Grand Valley State University Women's Commission will present its Lifetime Achievement Award to Mary Seeger for her many years of dedication to women's issues at a ceremony on Wednesday, March 16. Dean Seeger has previously been presented with the Women and Gender Studies Barbara Jordan Award in 2001, and the Grand Valley Women's Commission Maxine Swanson Award in 1999.
Seeger, dean of Advising Resources and Special Programs, is responsible for 10 programs that enhance the success of Grand Valley students, including the Women's Climate Study. She has also been active in numerous community groups and professional organizations including Equity for Female Athletes, League of Women Voters, Greater Grand Rapids Women's History Council (serving as president from 1999 to present), American Association of University Women, and Girl Scouts, of which she has been a member since 1947 and served as president of the Michigan Trails from 1995 to 2001.
The annual award ceremony for outstanding women at Grand Valley will be at noon, in the Pere Marquette Room of the Kirkhof Center on the Allendale Campus. Other awards being presented include the Maxine Swanson Award, the Barbara Jordan Award, the Positive Black Women Scholarship Awards, and the Women's Center Student Award.
Seeger was among the first faculty to come to Grand Valley in 1965, when she started as a professor of German. She still teaches one course each semester, generally a German course or a junior seminar on detective fiction, another passion, in the Honors College. Seeger is also a Master Gardener, completing the arduous certification program through the Michigan State University Cooperative Extension Service in 1996.
For more information contact Jo Ann Wassenaar at the Grand Valley Women's Commission at (616) 331-2748.
