|
|
Name: Sarah Nell Davidson |
| I would like to nominate Sarah Davidson-Evanega. Around Ithaca, Sarah may be best recognized as the roller derby skater "Sara Bellum" for the Ithaca League of Women Rollers (ILWR). This is just the tip of the iceberg. For the past several years, Sarah has been a real mover and shaker for the league. She is a founding member of ILWR, serves as the league Secretary, and is currently the Chair of the PR, Marketing, and Merchandising Committee. ILWR has taken Ithaca by storm, being voted "Best Sports Team" for 2010 and bringing in close to 1,000 spectators for some games. Spectators run the gamut of all ages and backgrounds, and the bouts have become cohesive community events. The teams also are involved in a number of local charitable causes. For the skaters, this opportunity to be on a team and practice athleticism is one rarely afforded to women beyond college. ILWR has grown every year - starting with one team three years ago and now with two great teams and New York's FIRST Junior Roller Derby team. In her professional life, Sarah is the Associate Director of the Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat Project, as well as Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics at Cornell University. The Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat Project involves an international collaboration of 20 institutions around the world and aims to mitigate the threat of the most devastating disease of wheat—stem rust (a fungus that is thought to have caused biblical plagues, contributed to the fall of the Roman Empire, and other major historical havoc). One aspect of Sarah's job is also to lead the project's gender initiative, which is trying to recruit more young women to work in the field of wheat breeding (a field heavily dominated by men) and to invest in plant breeding technologies that lessen the "work-life" barriers for women to enter this field. She is part of a team working with plant breeders to develop varieties of wheat that are more "women farmer friendly" and will benefit small scale women farmers in Ethiopia and India. (Traits related to harvest, threshing, milling and cooking qualities often have significant impact on women's lives and are too often forgotten by many plant breeders.) In short, I nominate Sarah for being a founding member and whirlwind force for ILWR - an organization that helps make Ithaca a fun and opportunity-filled place to be - and for her work on addressing needs of humans around the world by investigating ways to develop one of the world's major grains to be more hearty and useful. Nominated by Jeff Luoma Bio: Sarah originally hails from a small square village of 300 people in rural northwest Illinois, Rock City. She spent her early adult years on the West coast, receiving a BA in Biology from Reed College in Portland, Oregon; with brief stints in Venice Beach, California, Tucson, Arizona; and Ecuador. She moved east to Ithaca to pursue a PhD in Plant Biology, which she received in 2008 from Cornell University. While in graduate school, Sarah co-founded Science Cabaret in 2005—an eclectic cocktail of science and entertainment still entertaining Ithaca today both live and on air, but under new leadership. Sarah is also a co-founder and skater for the Ithaca League of Women Rollers—Ithaca’s beloved all-women’s roller derby team. Under the derby moniker “Sarabellum” she, along with many others, founded the league’s Flagship team, the Ithaca SufferJets in 2007 on the basis of celebrating the strength of women through the mental and physical challenges of the sport of roller derby. Professionally, she serves as Associate Director of the Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat (DRRW) project in the College of Agriculture at Cornell University. The DRRW project is a multi-million dollar project based at Cornell University and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to mitigate the threat of one of the most threatening diseases of wheat, called stem rust. In addition to managing the scientific objectives of this project that involves collaborators at roughly 20 institutions world-wide, she also manages the project’s gender initiative--a rewarding experience both locally and internationally. On a local level, she works with female graduate students at Cornell that contribute to the project through their own career development. On an international level she works to recruit and retain women worldwide who are working in the still male-dominated field of wheat breeding. Through the project, Sarah and her partners strive to identify and invest in technologies that will lessen the work-life conflict that has prevented wheat breeders in the past from balancing their family life with their careers as wheat breeders. In addition, Sarah leads an effort to increase wheat breeders’ awareness of wheat traits that important to resource-poor women farmers in southern India and Ethiopia in securing their households and livelihoods. As an adjunct assistant professor in the department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Sarah co-teaches a module on Plant Biotechnology, and writing courses through the Freshman Writing Program at Cornell and through the West African Center for Crop Improvement in Ghana, Having grown up in an environment of creativity, encouragement and empowerment, Sarah seeks ways to help less fortunate women find skills and resources that will increase their own capabilities and opportunities. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
