Alumni Achievement Awards
Since 1981, the College has presented this award to one who personifies the value of a liberal arts education and has brought distinction to themselves and to the College. Nominations for the awards come from alumni and the recipients are selected by an awards committee comprised of faculty, staff, and alumni.
Meet the 2023 Alumni Achievement Award Recipients
The 2023 Alumni Achievement Award recipients who will be recognized at Reunion during the Reunion Celebration: College Update, Class Giving Presentation, and 2023 Alumni Achievement Award Ceremony to be held Saturday, June 3, 2023 at 11 a.m. EST.
2022 Alumnae Achievement Awards Recap
Virginia Broaddus Patel ’58
Virginia “Jinx” Broaddus Patel ’58 is the founding research director of Athens Research and Technology, which supplies research universities, institutions, and large pharmaceutical companies with research and diagnostic testing materials. For 27 years, Patel served as the principal investigator on more than 50 contract research projects funded by both for-profit and nonprofit entities, including Pfizer, the World Health Organization, and the National Institutes of Health.
She and her husband have lived in Athens, Georgia, for 54 years, where Patel has balanced work and raising a family with volunteering in her community. She has served as a board member for arts organizations, economic development foundations, and other community groups.
She studied biology at the College, earned her Ph.D. from Washington University, St. Louis, and has held research positions at the State University of New York at Buffalo and the University of Georgia.
Judith Phillips Stanton ’68
Judith Phillips Stanton’s The Collected Letters of Charlotte Smith (2004) has been foundational in restoring the reputation of this late 18th-century poet and novelist as the first romantic poet. Stanton compiled and edited the project over 26 years while she was a university professor, and later an independent scholar. She also published a number of articles on Smith’s
life and histories of building the collection of letters. Before publication, she shared the unpublished manuscripts document with fellow scholars and dissertation students.
While teaching at The University of Wisconsin Eau Claire and Clemson University, she was a leader in establishing minor curricula in gender studies and technical and scientific writing. Since the late 1990s, she has also published four historical romance novels, a contemporary equestrian suspense, her first chapbook of poetry, and now teaches creative writing courses for fun.
