The South Carolina Women in Higher Education announce Dr. Caroline B. Whitson, President of Columbia College, as the recipient of the 2007 Martha Kime Piper Award. The award, named for the first woman president of a public higher education institution in the state, is given annually to recognize a woman with a record of advancing and supporting women in higher education and the education of women in South Carolina.
 
Whitson helped to create a private/public partnership between Columbia College and the Governor’s Commission on Women for the advancement of the status of SC women. At Columbia College her leadership cultivates growth and development in the education of young women throughout the campus. She serves on several community boards including United Way of the Midlands, SCETV, and PLEN (Public Leadership Education Network).  She was named Outstanding Advocate for Women in business by the Chamber of Commerce in 2005 and the Congaree Girl Scouts honored her as a “Woman of Distinction.” Whitson will be honored with the Martha Kime Piper Award at the 2007 South Carolina Women in Higher Education (SCWHE) Annual Conference in Columbia on February 3. Before coming to Columbia College as President in 2001, Dr. Whitson was provost and vice president for academic affairs at the University of the Ozarks in Clarkesville, Arkansas.  

About SCWHE
South Carolina Women in Higher Education’s mission is to improve higher education in South Carolina by promoting women’s leadership and participation.(www.scwhe.org <http://www.scwhe.org/> )   The organization is South Carolina’s response to the challenge of the American Council on Education’s Office of Women in Higher Education, and it joins with other organizations to assure an educational, social, and political environment in which women in all their diversity and richness gain a greater voice.