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Women in the Curriculum / Women's Studies

Maryann Hartman Awards

1993 Award Winners
Honoring three Maine women

Joan Brooks

Joan Brooks had been out of school for 22 years and was raising seven children when she decided to take courses at the University of Maine to complete her Bachelor's degree in Chemistry started at St. Mary's Dominic College in New Orleans, Louisiana. She then went on to obtain her Master's in Resource Utilization and an individualized Ph.D. in Peat Engineering and Science from the University of Maine. While still a graduate student, Brooks received a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation to expand her master's thesis on peat waste management. She now works locally and globally in conservation and waste management. She has received numerous awards including the Todd Andrews Personal Award, an international award presented by the Irish Peat Board for outstanding achievement in peat engineering and science. At the time of the award she was a Research Associate in the Department of Civil Engineering and the University of Maine and ran her own consulting firm, Brooks Technologies.

Mary (Winnie) MacDonald

After graduating from the University of Maine in 1972, Winnie MacDonald worked as a retailer for I. Magnin and Nieman Marcus stores, among others. She moved to Maine several years ago to be near to her family and settled in Portland. MacDonald was infected with the HIV virus in 1982, but was not diagnosed until she had AIDS, seven years later. Determined to help others protect themselves from the disease, MacDonald donated her time to AIDS organizing, activism, and education. She visited schools to talk with children about practicing safe sex, participated in the AIDS quilt project, and served as a board member of the People With AIDS Coalition. She helped organize the Portland AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT-UP) and was a founding member of Women, AIDS and Power (WAP), a Maine advocacy group for women with HIV/AIDS. WAP's first conference- "Voices of Women with HIV"- attracted over 120 people from three states. She died in February, 1994.

Mary Philbrook

Mary Philbrook was the first woman to be elected leader of the Maine Micmacs when she was elected tribal leader of the Aroostook band in 1989. While she was working full-time for a news clipping service to help support her family of six children and two foster children, Philbrook actively and effectively lobbied the U.S. government for federal recognition of the Aroostook band of Micmacs. Her efforts were successful and in 1992 the Aroostook Band of Micmacs Settlement Act amended the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act of 1980. Because the Micmacs had not been recognized previously and did not live on a reservation, the benefits available to other tribes had never been available to them. Philbrook became a paid tribal employee in 1992 and has been instrumental in developing health care, housing, and clean water programs for her tribe. In 1992, she received the Citizen of the year Award in Presque Isle.

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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