(MURFREESBORO) MTSU chemistry professor and Women in STEM Center Director Judith Iriarte-Gross is the 2022 recipient of the Tennessee STEM Innovation Network Excellence in Advocacy Award.

Iriarte-Gross received the honor Tuesday (5/10/2022) during the organization’s annual awards at the Music City Center in Nashville, Tennessee, recognizing individuals for their efforts to promote science, technology, engineering and mathematics. A Facebook posting by the organization thanked her “for all you do for underrepresented groups in STEM education.”

The Tennessee STEM Excellence Awards are designed to promote effective teaching strategies by recognizing and rewarding quality STEM teachers, highlight effective advocacy partnerships at the local and state levels and share strategies for creating an innovative STEM culture within a school building, district and region.

Gross commented, “I am honored to be recognized as an advocate for STEM by the Tennessee STEM Innovation Network. I advocate for STEM every day as a professor of chemistry and director of the Women in STEM Center.

The Tennessee STEM Innovation Network’s mission is to promote and expand the teaching and learning of STEM education in Tennessee’s K-12 public schools. 

Among numerous honors in a distinguished career, Iriarte-Gross, an MTSU  faculty member since 1996, received the MTSU Foundation Career Achievement Award, the William E. Bennett Award, an American Chemical Society Award for Encouraging Women into Careers in the Chemical Sciences, and Women of Achievement-Tennessee by the Women in Higher Education Tennessee statewide organization.