Priscilla Grew '62 Awarded President’s Medal by Geological Society of America

Priscilla Grew '62 was recently awarded the 2022 President’s Medal by the Geological Society of America. 

Grew is a professor emerita and NAGPRA (Native American Graves and Repatriation Act) advisor at the University of Nebraska‒Lincoln. 

In the citation for the award, Grew was lauded for being "a woman of many firsts" and for paving the way for future generations of female geologists and Earth scientists.

Some of Grew's many firsts listed in the citation:

• First woman to hold a tenure-track appointment in the geology department at Boston College, which, at the time, did not admit women as undergraduates.
• First female director of the California Department of Conservation, which included the divisions of Oil and Gas, and Mines and Geology (California’s geological survey)—another first.
• In 1986, she was appointed the first woman director of the Minnesota Geological Survey at the University of Minnesota.
• In 1993, she became the first woman vice chancellor for research at the University of Nebraska‒Lincoln.
• In 2003, she was appointed the first woman director of the University of Nebraska State Museum.

"Her unique career trajectory, boldness of leadership, and support of other women and the geosciences for the greater good, continues to be inspirational across the globe," reads the citation.

Read the full citation and Grew's response on the GSA website.