Certificate's Best

Academic and Teaching Prizes Presented for Outstanding Character and Dedication to Learning

Ana Gilligan, a graduate of the Certificate of Special Studies in Administration and Management (CSS) Program at the Extension School, was awarded the Katie Y. F. Yang Prize at this year's Commencement ceremonies. Named for a 1990 graduate of the CSS program, this prize is awarded annually to the international graduate of the program with the most outstanding academic record. Gilligan, a native of Argentina, is currently working in New York as a Senior Consultant for Latin America for the international public relations firm, Hill and Knowlton.

Presented for the first time in 2001, the Phyllis Strimling Award is named in honor of Phyllis Strimling, director of the Radcliffe Seminars, whose responsibilities included the coordination of Radcliffe's former Management Program. The Phyllis Strimling Award recognizes the character and achievement of a CSS graduate who has used or is preparing to use the CSS experience for the advancement of women and society, and who has grown personally and professionally as a result.

Elizabeth Lesley Greenleaf, the first recipient of this award, has pursued a career path featuring social responsibility. Since 1993 she has worked or interned in government and nonprofit agencies, many of which have dealt with preserving the environment. In 1998, after graduating from Smith College, Greenleaf entered the profit sector as an investment specialist at Charles Schwab & Company, where she noticed that women were underrepresented in investing. True to her ideals, she became the driving force behind the company's national Women Investing Now (WIN) program, which teaches women the skills to take control of their financial lives. This successful program now features threeday workshops around the country, a website, and a series of brochures dealing with women's investment issues. Her coursework in the CSS Program, which she began in 1999, was instrumental in assisting her during the creation of WIN.

This year's recipient of the JoAnne Fussa Distinguished Teaching Award, which recognizes exceptional teaching in the Certificate of Special Studies in Administration and Management Program, is Frank White, who has been teaching CSS E-520 Development Communications in the CSS Program since 1995. According to student comments on his exceptionally high evaluations, his teaching is clear, organized, informative, interactive, and humane. White currently serves as deputy director of communications for Alumni Affairs and Development (AA&D) at Harvard. A 1966 graduate of Harvard College, he was social studies concentrator was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and attended Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship.