The Distinguished Career Award is based on distinguished and meritorious service and achievement in career and life in general. Nominees must be a graduate or former student of the university.
William Penn University provided the foundation for alumna Dot Finnegan to be an instructor, researcher, and student advocate throughout her life. Dot graduated from William Penn (College) in 1969 with a Sociology and Physical Education Bachelor of Arts degree. She went on to receive her Masters in Cultural Anthropology with a minor in Sociology from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. Continuing her degree path, she received her Doctor of Arts in Social Anthropology from Western Colorado University in Grand Junction, Colorado and a Doctor of Philosophy in Higher Education with cognate in Cultural Anthropology from Pennsylvania State University in University Park, Pennsylvania.
From 1970 to 1984 at Colby-Sawyer College in New London, New Hampshire, Dot taught undergraduates, serving as Associate Dean of Faculty during her last two years there. She spent the next four years as an academic dean and associate professor at La Roche College in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. While a PhD student at Penn State, she served as a graduate assistant and as a researcher at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. Shifting to teaching and advising master’s and doctoral students, Dot spent a year and a half at Oklahoma State University as an Assistant Professor of Education, Higher Education Program. Being called to The College of William and Mary in 1993, she taught in the School of Education where she retired in 2013 and was awarded the status of Professor Emerita.
Over the years she has received recognition awards, served on review and advisory boards and held offices in several professional societies. She has been awarded fellowships and grants for her research projects and has numerous publications and chapters. One such research project, A Potent Influence: the YMCA and YWCA at Penn College, 1882-1920s was published in The Annals of Iowa. She continues her research ‘work-in-progress’ in three areas: History of the School of Education Project, History of the Campus YMCA Movement Project and the History of the YMCA Educational Programs & Colleges Project.
She has lived in seven states and Ireland; and with her late husband, they lived in Belgium, The Netherlands and France. She currently resides in Williamsburg, Virginia. She serves as the secretary for the local Master Gardener Association and plays pool every week with a group of retired professionals.
Your success is an achievement. Your career accomplishments make you a deserving recipient of the William Penn University Distinguished Career Award for 2024.