"A Celebration of Excellence and Achievement among Women," the University of Iowa's annual tribute to the accomplishments of women at the university, will be held April 7, at 3:30 p.m. in the Senate Chamber of the Old Capitol. The event recognizes outstanding scholarship, research, service, leadership and activism among UI undergraduate, graduate, staff, and faculty women.

The Distinguished Achievement Award will be given to Jennifer Niebyl, MD. Niebyl was chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology from 1988 to 2009 and is currently a full professor and active clinician in the UI Carver College of Medicine.

Jean Y. Jew Women's Rights Award will be given to UI Sexual Misconduct Response Coordinator Monique DiCarlo, MSW.

The Distinguished Achievement Award is presented to staff or faculty members who:

• have significant years of service within the university community
• are pioneers in their work or service
• are role models for women and girls

"Young women -- or people of any age or gender, for that matter -- seeking an inspiring role model need look no further than Jennifer R. Niebyl," according to the nomination materials for the award."Through a long and distinguished career at The University of Iowa and elsewhere, she has broken down barriers, discovered and shared new biomedical knowledge, nurtured the careers of hundreds of obstetricians and gynecologists, treated countless patients, and achieved excellence."

Beyond her work teaching clinical and research skills to obstetrics and gynecology trainees, Niebyl's life offers lessons as well in perseverance. She was discouraged early on from considering a career in medicine, and then from specializing in obstetrics and gynecology. She was turned down for residencies in the field by several university hospitals because she was a woman. After graduating from Yale University Medical School in 1967, Niebyl not only specialized in her field of choice and excelled at it in positions with the New York Hospital/Cornell University Medical Center and the Johns Hopkins Hospital, but she pioneered women's leadership in the field. In 1988 she became the first woman to head a department at the UI's medical center, and only the third woman to head a department of obstetrics and gynecology in the United States.

"She has fostered the careers of so many women in this department and in the school at large that it would be nearly impossible to count them all. Dr. Niebyl was personally responsible for recruiting more women faculty members to the Carver College of Medicine than any other single individual, and the department today is made up of a majority of women faculty because of her efforts," said Kimberly K. Leslie, MD, professor and current head of Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. "Many faculty members at the University of Iowa have gone on to become leaders in the field in part because of her many efforts on their behalf."

Niebyl was profiled in the National Institutes of Health publication "Changing the Face of Medicine: Celebrating America's Women Physicians" and was featured in a 2003 exhibition about female physicians at the National Library of Medicine. In 2004 she was named a "Local Legend" by the American Medical Women's Association, and in 1997 she was inducted into the Johns Hopkins University Society of Scholars.

The Jean Y. Jew Women's Rights Award is named for a professor of anatomy who fought an uphill battle for more than a decade to defend herself against slander and sexual harassment from faculty in her department, a struggle that she ultimately won. Given annually by the Council on the Status of Women and the Women's Resource and Action Center, the award honors a faculty, staff or student member of the university community who has demonstrated outstanding effort or achievement in improving the status of women on campus.

Monique DiCarlo, MSW

This year's recipient is Monique DiCarlo, MSW. As sexual misconduct response coordinator, DiCarlo is responsible for leading the campus in fostering an environment that promotes and expedites prompt reporting of and response to sexual misconduct, stalking and domestic violence cases involving students. She will also continue to serve as the coordinating contact point to ensure that victims receive appropriate and responsive care and that the university meets its legal responsibilities and strategic goals.

DiCarlo was the UI Women's Resource and Action Center director from 1994 to 2009. During her tenure, the center created programs that taught social justice skills like Iowa Women Initiating Social Change and the Social Change Training Program, provided resources such as diversity conferences and dialogue circles and a support group facilitators training curriculum. DiCarlo more recently established the Iowa N.E.W Leadership Institute, which engages undergraduate women in public service, and the Men's Anti-violence Council, a program that teaches bystander intervention.

"I have seen her serve spaghetti, paint walls, demand fairness, generate excitement and enthusiasm among crowds of people and raise a great deal of money for WRAC through ingenious fund raising and philanthropic development and cultivation,: said Rachel Williams, UI associate professor of art education, in a nomination letter for the Jean Jew award "I have seen her comfort and counsel others and negotiate social situations where a lot is at stake. I believe she is inspirational to students on campus. She is amazing."

DiCarlo is an adjunct instructor in the School of Social Work in the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. She has also worked with an array of community organizations and initiatives, including the YWCA in the Quad Cities, Iowa Shares and the Iowa City Council Task Force on Violence Against Women.

"Her dedication to women and students at The University of Iowa is contagious and so are the efforts she has made to improve their lives. Our university would not be the same without her and neither would my college experience," said UI student Miranda Welch, who worked with DiCarlo as a WRAC board member. "As an undergraduate student at Iowa, I am particularly thankful for the work Monique has done to foster equality, safety and access to resources for women in the community.

Jennifer Niebyl, MD

Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology

UI Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine

Monique DiCarlo, MSW

Kimberly K. Leslie, MD

Council on the Status of Women

Women's Resource and Action Center

School of Social Work