Angela McMahon awarded the 2006 Carolyn Desjardins Leadership Award
The mission of the Oregon Chapter of the American Association for Women in Community Colleges is to inspire, champion, and celebrate the talents within each of us. To recognize and celebrate this mission, the AAWCC Board of Directors awarded the 2006 Carolyn DesJardins Leadership Award to Angela McMahon, Manager of the Computer Technology Program at Portland YouthBuilders.
Angela has been involved in AAWCC for many years and has done incredible work on the AAWCC fall conference for the past five conferences. Her creativity and organizational skills are a model for all of the women working on the conferences with her. In 2006, Angela truly saved the conference by willingly and energetically stepping in as conference chair at the last minute.
Angela was conference chair for three conferences and raised the quality of our conferences through her creative ideas, her search for great keynote speakers, and her sensitivity to what community college women want to learn about. Through her work on five conferences, she has positively influenced the professional development and leadership skills of approximately 500 women. Without her involvement, we would not have experienced the same level of inspiration and connection through our attendance at AAWCC fall conference.
Angela is also an incredible web goddess for Oregon AAWCC. She is always available to research and explore ideas, make changes, and suggest improvements for the organization’s web presence. She has created a well-designed, user friendly space for women to learn about AAWCC and become involved.
Angela started her community college career at Portland CC in 1992 working for long-time AAWCC leaders Alice Jacobson and Angela Ritchie. Their support of her attendance at the 1994 Leader’s Institute was the beginning of her introduction to AAWCC-Oregon. Angela worked coordinating classrooms and events for Sylvania campus for four years, then moved on to serve the district as a technology trainer. In 2000 Angela was selected to lead the Technology Training Team, and received additional responsibility for managing the Computer Help Desk and the Information Technology Department’s Administrative Support team in 2004. In October of 2005 Angela moved to Portland YouthBuilders to head up a new vocational training program at the alternative high school for low income youth.
Angela’s former co-workers at PCC describe her as fun, committed to excellence, and generous with her time and talents. She is a supportive supervisor, creative problem solver, and great fun to have as part of the team.
It is impossible to express all the ways that Angela has inspired and championed women through her work at PCC, her work with youth, and her work with AAWCC. She is a true professional and a very fun woman to work with! She is well deserving of this award.
Previous winners of the Carolyn DesJardins Leadership Award also include Carol Schaafsma, Terri Johanson, Brenda Brecke, Carolyn DesJardins, Nikki Harrington, Alice Jacobson, Marcia Keith, Rebecca Kenney, Dan Moriarity, Mary Spilde, Stephanie Sussman, Gretchen Schuette, and Nan Poppe.
Nominations for the 2007 Carolyn DesJardins Award are open until November 2007. (Read more about the nomination process.)