The American Association of University Women of Virginia has named Sweet Briar professor of chemistry Jill Granger the recipient of its 2007 Education Advocate of the Year Award.
Jill GrangerGranger was nominated by the AAUW Lynchburg Chapter.
The Education Advocate award is given to a volunteer who has demonstrated an active interest in expanding girls’ knowledge of careers or skills in mathematics, science or technology, and who has encouraged academic excellence.
The advocate award was created in 1999 in recognition of the contributions made by volunteers and community members.
In a letter nominating Granger, her colleague in the chemistry department, Susan Piepho, and other members of the Lynchburg Chapter, wrote, “The AAUW Education Advocate of the Year Award appears designed to reward the extraordinary achievements of a woman such as Dr. Jill Granger.”
The letter enumerated some of Granger’s work on behalf of educating women and girls in math and science. A few of the items cited are the Brownie Science Try-it Days she has organized for the past eight years, her leadership in establishing and participating in the Lynchburg Area Chapter of Iota Sigma Pi, and her work on the Amherst County Extend Science Fair for students in the fourth through eighth grades.
Over the past eight years, Granger also has taken her efforts directly into public school classrooms by obtaining more than $875,000 in grants from the State Council of Higher Education. Among other things, the grants fund teacher development workshops, buy classroom equipment and pay a specialist who travels to classrooms in six counties to assist teachers in implementing what they have learned in workshops.
Other signature projects funded by SCHEV grants include spectrophotometry labs that Granger developed for sixth- through twelfth-graders.
Granger, a mother of four, is a “role model for the girls and young women with whom she interacts” and “clearly a remarkable education advocate,” the Lynchburg Chapter wrote in its summation.
The award will be conferred officially on April 21 during the American Association of University Women of Virginia 2007 Convention in Virginia Beach.
