Professor Robin Mermelstein Awarded UIC Chancellor’s Woman of the Year Honor
Professor Robin Mermelstein of the LAS department of psychology has been awarded the 2014 Woman of the Year honor by the UIC Chancellor's Committee on the Status of Women. Professor Mermelstein joined UIC in 1987 and, in 2008, became director of the Institute for Health Research and Policy. The press release notes that through Dr. Mermelstein's leadership, the Institute for Health Research and Policy became the largest research institute of the University of Illinois at Chicago and, in 2014, was awarded more than $18 million in external research funding, ranking it among the top UIC campus departments for research productivity. Dr. Mermelstein has dedicated her research career to women's health, with her main focus falling broadly in the area of tobacco use, with studies ranging from longitudinal examinations of the etiology of youth smoking to cessation interventions for adult smokers.
The Woman of the Year award was established in 1992 to honor a UIC woman who has consistently worked on women's issues beyond the call of duty and who is an exemplary role model. The award criteria include providing service to women at UIC while on the job, responding to issues affecting women, and offering service to women through voluntarism and public support of women's programs.
The Woman of the Year reception will be held on March 5, 2015.