Learning to lead for change

The Women’s Center in the University of Minnesota's Office for Equity and Diversity recently honored Pam Skinner with the Mullen/Spector/Truax Women's Leadership Award.

Skinner, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences (VBS) at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM), says she thinks the award will help her continue to grow as a leader. “As academics, we get our advanced degrees and then we are expected to manage people and be leaders, which we are not trained to do,” she says. “I am incredibly honored and grateful that my leadership work to make positive changes at the University of Minnesota is being recognized and that I am being granted this award.”

Skinner was nominated by the Empowering Women in Science organization at the University of Minnesota. This nomination was supported by letters from Kathleen Boris-Lawrie, PhD, professor and chair of VBS, as well as colleagues from the U of MN Women’s Faculty Cabinet; Tracy Twine, MS, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Soil, Water, and Climate in the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences; and Amy Simon, senior lecturer in the Department of Work and Organizations at the Carlson School of Management. “I was so touched that my colleagues were willing to write me positive letters of support,” says Skinner.

In 2002, Skinner became the first woman in more than two decades to get tenure in VBS. Since then, she has served on a number of committees, including faculty search committees where she worked to promote hiring female faculty members in her department. She also served on the CVM Faculty Council and, while acting as chair, worked to get a salary equity review committee in place for the University of Minnesota’s College of Veterinary Medicine. Skinner also served on and co-chaired the U of MN Women’s Faculty Cabinet—which has hosted empowering retreats and forums with Karen Hanson, PhD, executive vice president and provost at the University of Minnesota—and developed policies, including a parental leave from teaching policy to support new parents at the U.

The Women’s Leadership Award was established in 1997 to be given annually to a faculty or staff woman at the University of Minnesota who has made outstanding contributions to women’s leadership development. A $1,500 award is given to the recipient’s department to be used by the winner in support of her professional development. The award is presented at the annual Celebrating Changemakers Awards Program, which is hosted by the Women's Center each fall.

In the lab, the advances Skinner’s research has made in understanding prion diseases and HIV pathogenesis have led to novel treatment approaches for these diseases. “We are now actively pursuing an immunotherapy that will hopefully lead to a functional cure for HIV,” she says. She is also proud of the accomplishments made by the PhD students who trained in her lab. “They have done amazing work here and have gone on to become successful independent scientists and teachers.”

While the biomedical sciences are still male dominated and the sciences in general contain problematic gender inequities, Skinner says she found the Women’s Faculty Cabinet to be highly supportive of addressing women’s issues at the U of M. And she says that the CVM has made some great strides in giving women space to lead.

“Fifteen years ago, when I would serve on college committees, I was frequently the only woman at the table,” she says. “I am ecstatic that, now, two of the three department chairs at the College are women and most of the committees I have served on in the last year were balanced with men and women faculty members. This has greatly changed the environment in positive ways for female faculty members at the CVM.”

Photo credit: University of Minnesota Women's Center