Diane McNulty MS’78, PhD’84, associate dean of external relations, communications and corporate development in the Naveen Jindal School of Management (JSOM) at The University of Texas at Dallas, received a lifetime achievement award from the DFW Alliance of Technology and Women.
In her more than three decades of service at UT Dallas, McNulty began and built the communications and development departments in JSOM. The award recognized McNulty for those efforts as well as her longtime dedication to empowering women and her service to the alliance, which presented the award at its 2021 Women in Tech Summit on Sept. 28.
“Her tireless leadership has increased the Jindal School’s visibility, advanced its development and fundraising efforts, and helped secure its prominence as a top-tier teaching and research institution. I could not ask for a better advocate,” said Dr. Hasan Pirkul, JSOM dean and Caruth Chair. “Young women and men will find an excellent role model in her.”
The alliance is a nonprofit organization committed to increasing the number of women in leadership and strengthening the pipeline of girls entering technology fields. Membership is open to women and men who encourage women and girls to follow their passion for — and seek careers in — technology.
As a clinical professor of organizations, strategy and international management, McNulty teaches courses in corporate governance and ethics in international business, and her research efforts focus on those topics, as well as the study of executive women and their participation on public corporate boards of directors.
McNulty has served in many roles for the nonpartisan, nonprofit Public Affairs Council as well as the World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth, where she was elected to its Mallon Circle this year. She has been a member of the Texas Business Hall of Fame Foundation board of directors, for which she is vice president for scholar award and endowment. McNulty also has received awards from the American Heart Association and the Dallas Business Journal.
Chemistry Professor Receives 2021 Doherty Award
Dr. Mihaela Stefan, Eugene McDermott Professor and interim head of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at The University of Texas at Dallas, received the 2021 Wilfred T. Doherty Award from the American Chemical Society (ACS) Dallas-Fort Worth local section.
The award recognizes excellence in chemical research or chemistry teaching, meritorious service to ACS, the establishment of new chemical methodology for the industry, solutions to pollution problems and advances in curative or preventive chemotherapy.
“I am truly honored to be selected as the winner of the Wilfred T. Doherty Award, and I am in good company with my chemistry colleagues who’ve won this award in the past,” said Stefan, who also is the 2021 chair-elect of ACS DFW’s executive committee.
“Next year will mark 50 years since the first Wilfred T. Doherty Award was given in 1972,” Stefan said. “To celebrate this important milestone, I will co-organize the 2022 50th Year Celebration of the ACS-DFW Wilfred T. Doherty Awards symposium at the Southwest Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society.”
Doherty was one of the founding trustees and later president of The Welch Foundation, a Texas-based philanthropic organization and one of the nation’s largest sources of private funding for basic chemical research. Portraits of all the Doherty Award winners at UT Dallas are displayed in a gallery in Lloyd V. Berkner Hall.
Stefan, who joined the UT Dallas faculty in 2007, has published more than 135 papers in peer-reviewed journals and mentored 22 PhD students and more than 125 undergraduates. Her research focuses on the synthesis and characterization of novel polymeric materials for organic electronics and medical applications.
Stefan has received several UT Dallas honors for teaching and mentoring excellence, including the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics Outstanding Teacher Award in 2009 and 2017; the Inclusive Teaching Diversity Award in 2012; the President’s Teaching Excellence Award in 2014; the Provost’s Award for Faculty Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring in 2015; and the Provost’s Award for Faculty Excellence in Graduate Research Mentoring in 2021.
Accolades is an occasional News Center feature that highlights recent accomplishments of The University of Texas at Dallas faculty and students. To submit items for consideration, contact your school’s communications manager.