Posted on Monday, March 17, 2008
Dr. Sherri Pataki, Westminster College assistant professor of psychology, received the Mary Walsh Roth Teaching the Psychology of Women Award for innovative teaching related to diversity. The award was presented by the American Psychological Association at its annual convention in San Francisco.
Pataki received the award based, in part, on a project in her spring 2007 Psychology of Women class. Westminster students corresponded with students at Kitale Academy Girls' School in Kenya about the role of women in both countries, and learned the school was starting a women's basketball team.
Through the leadership efforts of Nicole Fee, a 2007 Westminster College alumna and then a member of Westminster's Lady Titans basketball team, backpacks and Titan team shirts were donated for the newly formed team at Kitale Academy.
"I spoke about this project during this semester's Martin Luther King remembrance service in Wallace Memorial Chapel," Pataki said. "I was very concerned about the well-being of these students and their instructor, Aloys Nyagechi, due to the post-election violence in Kenya. Thankfully, since then, the political leaders in Kenya have signed a peace agreement, and the Kitale Academy Girls' School was able to reopen."
Pataki, who has been with Westminster since 2004, earned an undergraduate degree from Allegheny College and a Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University.
Contact Pataki at (724) 946-7361 or e-mail patakisp@westminster.edu for additional information.
