2012 Maryann Hartman Award Winners Announced

The University of Maine’s Women in the Curriculum and Women’s Studies Program has announced the four recipients of the 2012 Maryann Hartman Awards, an annual recognition of women whose work inspires others and raises awareness of contemporary women’s accomplishments.

The awards ceremony is scheduled from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 30 at UMaine’s Buchanan Alumni House. It is a free and public event, but prior registration is requested by calling Women in the Curriculum and Women’s Studies Program at (207) 581-1228.

This year’s Hartman Awards recipients are Colby College professor Jennifer Finney Boylan, recognized for her creative writing and courageous transgender activism; Elinor Goldberg, former executive vice president of the Maine Children’s Alliance in Augusta, for her service to children; and Merlene Sanborn, former director of the Penquis Higher Education Center at Eastern Maine Community College and now associate academic dean at EMCC, for her work to develop employment-related education in the Penquis region.

JoAnn Bourque of Bangor will receive the Young Women’s Social Justice Award for her work on food insecurity in the Bangor area and on teen suicide. She is a June 2012 Bangor High School graduate and is an Eastern Maine Community College student.

A teacher and scholar in speech communication at the University of Maine, Maryann Hartman was considered by friends and associates as an advocate, friend, mother and a woman of courage and vitality. Hartman died of cancer in 1980 at age 53.

The awardees were chosen by a committee chaired by Mazie Hough, associate director of the program.

Contact: Ann Schonberger or Mazie Hough (207) 581-1228