Three at Florida Tech Earn Women’s History Awards

– Two students and a faculty member earned Florida Tech’s annual Joan Bixby Women’s History Award. The winners are students, Paola Lopez-Duarte and Erin
Pelletier, and College of Business Professor Shirley A. “Annie” Becker.

Presented by the Office of Student Life, the awards recognize students, faculty and staff members (male or female) who have enhanced the climate for
women’s participation and development at the university.

Lopez-Duarte will transfer from a master’s to a doctoral program in marine biology this fall. At this spring’s Honors Convocation, she earned a Department
of Biological Sciences Outstanding Graduate Student award.

Pelletier, of Windham, N.H., earned a bachelor’s degree in marine biology in May. She was chairman of the university’s award-winning Relay for Life
campaign, supporting the American Cancer Society, in 2005.

Becker, director of the National Center for Small Business Information (NCSBI), initiated the Florida Tech chapter of the Association for Women in
Computing. One of Becker’s areas of focus for the NCSBI is networking for women.

The award, established in 2003, is named in honor of Florida Tech alumna and former administrator, Joan Bixby, a Melbourne resident. Bixby, who earned a
master’s degree in contract and procurement management in 1975, started her university career as development director in 1965. She left Florida Tech’s
employ in 1975 and remains an active member of the university community.