A Cornell graduate student, three faculty members and three staff members received Constance E. Cook and Alice H. Cook Recognition Awards April 17 for their contributions to improving the climate for women at Cornell. The awards were presented at a recognition luncheon in Becker House.

The awards are granted by the Advisory Committee on the Status of Women, a campus group, and are selected from nominations by members of the Cornell community.

This year's winners:

• Barbara Bartholomew, a reserves specialist in the Management Library at Cornell, was recognized for founding, managing and leading the local women's ice hockey team, the Ithaca Furies. Many of the team's members are Cornell students and staff; the team provides women of all skill levels, ages and experiences with a positive and healthy social activity.
• Jacob (Jake) Benninger, a supervisor in the Electric Shop for 20 years, was recognized for mentoring hundreds of apprentices, including many women, and helping to include women in the local International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. The Electric Shop leads Cornell's shops in its number of women employees and women leaders.
• Hollis Nancy Erb, professor of population medicine and diagnostic sciences in the College of Veterinary Medicine, was cited for her help in establishing the Committee on the Status of Faculty Women in the Vet College in 2005, conducting a survey of faculty women about college climate and career satisfaction, and mentoring junior faculty.
• Amanda Erdman, a residence hall director at Balch Hall since 2000, was recognized for her work in addressing with her residents such issues as eating disorders, body image concerns, sexuality, depression and academic success; her service on the President's Council of Cornell Women Leadership Planning Committee in organizing programs for female students; and service as adviser to Omega Pi Beta sorority and as the liaison between Residential Programs and the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs.
• Francine Herman, professor emerita of hotel administration, was recognized for serving on the Advisory Committee on the Status of Women and the Cornell 11 Committee (a 1980-85 class action suit by 11 Cornell women claiming sex discrimination, retaliation for complaints and pay inequity) and for creating an endowment in 1979 (now in Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies) to support undergraduates with financial need.
• Sabrina Stierwalt, a graduate student in astronomy, was cited for her service as president of Graduate Women in Physics, which plans events for women in her field, and for teaching a women's empowerment seminar through the Women's Resource Center.
• Zellman Warhaft, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and associate dean for diversity in the College of Engineering, was recognized for expanding the college's diversity efforts and bringing in $1 million a year to support diversity programs to hire faculty, and to recruit and support female undergraduate and graduate students.

The awards are named for Constance Cook, Cornell's first woman vice president, and Alice Cook, one of the first women faculty members at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, both of them early advocates for women at Cornell.