Awards & Honors

International human rights and racial justice lawyer Gay Johnson McDougall ’69 is the 2018 recipient of Bennington College’s Elizabeth Coleman Visionary Leadership Award. The annual award recognizes a distinguished Bennington graduate, faculty or staff member, or an individual from the larger Bennington College community whose innovative and inspirational leadership is advancing civic and cultural life and improving the lives of others.

McDougall (featured in the 2017 summer issue) served as the first United Nations Independent Expert on Minority Issues from 2005 to 2011. She was executive director of the international NGO Global Rights from 1994 to 2006. From 1997 to 2001, she served as an Independent Expert on the UN treaty body that oversees compliance with the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, a committee to which she was recently re-elected for a second term. During her first term on the committee, she negotiated the adoption of General Recommendation XXV on the Gender Dimensions of Racial Discrimination, which requires governments to report explicitly on the situation of women impacted by racial discrimination. She played a leadership role in the UN ThirdWorld Conference Against Racism. As Special Rapporteur on the issue of systematic rape and sexual slavery practices in armed conflict when she served on the UN Sub-Commission on Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (1995 to 1999), McDougall led that body in calling for international legal standards for the prosecution of such acts. She was one of five international members of the South African governmental body established through the multiparty negotiations to set policy and to administer the country’s first democratic, nonracial elections in 1994, resulting in the election of President Nelson Mandela and the transition from apartheid. For 14 years prior to that appointment, she served as director of the Southern Africa Project of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. In that capacity, she worked with South African lawyers to secure the release of thousands of political prisoners.

McDougall is currently a member of the faculty of the Oxford University Masters of International Human Rights Law Programme and distinguished scholar-in-residence at the Leitner Center for International Law and Justice at Fordham Law School. She was the Robert Drinan Visiting Professor in Human Rights at Georgetown University Law Center from 2011 to 2012. She was a distinguished scholar-in-residence at American University Washington College of Law from 2006 to 2008 and a professor in the annual Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at American University. In 1999, McDougall was a recipient of the MacArthur “Genius” Award. In 2015, the government of South Africa bestowed on her the Order of O.R. Tambo Award for her contributions to ending apartheid. She has also received the Butcher Medal of the American Society of International Law for outstanding contributions to human rights law and the Thurgood Marshall Award of the District of Columbia Bar Association, among numerous other national and international awards.

Awards and Honors

Last February, Lonny Gordon ’67 received the Alfred Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award, which recognized his five decades of work in fine arts, performances, and higher education. 

Caren Umbarger ’77’s second novel, The Passion of Marta, has been selected as a Finalist (Silver Medal) in the National Indie Excellence Awards. 

Kevin Alter ’85, founder of Alterstudio Architecture, has been inducted into the Wm. S. Marvin Hall of Fame for Design Excellence. 

Stephanie Bianca ’87 won a Daytime Emmy for her work as a segment producer on the NBC food and craft lifestyle series, “Naturally, Danny Seo.” 

Peter Dinklage ’91 has won his second Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his performance as Tyrion Lannister on HBO’s Game of Thrones TV series. 

Catherine Pikula ’13’s piece “I’m Fine. How Are You?” won the 2018 Newfound Prose Prize and was published as a chapbook in fall 2018. 

Jodi Lynn Anderson MFA ’14 released a young adult novel titled Midnight at the Electric. It has been selected as a New York Public Library Best Book for Teens of 2017 and an American Library Association Best Fiction for Young Adults title 2018. It was long-listed for the 2018 Southern Book Prize and has been nominated for five state book awards in young adult literature. 

Ayesha Raees ’18 was selected as an Asian American Writers’ Workshop 2018/19 Margins Fellow. 

The Passion of Marta, the second novel by Caren Umbarger ’77, was named a 2017 Silver Winner for the Nautilus Book Awards and selected as a Silver Medal Finalist in the National Indie Excellence Awards. 

Dr. Jennifer Mieres ’82 was named one of Good Housekeeping’s Humanitarian Heroes for her work in healthcare, diversity, and inclusion. Mieres is the author of Heart Smart for Women, the executive producer of two documentaries, including the Emmy-nominated A Woman’s Heart, and is working on a third called Misdiagnosed. 

Amber Wheeler Bacon MFA ’18 is an honoree of Epiphany Lit Mag’s inaugural Breakout 8 award for emerging writers. Lily Houghton ’17 has received an emerging playwright commission from Seattle Repertory Theatre’s The Other Season. 

Poet and Bennington Writing Seminars alum Amy Gerstler MFA ’01 has been awarded a prestigious 2018 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship.