Awards

Each year, Sweet Briar presents two awards to alumnae.

Sweet Briar College Outstanding Alumna Award

This award, established in 1968 in honor for Sweet Briar’s first graduating class, the Class of 1910, may be given to graduate alumnae who have been out of college for at least 15 years in recognition of their outstanding service to Sweet Briar in a volunteer capacity. Nominations are invited from any member of the Sweet Briar family: alumnae, faculty, staff, students and the Sweet Briar College Board of Directors.

Past Outstanding Alumna Award Recipients

2025: Brianna Meighan De Hanna ’05
2024: Leaders of the Class of 1964 - Ginny deBuys ’64, VM Galgano ’64, M.C. Harrell ’64, and Hedi White ’64
2023: Suzanne Stryker Ullrich ’78
2022: Susan Snodgrass Wynne ’72
2021: Sweet Work Weeks Leaders - Ann Gateley ’70, Kathy Garcia Pegues ’71, Vikki Schroeder ’87
2019: Cheri Burritt Yates ’84
2018: Karen Hartnett ’70
2016: Debra Elkins ’93
2016: Sarah vonRosenberg ’72
2015: Frances Ann Root ’80
2015: Frances “Fran” McClung Ferguson ’80
2014: Ann Stuart McKie Kling ’74
2013: Diane Dale Reiling ’73
2012: Nancy Hudler Keuffel ’62
2012: Diane Dalton ’67
2011: Sally Old Kitchin ’76
2010: Elvira McMillan Tate ’65
2009: Mary “Mollie” Johnson Nelson ’64
2008: Elizabeth “Betty” Stanly Cates ’63
2007: Nancy Godwin Baldwin ’57
2006: Martha Mansfield Clement ’48
2005: Norma Patteson Mills ’60
2004: Elizabeth “Betsy” Smith White ’59
2003: Ethel Ogden Burwell ’58
2002: Ann Morrison Reams ’42
2002: Elizabeth Bond Wood ’34
2001: Nannette McBurney Crowdus ’57
2000: Sara Finnegan Lycett ’61
1999: Allison “Allie” Stemmons Simon ’63
1998: Elizabeth Trueheart Harris ’49
1997: Julia Mills Jacobsen ’45
1996: Alice Cary Farmer Brown ’59
1995: Helen Murchison Lane ’46
1995: Adeline Jones Voorhees ’46
1994: Clare Newman Blanchard ’60
1994: Mildred “Bee” Newman Thayer ’61
1993: Ann Samford Upchurch ’48
1992: Catherine “Bunny” Barnett Brown ’49
1991: Sarah Shallenberger Brown ’32
1990: Margaret “Peggy” Sheffield Martin ’48
1989: Anne Noyes Awtrey Lewis ’43
1989: Catharine Fitzgerald Booker ’47
1988: Evelyn Dillard Grones ’45
1987: Julia Gray Saunders Michaux ’39
1986: Adelaide Boze Glascock ’40
1986: Sarah Adams Bush ’43
1985: Julia Sadler de Coligny ’34
1984: Nancy Dowd Burton ’46
1984: Jane Roseberry Ewald Tolleson ’52
1983: Mary Elizabeth Doucett Neill ’41
1982: Preston Hodges Hill ’49
1981: Ann Marshall Whitley ’47
1980: Dale Hutter Harris ’53
1979: Martha Lou Lemmon Stohlman ’34
1978: Dorothy Nicholson Tate ’38
1977: Martha von Briesen ’31
1977: Jacquelyn Strickland Dwelle ’35
1976: Juliet Halliburton Burnett Davis ’35
1975: Elizabeth Prescott Balch ’28
1974: Florence Freeman Fowler ’19
1974: Helen McMahon ’23
1973: Edith Durrell Marshall ’21
1972: Phoebe Rowe Peters ’31
1971: Mary Huntington Harrison ’30
1970: Gladys Wester Horton ’30
1969: Edna Lee Gilchrist ’26
1968: Sweet Briar’s First Graduates, the Class of 1910 - Anne Cumnock Miller ’10, Eugenia Griffin Burnett ’10, Louise Hooper Ewell ’10, Frances Murrell Rickards ’10, Annie M. Powell Hodges ’10

Sweet Briar College Distinguished Alumna Award

The Distinguished Alumna Award was established in 1988 to honor alumnae who have brought distinction to themselves and to Sweet Briar College through outstanding accomplishment in a volunteer or professional capacity. Nominations are invited from any member of the Sweet Briar family: alumnae, faculty, staff, students and the Sweet Briar College Board of Directors.

Please use the form below to submit a nomination for the Outstanding or Distinguished Alumna Award.

Past Distinguished Alumna Award Recipients

2025: Ellen Harrison Saunders ’75
2025: Katie Maxwell Schellhammer ’95
2024: Kathleen S. Kilpatrick ’74 and Sherrie A. McLeRoy ’74
2023: Laura Lee Brown ’63
2022: Celia Williams Dunn ’61
2021: Nan Stuart ’75
2020: Lucy Martin Gianino ’60
2019: Mimi Garrard ’58
2018: Bonnie Pittman ’68
2017: Aileen “Ninie” Laing ’57
2016: Board of Directors of Saving Sweet Briar Inc. - Sarah Preston Clement ’75, Christine Davis Boulware ’77, Sally Mott Freeman ’76, Jo Ann Soderquist Kramer ’64, Ellen Ober Pitera ’93, Tracy Anne Stuart ’93, Brooke Linville ’04
2015: Given to the seven members of the Board of Directors of Saving Sweet Briar Inc. in early 2016
2014: Carolyn M. Leddy ’98
2013: Michaela English ’71
2012: Elaine Schuster ’58
2011: Teresa Pike Tomlinson ’87
2010: Sarah Porter Boehmler ’65
2009: Not Awarded?
2008: Patricia “Patsy” Ticer Smith ’55
2007: Gay Hart Gaines ’59
2006: Elizabeth Perkins Prothro ’39
2005: Jo Ann Soderquist Kramer ’64
2004: Anne Litle Poulet ’64
2003: Elizabeth Morton Forsyth ’36
2002: Nella G. Barkley ’55
2001: Joanne Holbrook Patton ’52
2000: Connie Burwell White ’34
1999: Patricia Traugott Rouse ’48
1998: Katharine Crommelin Milton ’62
1997: Georgene M. Vairo ’72
1996: Beryl Bergquist Farris ’71
1995: Joan Vail Thorne ’51
1994: Anna “Chips” Chao Pai ’57
1993: Molly Haskell Sarris ’61
1992: Marshalyn Yeargin-Allsopp, M.D. ’68
1991: Ann Henderson Bannard ’49
1991: Sadie Gwin Allen Blackburn ’45
1990: Virginia Upchurch Collier ’72
1990: Katherine Upchurch Takvorian ’72
1989: Hallam Hurt, M.D. ’67
1988: Dorothy Bottom Duffy ’49
1988: Diana Muldaur ’60
1988: Karin Lawson ’74