Hall of Fame
- Induction:
- 2008
- Class:
- 1962
Leader. Innovator. Pioneer. Friend. Dr. Cartwright was all of those and much more during her 15-year tenure as Kent State’s 10th president – and as the first woman president of a state university in Ohio. An outspoken proponent of student welfare, she earned a place nationally among the most highly respected voices in higher education.
At the national level, she chaired the board of directors of the American Association for Higher Education and served on the board of directors of the American Council on Education and the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges. She chaired the National Collegiate Athletic Association Executive Committee from 2003-05 and served as a member of the NCAA’s board of directors from 1997-05. In 1999, Dr. Cartwright was appointed to the Board of Trustees of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a component of the Smithsonian Institution that fosters scholarship and dialogue in international relations through the humanities and social sciences. In 2000, she was named to the reconvened Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, a blue-ribbon panel of national leaders in education, business and sports that assessed the state of intercollegiate athletics and recommended improvements. In 2002, she began a three-year term on the executive board of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education and was elected to the Center for Research Libraries board of directors.
The scope of her contributions to higher education led to Dr. Cartwright's induction into the Ohio Women's Hall of Fame in her first year of eligibility. She also has received Distinguished Alumni awards from the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater and the University of Pittsburgh's School of Education; the Clairol Mentor Award in Education; the YWCA Greater Cleveland Women of Achievement Award; the Northeast Ohio ATHENA Award; and the March of Dimes Franklin Delano Roosevelt Humanitarian Award for Excellence.
Dr. Cartwright earned master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Pittsburgh and her bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater.
She and Dr. G. Phillip Cartwright have raised three children, the youngest of whom is a Kent State graduate.
