IWA: International Women Associates

Woman Extraordinaire Award

Woman Extraordinaire Award Begun in 1996, this award is presented annually to a distinguished Chicago-area woman who has made outstanding contributions in her field and in the international arena.

2010 Woman Extraordinaire Selected

IWA is proud to announce the 2010 Woman Extraordinaire,

Marjorie Craig Benton

The Woman Extraordinaire Award Committee selected Ms. Benton for her special international work with women and children.  A biography of her extensive accomplishments will be included in the invitation to be sent out in late January. 

The committee was motivated in its selection process by the book, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, written by Pulitzer Prize winners Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn.  Their premise is that “it is the brutality inflicted on so many women and girls around the globe” that is the moral challenge of the 21st century.  The committee felt our award recipient should be addressing these vital issues in her work.  Ms. Benton, a Chicagoan as the award requires, has spent her life helping others, and in particular, women and children around the world. 

Please mark your calendars for March 9th, 2010 when the award will be presented and our recipient will speak at a luncheon at the Union League Club.   Guests are welcome and highly recommended at this event. 

Click here for more information and to register for the IWA 2010 Woman Extraordinaire program honoring Marjorie Craig Benton.

Past honorees are:

2009  Major L. Tammy Duckworth recently named by President Obama to be Assistant Secretary for Public and Intergovernmental Affairs at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Previously, Duckworth was the director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs.  She is an Iraq War veteran whose severe combat wounds cost her both of her legs and damaged her right arm.

2008    Bliss Browne, M.Div. Founder and President of Imagine Chicago; founding partner of  Ubumama, a global and arts-based maternal health initiative

2007    Funmi Olopade, M.D. Professor of Medicine and Human Genetics at the University of Chicago; breast cancer specialist; 2005 MacArthur Foundation fellow

2006     Mary Margaret McCarthy, J.D. Attorney representing asylum clients and trafficking victimsfrom more than 90 countries; head of the Midwest Immigrant and Human Rights Center

2005     Adele Simmons, Ph.D. Global Philanthropy President; former President of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

2004    Georgie Anne Geyer Foreign correspondent; syndicated columnist; television analyst; author

2003    Cheryl I. Niro, J.D. Founder of the National Center for Conflict Resolution Education

2002    Nina Nathan Schroeder Co-Founder of the Tibetan Alliance in Chicago; advocate for children in Chicago Public School system

2001    Jeanne L. Nowaczewski Director of the Public Education Project and Staff Counsel for Business and Professional People for the Public Interest; founder of The Young Women’s Leadership Charter School of Chicago

2000    Ronne Hartfield Arts educator; multicultural education specialist; author

1999    Janet Davison Rowley, M.D. Professor of Medicine, Molecular Genetics, and Cell Biology at the University of Chicago Medical School

1998    Eva L. Maddox Co-Founder of Archeworks, an alternative design school; president of Eva Maddox Associates, an interior design and architecture firm

1997    Stephanie Pace Marshall, Ph.D. Founding Executive Director of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

1996    Mary Zimmerman Artistic Associate at the Goodman Theatre, Lookingglass Theatre, and Seattle Repertory