The 2015 honorees include faculty and staff members; administrators; members of the UCF Board of Trustees; and Judy Thames, president of LIFE at UCF. This is the third year the center has recognized women around campus during March.

“They’re all different and all amazing in how they have contributed to UCF’s past, present and future,” said Linda Walters, director of the center.

To honor the work by all women on campus, the month-long observance will feature one woman with a Q&A each day on the center’s website. All of their photos and Q&As will be archived on the website, and they are given a certificate. They also will have the opportunity to join President John C. Hitt and First Lady Martha Hitt for lunch.

“Women’s History Month is a national celebration of the important, but sometimes overlooked, roles women have played in our history,” Walters said. “We have our executive board nominate notable women across campus each year for us to celebrate and learn more about.”

The center offers resources to help women succeed in academic life and balance their life and work issues.

There were family-leave workshops for those thinking about starting a family, but there was no grassroots network to help parents who might need a referral for a pediatrician or a good babysitter near campus. And there was no vehicle for discussing topics such as how to correct hundreds of essays while with a teething 1-year-old demanding attention.

She thought back to her days of graduate school in California and recalled the well-known Berkeley Parents Network, which was available to all university employees  with children in the San Francisco Bay Area.

“It was such a wonderful resource,” Reyes-Foster said. “When I had my first child and arrived at UCF I thought, why can’t we have something like that here.”

The Berkeley Parents Network, started by a graduate student in 1993, offers university parents throughout the Bay Area – more than 32,000 – a host or resources all through email and more recently through a website. Need a last minute babysitter, pediatrician referral or tips on managing your work and personal life? You can find all that on the network, and because many members are academics, there are often in-depth discussions about studies on paid family leave, child development and special education.

Never one to sit around waiting for things to happen, Reyes-Foster launched the UCF Faculty Parents Network on Facebook in 2011 with the support of the UCF Center for Success of Women Faculty.

The UCF page currently has about 85 members that range from staff to full professors. It’s a closed group, which means people have to ask to be accepted, but being a faculty member or employee at UCF is all that’s needed to gain entry.

The group is a mix of men and women, and the topics covered run the gamut, Reyes-Foster said. Just in the past four months the topics covered by participants have included: a new study on the impact of fluoride on neurological development in children, adjunct pay, declining birthrates, information on free theatre performances around town, and several giveaways of gently used baby furniture.

“This is a great resource,” said Linda Walters, director of the UCF Center for Success of Women Faculty. “The page generates healthy discussion about a broad range of topics and also offers members a place to discuss sometimes sensitive topics with people who have gone through the same process and can provide valuable information.”

Currently the network focuses on families with younger children, but Walters would love to see that be expanded to include middle school and high school issues.

Reyes-Foster last year also scheduled a few on-campus meetings based on topics of interest from the Facebook page and playdates for some of the members and their children on weekends.

“It’s a work in process, but I know the folks that are active on the page seem to really enjoy it,” she said.

Walters said she hopes to see the page grow in popularity and that the interactions on the page will translate into real-world interactions, which helps build community.

“This is just the beginning and we’re very excited to have lots of people on board,” Walters said.

Anyone who is on the UCF faculty or staff and is interested in joining this group can search for “UCF Faculty Parents Network” on Facebook or contact Reyes-Foster at beatriz.reyes-foster@ucf.edu.”

“We have some amazing women here and I’m guessing most of our UCF community doesn’t know most of them,” said Linda Walters, the center’s interim director. “Studies show women tend not to promote themselves and their achievements, but they are truly an important part of our university’s success.”

The center’s mission is to recruit and retain the best women faculty and help them advance in their careers. The center offers an array of resources to help faculty women navigate academic life and balance life and work issues.

The March campaign is one way to recognize the contributions women faculty and staff make. That’s why one woman will be featured on the center’s website every day throughout the month. The center’s program assistant, Fran Ragsdale, came up with the idea, and  the executive council made the nominations and selected the winners. Council members excluded themselves from consideration.

Among the winners that will be featured:

Dr. Debra Reinhart, Pegasus Professor in Engineering currently on assignment at the National Science Foundation as a program director for the Environmental Engineering Program. Reinhart has a long history with UCF. She graduated from the university when it was called Florida Technological şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą.  She left to start her academic career and returned in 1989. She moved through the ranks from an assistant professor to full professor before becoming an associate dean, interim chair and interim director of the NanoScience Technology Center. At UCF, Reinhart’s current position is assistant vice president for research and commercialization for the UCF Office of Research and Commercialization.

Maggie Leclair, an assistant to the dean of the College of Sciences. She previously was an administrative assistant in the Nicholson School of Communication. She’s a long-time UCF employee and supporter and  has a special place in her heart for the College of Medicine. She purchased a brick in the school’s plaza in honor of her mother, Betsy Coull, a nurse who spent her life taking care of others. “Maggie” is best known to many as the past-president of the UCF Women’s Club, and chief fundraiser for their undergraduate and graduate student scholarships.

Dr. Maren Fragala, an assistant professor of Sport and Exercise Science. She joined the UCF family two years ago and has already been making an impact with the local geriatric community. As part of her research, she’s investigating an exercise program that improves muscle quality in older adults. At the end of phase one of her study she found all her participants had improved. She hopes one day UCF will expand its Institute of Exercise Physiology and Wellness to create a world class Center for Healthy Aging and Faculty Wellness Research Center where all the equipment and resources are available to extend UCF exercise training programs to any older adult and faculty member free of charge.

After being known for more than a decade as the Women’s Research Center, the group was renamed a few weeks ago to better reflect the organization’s goals.

And now, the group is taking its new mission outward to offer its services and to encourage excellence in scholarship, research and creativity in all endeavors related to women.

“Our mission is more than just research. Our goal is to help UCF recruit and retain the best women faculty and help them become even more successful,” said Linda Walters, a biology professor and interim director of the center. “We’re doing that by building community – especially in departments where they may be isolated as the sole woman faculty member – and helping balance life and work issues.”

The revamped center is trying to reach its objectives by mentoring, sponsoring events to improve professional capabilities, and providing resources, said Walters, who has been the interim director about a year and who kick-started the center’s changes.

The center housed in Classroom Building 1 now schedules speakers, leadership workshops, seminars, book-club gatherings, self-defense and yoga classes, CPR training, and other activities. A faculty development conference is planned for May.

The center’s new website also highlights the achievements of women faculty members. Just this week, a link was added that recognizes women faculty who have authored or edited books within the past three years. There are 21 women listed so far whose works range from research to fiction to poetry; others with books are asked to inform the center.

Fran Ragsdale, program assistant at the center, said the organization also wants to increase the ratio of women faculty members at UCF.

This semester there were 1,011 male faculty members and 662 women faculty members, she said.

Hiring of new faculty for the fall semester was an improvement in the ratio, she said, with 44 men and 40 women.

Walters said that 25 percent of all women faculty members have been directly involved with the center in the past year, but she’s shooting for more.

“My goal is to now make it so everyone has heard of this center, and for those who need it, use it.”

More information about the center and its events can be found at womens.research.ucf.edu. To see a gallery of the women faculty who have authored or edited books, click on the Highlighted Faculty link.