Jennifer Murray, director of the LGBTQ+ Resource Center at UWM, has won the Dr. P.B. Poorman Award for Outstanding Achievement on Behalf of LGBTQ+ People.
The award recognizes people at universities in the UW System who work to establish a safer, more accepting climate for LGBTQ people in their communities.
Nominated by the university, Murray has worked hard to promote an inclusive environment at UWM. Through their efforts as director of the LGBTQ+ Resource Center and as co-chair of the UWM Chancellor’s Advisory Committee for LGBT+ Advocacy, Murray has advocated for and improved the experience of LGBTQ+ students and community members.
Murray said they are especially grateful to be granted this award because they looked up to Poorman when they first began their career at UWM. Throughout the years, Poorman and Murray collaborated on several UW System initiatives. The UW System established the award to celebrate the memory and legacy of Poorman,a founding member of the UW System LGBTQ Inclusivity Initiative and a faculty member at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater,
Murray is one of 13 honorees throughout the UW System that have been awarded this year. To be one of the 13 recipients of the 2019 Poorman awards is “truly humbling and I feel tremendously honored to be among LGBTQ+ champions within higher education in the state of Wisconsin,” Murray said.
The honorees will be recognized at the awards ceremony on Nov. 7. The ceremony, hosted by UW System President Ray Cross, will take place in Madison in conjunction with the Outstanding Women of Color in Education Award.
