Pair From MUW to Be Honored

COLUMBUS, Miss. — Mississippi University for Women professor, Mary Jo Kirkpatrick, and student, Janette Hreish, will be recognized at the Higher Education Appreciation Day, Working for Academic Excellence (HEADWAE) Tuesday, Feb. 17.

Kirkpatrick has been a faculty member at The W for 39 years and is director of the associate of science in nursing program. She is the 2014 MUW Faculty Member of the Year and was recently honored as the Nursing Administrator of the Year by the Mississippi Nurses’ Association. Kirkpatrick has served as president of the Mississippi Organization for Associate Degree Nursing and currently is a member of the Methodist/LeBonheur Healthcare Board of Directors.

Hreish is a senior speech-language pathology major. She is president of the National Student Speech-Language-Hearing Association and is a member of Lantern, Phi Kappa Phi, Aristos and Mortar Board honor societies. Hreish is also president of the Lockheart Social Club and a founder of the MUW International Justice Mission Chapter.

The Appreciation Day, hosted by the Legislature each February in Jackson, is the Legislature’s way of showing its gratitude to these students and faculty for their commitment to the future of Mississippi.

The honorees will visit the State Capitol, where they will be welcomed by the lieutenant governor and recognized in each chamber of the Legislature. A luncheon will follow, where each faculty member and student is recognized by name in front of their guests, institution leaders, corporate sponsors and legislators.

One faculty and student honoree are annually selected from each of the 36 public and private member institutions of the Mississippi Association of Colleges to participate in the Appreciation Day activities. Additionally, the generosity of the corporate sponsors provides for each honoree to be accompanied to the luncheon by two guests.

HEADWAE was established in 1987 to honor individual academic achievement and the overall contribution of the state’s Institutions of Higher Learning. For more information about HEADWAE, visit http://www.mississippi.edu/headwae/.