Estella Atekwana

The SEG (Society of Exploration Geophysicists) has announced its 2016 Honors & Awards recipients. Estella Atekwana was this year honored with SEG’s Outstanding Educator Award along with Roel Snieder.

Professor Atekwana is a Regents’ Professor of geology, Sun Chair-professor, and Director of the Boone-Pickens School of Geology at the Oklahoma State University. She has strived to promote training as well as professional development opportunities for students, especially in the field of field research.

In the opinion of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists Honors and Awards Committee, Estella Atekwana’s mentorship skills in the field resulted in a professional, liaison and nurturing relationship with her students.

Dr. Atekwana holds both a Bachelors & Master’s degree from Howard University located in Washington, D.C. She then earned a Ph.D. at Dalhousie-University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Professor Atekwana joined the faculty of Geology at Oklahoma State in 2008.

The SEG is the international society of applied geophysics and a not-for-profit organization which aims to promote the science of geophysics as well as the education of applied geophysicists.

Nikki Giovanni

Nikki Giovanni, world-renowned poet, educator, commentator, activist, and author, has been selected to receive the-2016 Literary Lifetime Achievement-Award from the Library of Virginia.

The award recognizes outstanding & long lasting contributions made to literature by authors with Virginia ties. The past recipients of the Award include Edgar Allan Poe, Tom Wolfe, William Styron, Rita Dove, John Grisham, Booker T. Washington, and Barbara Kingsolver.

Giovanni is the author of more than two-dozen volumes of poetry, essays, works of nonfiction, and edited anthologies as well as 11-illustrated children’s books, including “Rosa,” an award winning biography of Rosa Parks.

Nikki Giovanni has been named a “National Treasure” and is-one of Oprah Winfrey’s “Living Legends.” The recipient of some 25 honorary degrees, Nikki has been named Woman of the Year by The Ladies Home Journal, Mademoiselle, and Ebony magazine.

The inaugural Rosa L.Parks Woman of Courage Award recipient, she was also honored with the Langston Hughes Medal for poetry.

Giovanni is the Gloria D. Smith-Professor of Black Studies and also a University Distinguished English Professor in the Virginia Tech’s College of Liberal Arts & Human Sciences.

She joined the English faculty at Virginia Tech in 1987 as a Commonwealth Visiting Professor and later became a full-professor in 1989. She is a graduate of Fisk-University in Nashville, Tennessee.

Renowned particularly for her poetry, Nikki has long used her literary-gifts to raise awareness of social issues, especially those of gender and race. A devoted teacher, Nikki Giovanni has been a poet-in-residence and visiting professor at numerous colleges, where she encourages students of all-ages to creatively express themselves through writing.

Giovanni will receive her Award honor on October 15 at the 19th-Annual Library of Virginia Literary-Awards Celebration to be held in Richmond. The celebration will be part of the week-long Virginia Literary Festival.