Administrator to receive top Michigan ACE awardMay 18, 2010 KALAMAZOO--A Western Michigan University administrator is one of two higher education leaders who will receive this year's top honor from the state affiliate of the American Council on Education Network. Dr. Martha Warfield, WMU associate vice president for diversity and inclusion, and Kathleen M. Wilbur, vice president for government relations and public affairs at Central Michigan University, will receive the Distinguished Woman in Higher Education Leadership Award. The honor recognizes the significant contributions women have made at Michigan's colleges and universities and in their communities. It will be presented during a luncheon from noon to 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 8, during the 2010 Michigan ACE annual conference being held June 7-8 at Michigan State University. Those interested in attending only the luncheon, which costs $25, may register by contacting Maryann Ford at maryann.ford@wmich.edu or calling (269) 387-4174. Anyone may attend the full Michigan ACE conference.
Warfield was named to lead WMU's Office of Diversity and Inclusion in 2008. In that role, she implemented and oversees the University's diversity and multiculturalism action plan, and continues to work with the Kalamazoo Promise and other community diversity efforts. A licensed psychologist, Warfield established Kalamazoo's first African-American owned mental health clinic. She joined WMU's faculty in 1992 as an associate professor in the Counseling and Testing Center and was named director of the Division of Multicultural Affairs in 1993. She continued to direct that division until 2007, after being promoted in 2002 to assistant vice president for student affairs and being tapped in 2004 to head a presidential initiative on diversity. Warfield is a member of the WMU President's Commission on Gender Equity as well as a newly elected member of the Kalamazoo Public Schools Board of Education and a board member for the Michigan Department of Human Services. She has been widely involved in community affairs, and in 2000, received WMU's Distinguished Service Award for her dedication to students as well as her willingness to serve on a variety of on- and off-campus organizations--quietly and without fanfare. Her many other honors include the 2009 Lifetime Woman of Achievement Award from the YWCA of Kalamazoo and 2008 Humanitarian of the Year Award from the Metropolitan Kalamazoo Branch of the NAACP. Warfield earned a bachelor's degree in social science from WMU in 1961, a master's degree in education with an emphasis on disadvantaged youth from the University of Oregon in 1969 and a doctoral degree in counseling psychology from Michigan State University in 1979. She also was a postdoctoral fellow in MSU's Institute of Research in Teaching. Media contact: Jeanne Baron, (269) 387-8400, jeanne.baron@wmich.edu WMU News |
