Hear the 2020 Alumnae Achievement Award recipients Joan Wallace-Benjamin ’75, M. Darby Dyer ’80, and Kimberly Dozier ’87 in conversation with President Paula A. Johnson. The Alumnae Achievement Award recognizes alumnae who have brought honor to themselves and to Wellesley College through their outstanding achievements.

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About the 2020 recipients:

Joan Wallace-Benjamin ’75, nonprofit leader and children’s advocate

Joan Wallace-Benjamin is a prominent advocate for children, families, and underserved communities. She dedicated her 37-year professional career to nonprofit leadership and public service. Until her retirement in 2018, Wallace-Benjamin served for 15 years as President and Chief Executive Officer of The Home for Little Wanderers. The Home is the nation’s oldest child and family service provider. Wallace-Benjamin’s contributions to innovative programming resulted in access to critical services, and her work to institute measurements of non-profit leadership has had a far-reaching impact.

Wallace-Benjamin holds a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from Wellesley College and a Ph.D. in Social Policy and Management from the Heller School at Brandeis University.

M. Darby Dyer ’80, planetary geologist and educator

M. Darby Dyar, the Kennedy-Schelkunoff Professor of Astronomy and Chair of Astronomy at Mount Holyoke College, is a planetary geologist. The primary goal of Dyar's research is to understand how hydrogen and oxygen are distributed throughout our solar system, particularly in terrestrial bodies such as the Earth, the Moon, Mars, and the parent bodies of meteorites. She studies rocks from diverse localities on Earth from the deep oceans to Antarctica, as well as lunar rocks and meteorite samples.

Dyar holds a Bachelor of Arts in geology and art history from Wellesley College and a Ph.D. in Geochemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Kimberly Dozier ’87, journalist and author

Kimberly Dozier is a print and broadcast journalist and author who has more than 30 years of experience covering news in Washington, D.C., and around the world. She reports for TIME magazine, and also contributes to CNN as a Global Affairs Analyst. Dozier has covered the Iraq and Afghan wars, conflict and peacemaking from the Middle East to Northern Ireland, and the foreign and national security policies of Presidents George Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump.

Born in Hawaii, Dozier holds a Bachelor of Arts in political anthropology and Spanish from Wellesley College and a Masters of Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia.

Read more about the recipients.