The College of Architecture’s National Science Foundation ADVANCE Program recently announced Associate Professor Nisha Botchwey and current PhD student Dana Habeeb as 2012-2013 Women of Excellence Award Winners. Each year, the National Science Foundation and the College of Architecture recognize individuals who have distinguished themselves through professional leadership, mentoring, academic excellence, and sustained service on behalf of the Georgia Institute of Technology and the College of Architecture.

The citation accompanying this award provides an overview of the accomplishments of each of the award winners within the past year:

Dr. Nisha Botchwey, an Associate Professor in the School of City and Regional Planning, joined Georgia Tech in 2012. In her brief tenure at Tech, Prof. Botchwey has obtained strong national leadership recognition. She was elected as a Southeastern schools representative to the Governing Board of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP), ACSP’s delegate to the research committee of the National Academy of Environmental Design, and a member of the Director’s Advisory Council of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She has an active and influential research agenda, with recognition as a leading authority on connections between the built environment and public health. In addition, Prof. Botchwey has had an active influence in the Heathy Places Research Group, served on the College of Architecture's search committee for a new Dean, and advised the student-run Social Justice Committee.

Dana Habeeb, a PhD student and Graduate Teaching Assistant in the School of City and Regional Planning, has already established an impressive record of research and teaching. Through her doctoral work focused on urbanization and climate change, Dana served as co-author on two papers published in 2012 - one in the Journal of Landscape and Urban Planning and a second in the Journal of Environmental Management - and is the lead author on a third peer-reviewed paper currently under review. Having distinguished herself as a graduate teaching assistant in a studio course focused on climate change issues in coastal Georgia, Dana is one of the few doctoral students who have been entrusted to serve as sole instructor of a graduate level course, Urban Environmental Planning and Design, in 2012 and 2013.  Beyond her scholarly and teaching contributions to the School of City and Regional Planning, Dana is among the most active doctoral students in student governance.  She was selected by her peers to serve as the doctoral student representative to the faculty in each year from 2010 to the present, and further served as the doctoral social chair from 2010 to 2012. She has served as the PhD representative to the planning student finance association and has further served on multiple faculty search and special purpose committees. In addition, Dana is a board member of the Cabbagetown Initiative Community Development in which she seeks to create new green space in her neighborhood.

Past winners of the award are Ann Gerondelis (2011-2012), Christine Cagelosi (2011-2012), Roya Agharahimi (2011-2012), Ellen Dunham-Jones (2010-2011), Ning Ai (2010-2011), Nancey Green Leigh (2009-2010), Paola Sanguinetti (2009-2010), Krystal Persaud (2009-2010), Betty Dowling (2008-2009), Jessica Doyle (2008-2009), and Shannon Barnes (2008-2009).