Congratulations to WGS Master’s Student, Sarah Cooke, who was awarded the Eldon Murray Legacy Award at Lavender Graduation on May 6th.  They are being recognized for taking initiative toward a vision of creating positive change, promoting awareness, and building community for/of LGBTQIA people at UW-Milwaukee.

Sarah was nominated by Molly McCourt, who says,

I deeply admire Sarah Cooke for their tireless advocacy for the LGBTQIA+ community as well as their colleagues and students in the Women’s & Gender Studies program.  Whether they are spending countless hours pushing for a gender inclusive restroom, creating a database of teaching materials for WGS teaching assistants, or finding powerful ways to eliminate bigoted language from their classroom, Sarah clearly displays their devotion to creating a sustainable, equitable world in all they do.”

In their acceptance, Sarah says,

I am very grateful for everyone at UWM who has supported both my academic and advocacy work related to queer and trans communities.  My time at UWM has taught me that while there is a lot of work left to be done to improve campus for queer and trans community members, there are lots of people willing to show up and do that work.

Sarah, we are all so very proud of you – CONGRATULATIONS!