Last Year's Professional Achievement Award Winner: Dottie Stepien
The Nancy A. Felhofer Professional Achievement Award is presented annually in May. The award recognizes the outstanding accomplishments of a Management Women, Inc. member.
Dottie Stepien, the 2009 Nancy Felhofer Professional Achievement Award winner has achieved an astounding number of accomplishments both personally and professionally. She has always put her family first, raising two children who are now successful, service-oriented adults. In the course of that time, she also earned a doctorate, has held senior level positions in this area's institutions of higher learning, and has continually worked to promote the status of women.
Dottie is currently a Special Assistant to the Vice President for Enrollment Management and Communication at St. Norbert College , where she is conducting interesting projects and having a wonderful time working with young people. She also helps her husband, Jerry, with their business, Stepien Enterprises, which sells designer bowls and maple syrup.
For Dottie, family always comes first. She is proud to say she has been married to Jerry for 38 years, and that they have raised a daughter who is an ophthalmologist and a son who is a talented artist and who works with diverse children as an Art Education Director for the YMCA. In Dottie's words, "Exposing our children to many races and cultures through travel and friends, and to see that they have grown to be very unbiased, service-oriented, politically astute, independent thinkers is a special feeling of fulfillment."
Another remarkable personal achievement for Dottie was earning her Doctor of Education degree. She did this while working full-time and caring for her two small children. Originally, she sought the degree because she loved learning, but eventually, it led to her position as Director of the Adult Degree Program at UW Green Bay. Dottie's career in higher education presented many opportunities, but one of her most treasured was the chance to co-write and receive a $240,000 grant. With the grant, the Adult Degree Program was able to develop 10 online general education courses for Extended Degree and Nursing Students. This was accomplished at a time when online education was in its infancy and only a handful of online courses existed.
Dottie also served as an academic chair for the Interdisciplinary Studies major at UWGB and taught the Adult Learning Seminar and Capstone courses.
After retiring from UWGB, Dottie had the opportunity to serve a year as the Interim Vice President for Student Services and Operations and the Dean of Students at Bellin College of Nursing, where she revised their policies and procedures manual and rewrote the academic catalog.
She is now at St. Norbert as the Special Assistant to the Vice President for Enrollment Management and Communication and plans to stay in her role at St. Norbert as long as she is needed there. She also wants to continue helping Jerry with their business. She has returned to painting as a hobby, receiving a ribbon for her watercolor last spring. She plans to write children's books someday and also to write a story about a woman who started out in a career at a time when it wasn't easy to be a woman leader. And she would like to write about nontraditional students and their stories.
Dottie plans to remain involved with women's networking groups. Over time, she has organized or led many women's events, and has informally mentored women who were starting their careers, or working through times of duress in their lives. She is grateful for having been able to help them.
Dottie would tell any young woman launching her career, first, to know her own personal self. Be genuine and true to that image. Second, become an expert in some area, because it will make you indispensable in your career. And third, never be resistant to change. If you need more education to learn new trends or to qualify for the next job, go for it. If you need to try new things, try them. Embrace new ideas and go with them. This will allow you to keep up in a world where nothing remains static for long.
Past Award Recipients Include:
- 2008 - Dawn Collins
- 2007 - Betsy Mitchell
- 2006 - Amy Graff
- 2005 - Sandy Hupfer
- 2004 - Elyse Stackhouse
- 2003 - Patti Bacher
- 2002 - Jan Born
- 2001 - Judy Johnson
- 2000 - Carol Gibson
- 1999 - Jane Seiler
- 1998 - Nancy Felhofer
- 1997 - Sue Porath
- 1996 - Cindy Treleven
- 1995 - Carol Connell
- 1994 - Diane Roundy
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