her time at Maryland "Here I learned a different notion of what was possible. And I think, in very great measure, that is what leadership is about, and that is what education is about." 2005 Hall of Fame inductee.
Alma Gildenhorn ('53) - Gildenhorn is a civic leader, philanthropist, and patron of the arts.
Jane Healy - Healy, a 1971 graduate, is the editorial page editor for the Orlando Sentinel. In 1988 she won a Pulitzer Prize in Journalism for "Florida's Shame," a series of editorials protesting overdevelopment in Florida's Orange County.
Jane Henson - Henson was an Art Education major at Maryland in the late 1950s when she took a class in puppetry with husband-to-be Jim Henson. She was integral in helping him develop his beloved creations, the Muppets, into a world-wide entertainment powerhouse. Henson serves on the board of directors of the Jim Henson Foundation. In 1992 she established the Jim Henson Legacy to preserve and present Jim Henson's lifework. She was an integral part of the planning for a Jim Henson statue on campus.
|
|
Karen Hesse ('75) - Hesse is the author of numerous books for children and young adults and has won many prestigious national awards for her writing. She won a MacArthur Fellowship in 2002.
Elizabeth Hook (right) - Hook is the first woman to attend Maryland for four years and graduate with a degree. Miss Hook received a B.S. in entomology in 1920. The 1920 Reveille yearbook's "History of the Class of 1920" says: "It is due to her courage and rare personality that Maryland State is co-educational." The yearbook also offered these tidbits: Nickname - "Bessie" - Age 23 - Favorite Expression: "Now stop; remember your place." Favorite Occupation: Killing time. Desires to Be: Good Looking. Destined to Be: A fine wife.
|
Elizabeth Hook
|
Elaine Johnson |
Elaine Johnson (left) - Johnson was the first black female undergraduate to attend the University of Maryland. Her groundbreaking arrival in 1955 set the precedent for many other black women to follow. She was a pioneer for people like Dominique Dawes and Vashti McKenzie. Johnson graduated with a degree in Business Education from Maryland in 1959.
The first three African American women to receive master's degrees from Maryland (all in Education) were Rose Shockley Wiseman and Myrtle Holmes Wake in 1951 and Selma Romaine Mason Toye in 1957.
Liz Lerman ('70) - Lerman is the founder of the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange in Takoma Park, MD. She is a talented dancer, choreographer, and teacher of dance. In 2002, she received a MacArthur Fellowship. 2005 Hall of Fame inductee.
|
|
|
Kathleen Magee - Magee is both a nurse and a philanthropist.
Since 1982, she has brought smiles to the faces of more than 50,000 children and adolescents around the world though Operation Smile, an organization that funds and performs oral surgery. Hall of Fame inductee.
Odonna Matthews - Matthews, a 1972 graduate of the College of Human Ecology, is Giant Food's vice president for consumer affairs. In 1998 she received the President's Distinguished Alumnus Award.
Joan McFarland - McFarland, Class of 1981, received a Grammy award for "best choral performance" in 2000 for her work on a recording of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem. McFarland conducted the Maryland Boy Choir, which joined with the Washington Chorus and Orchestra and the Shenandoah Conservatory Choir to perform the award- winning piece.
|
|
Vashti McKenzie (right) - McKenzie (Journalism - 1978) is a philanthropist, inspirational speaker and author. In July 2000, she became the first woman elected bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. As head of the church's 18th Episcopal District in Africa, McKenzie ministers to Christians in Botswana, Swaziland, Mozambique and Lesotho. A former journalist and electronic broadcaster, she has held a variety of media positions at the Arizona Republic newspaper, the Afro-American newspaper, three radio stations and Baltimore's WJZ-TV.
Jody Olsen ('79) - Deputy Director of the U.S. Peace Corps.
Jane Cahill Pfeiffer - Pfeiffer has been a success wherever she goes. After graduating in 1954, she joined IBM and rapidly rose to vice president of communications. She moved to RCA and in 1978 became chairman of the board. She is a currently a consultant in management organization, communications and government relations. The university has honored her with a place in its Hall of Fame, with the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1975 and an honorary doctoral degree in 1979. Hall of Fame inductee.
|
Vashti McKenzie |
|
Judith A. Resnik |
Judith A. Resnik (left) - NASA astronaut Judith Resnik was killed in the Challenger explosion of 1986. After receiving her doctorate in Electrical Engineering from Maryland in 1977, Resnik began working for NASA. She spent six days in space in 1984 on the maiden flight of the orbiter Discovery. Hall of Fame inductee.
Mona H. Siddiqui - Siddiqui received the first University Medal during the May 25, 2000, commencement. The University Medal is given to the graduating senior "who best exemplifies academic distinction, extraordinary character, and extracurricular contributions to the campus or public communities."
|
|
|
Clarice Smith (right) - A well-known Virginia artist and collector, Clarice Smith attended the university before continuing her art studies at the Corcoran School in Washington and at George Washington University, where she taught watercolor and portrait painting. Smith has had numerous solo exhibitions in galleries in the United States and abroad. Together with her husband, real estate developer Robert Smith, the Smiths have become the largest private donors ever to a public university in the State of Maryland. The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at Maryland is testimony to her generosity.
Henrietta Speigel - At 83, Henrietta Speigel became the University of Maryland's oldest graduate. In May 1989, she received a degree in English with Phi Beta Kappa honors.
|
Clarice Smith |
|
Charlotte Vaux |
Ellendea Proffer Teasley ('66) - Teasley was the winner of a MacArthur Fellowship in 1989 in recognition of her work as an author, publisher, and translator of Russian literature into English
Charlotte Vaux (left) - Vaux was the first woman to receive a two-year degree from Maryland. She graduated in 1918 with a degree in agriculture.
Evelyn Pasteur Valentine -
Valentine has held just about every title in the education profession: teacher, assistant principal, principal, department head, administrator and adjunct professor. Today she is president and CEO of The Pasteur Center for Strategic Management. Hall of Fame inductee.
Dianne Wiest - Wiest, class of 1969, won the 1995 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the movie "Bullets over Broadway"; she also won the same award in 1986 for "Hannah and Her Sisters."
|
WOMEN'S ATHLETICS
Maryland's Olympians
Vicky Bullett, 1988 and 1992, basketball
Carin Cone, 1956, swimming (Australian team)
Dominique Dawes (right), 1996 and 2000, gymnastics
Paula Girven, 1976, high jumping
Lea Hakala, 1984, basketball (Finnish team)
Tara Heiss, 1980, basketball
Kelli Hill, 2000, gymnastics head coach
Katie Kauffman, 1996, field hockey
Kris Kirchner, 1980, basketball
Irene Knox, 1932, shooting
Missy Meharg, 1996, field hockey (coach)
Jasmina Perazic, 1984, basketball (Yugoslavian team)
|
Dominique Dawes |
Jill Fisher and Gillian Cote - co-captains of the 2000-2001 gymnastics team, became the first University of Maryland gymnasts to be named NCAA All-Americans, in the spring of 2001.
Margaret Guy Schmidt - Schmidt ('58) was the first female athlete to letter at the university. While she was on the rifle team, she held six shooting records, won 200 medals and three trophies.
 Chris Weller ('66). Weller served as the Women's Basketball Coach for more than a quarter-century before retiring in March 2002. Over her 27-year career she won 499 games and her teams made three Final Four appearances.
Women's Basketball - First organized play began on campus in 1923. The team was officially recognized in 1971 and won the ACC Tournament in 1978, 1979, 1981-1983, 1986, 1988, and 1989. The first ever nationally televised women's college basketball game was played at Cole Field House on January 26, 1975. Maryland lost to Immaculata.
The two largest crowds ever to see women's basketball games were at Cole Field House (a loss vs. Virginia in 1992 - 14,500) and the new Comcast Center (a loss vs. Duke in 2004 - 13,446).
Women's Competitive Cheerleading - Maryland added women's cheerleading as a competitive sport in the fall of 2003, the first such varsity program in the United States. The team took third place in the Cheersport Nationals in February, 2005.
Women's Field Hockey - Women's field hockey began interclass games in 1929 and became an official NCAA sport in 1971. The team won national championships in 1987, 1993 and 1999.
Women's Lacrosse - First organized in 1977; the Lady Terrapins have won ten national championships, including seven straight from 1995 through 2001; this winning streak is the longest active one in Division I athletics, exceeded only by the University of North Carolina's women's soccer team (nine championships, 1986 to 1994).
 Women's Rifle Shooting - The first women's team was organized in 1922 and won numerous national championships.
Women's Softball Team - The Terrapin softball team's first season was 1995. Just two years later, the team won its first ACC championship.
Women's Swim Team - 2005 ACC Champions and 12th in the NCAA - their greatest finish in school history. The team won the 2004 ACC Championship as well.
Women's Volleyball - Intramural competition in women's volleyball began in the 1930s with official competition starting in 1971. The women were ACC champions in 1990, 2003, 2004, and national champions in 1995.
|
For more women alumni of note - Check out our Alumni of Note page: www.lib.umd.edu/ARCV/macmil/alumniofnote.html
See an alumna with a first we should have honored? Email dottalin@umd.edu.
Go back to Maryland's Women's History Month website.
|
 |
Information provided by the Office of University Communications
