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Women in the Curriculum / Women's Studies

Maryann Hartman Awards

2004 Award Winners
Honoring three Maine women

Denise Altvater :

As Director of the Wabanaki Youth Program of the American Friends Service Committee, Denise Altvater of Perry has drawn on traditional practices to assist Wabanaki youth in developing a sense of cultural and personal pride and to nurture cultural exchanges between native and non-native youth. She is one of the primary organizers of the annual Youth Wellness Institute and has helped to create the Wabanaki Youth Alliance. Along with others who had been placed in foster homes as children, she helped train Maine Department of Human Services workers in how to comply with the 1978 federal law designed to reduce the high number of native children being sent to live with non-native families. In 2001, she received a Ford Foundation Leadership Award.

Vivianne Holmes :

Cooperative Extension agent and farmer, Vivianne Holmes of Buckfield has mentored, organized, and advocated for Maine women farmers for over 25 years. She was instrumental in organizing the Women in Agriculture Network within Maine and New England. Using workshops, conferences, and farm tours, Holmes has provided Maine women farmers with the knowledge of how to gain access to capital and implement the most current agricultural practices. She is a founding member of Daughters of Yarrow, a study/support group for lesbian farmers, and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Maine Women's Fund.

Leigh Saufley :

Leigh Saufley of Portland is the first woman ever to serve as Chief Justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court and the youngest Chief Justice in Maine's history. A graduate of the University of Maine (1976) and the University of Maine School of Law (1980), she serviced as one of Maine's fist female deputy attorneys general. She was appointed to serve on the Maine District Court (1990), the Maine Superior Court (1993), and the Supreme Judicial Court (1997) before being appointed Chief Justice in 2001. As Justice, Saufley has been particularly concerned with the issue of domestic violence, as well as the safety and accessibility of the courts.

Winner of the Young Women's Social Justice Award: Safia Nur

Safia Nur was eighteen years old when she first came to Lewiston, Maine. She was one of the first Muslim students to attend the Bowdoin College Upward Bound residential program. Subsequently trained by the Center for the Prevention of Hate Violence, she worked in her school and community to organize the pro-diversity rally against white supremacists in January 2003. She spoke eloquently at that rally about her belief in equality and the need for change. Nur is currently a student at the University of Maine majoring in International Affairs.

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Women in the Curriculum
Women's Studies Program
101 Fernald Hall
University of Maine
Orono, ME 04469
Phone: 581-1228
E-mail: Angela.Hart@umit.maine.edu