FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 14, 2007
Contact: Anika Mitchell Perkins
(662) 329-7124

Oppenheimer named Woman of Achievement by AAUW in Mississippi
  
COLUMBUS, Miss. – Dr. Bonnie Oppenheimer, professor of mathematics at Mississippi University for Women, was selected as the 2007 Woman of Achievement by the American Association of University Women in Mississippi. 
   
This award was presented to Oppenheimer at the spring AAUW Conference, held in Oxford May 4-5.
   
The AAUW Columbus branch nominated Oppenheimer for this honor, based on her commitment to women's equity, commitment to education, contributions to society and contributions to AAUW priorities. 
   
She has been concerned with women’s equity in education since 1979, when she did her master’s thesis at the University of Chicago on sex-role stereotyping in mathematics textbooks. Oppenheimer was granted funds from the Tensor Foundation and the Mathematics Association of America to run a girls-only summer residential mathematics camp at MUW in 2000, and the camp remained predominately female through 2004. She is part of the Women’s Emphasis Committee at MUW. 
   
Oppenheimer belongs to a research group based in the Department of Communication at Mississippi State University. This group studies women’s images in the media, and they hold a NASA Consortium grant to explore how young girls perceive women in different career fields, including sciences and mathematics.    
   
Professionally, she belongs to the Louisiana/Mississippi Section of the Mathematical Association of America, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators and the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM). She has served on travel grant selection committees for AWM, allowing other women mathematicians to travel to conferences in their field or to work with mentors for an extended period. 
   
On the MUW campus, Oppenheimer is vice president of Faculty Senate and belongs to the Academic Council, Teacher Education Faculty and Teacher Education Council. She cosponsors the sophomore honorary and the College Democrats.
   
MUW was awarded an AAUW Campus Action Project (CAP) grant to break the silence about sexual harassment, and Oppenheimer was one of the AAUW liaisons for the grant. She gave presentations about this CAP grant at both the AAUW state meeting and the AAUW Joint Regional Meeting. 
   
She has belonged to the Starkville Area Arts Council for many years now and has served as the board and executive board secretary. Oppenheimer was responsible for setting up the guidelines and the application form for the Starkville Area Arts Council Scholarship.  She belongs to the Oktibbeha County Federation of Democratic Women.  Oppenheimer has been the principal oboist of the Starkville/Mississippi State University Symphony since she moved to Starkville 19 years ago; she has joined the recently formed Community Band as well. She has played in the pit orchestra for local musicals, most recently, helping Starkville High School with its production of “Beauty and the Beast.”  Active in the Starkville Community Theater, Oppenheimer has been on stage for three summer performances and provided music for a fourth summer. She performed Mrs. Culp in “Terror by Gaslight” last spring, and Lilly in “Postmortem” this past fall. 
   
Oppenheimer is the Women of Reform Judaism (WRJ) District #15 immediate past president. WRJ District #15 includes Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana and Memphis. She has served both her synagogue and its Sisterhood as president. She is the current immediate past president of the synagogue, will take office again for the Sisterhood in May as the secretary and is being nominated as an area director for the WRJ Southwest District.
   
For years, Oppenheimer was the only certified Bradley Method Husband-Coached Childbirth Instructor in the state of Mississippi. For 18 years, she helped women from around the state who wished to attempt natural births.
   
The American Biographical Institute recently named her 2006 Woman of the Year. She is also included in other guides, such as Who’s Who Among American Educators. 
   
Oppenheimer is currently serving AAUW in Mississippi as the membership vice president and the Starkville branch president. She holds dual membership in both the Columbus and the Starkville branches.