Each year, Iowa Organization of Women Attorneys (IOWA) gives two awards, the Arabella Mansfield Award and the Gertrude Rush Award. This year’s honorees both have ties to Drake Law School.
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Paige Fiedler, LW’94, attorney at Fiedler & Timmer, P.L.L.C., is winner of the Arabella Mansfield Award. Focusing on employment law, Fielder was a recipient of this award because she has been a “wonderful mentor for women attorneys and a zealous advocate for women in the workplace throughout her career,” according to IOWA.
Arabella Mansfield was the first woman lawyer admitted to the practice of law in the United States. This award was established in 2002 and recognized outstanding women lawyers in Iowa who have promoted and nurtured women in the legal profession.
Read more about Paige Fielder.
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Professor Shontavia Johnson, the 2014 Gertrude Rush Award recipient, is an associate professor at Drake University and was recognized for “creating new diversity initiatives at Drake, helping create new organizations that make this world a better place, and being a leader in our community and in the legal profession.”
Gertrude Rush was the first African-American woman to be admitted to the practice of law in Iowa, in 1918. This award, co-established in 2003 and co-sponsored with the Iowa Chapter of the National Bar Association in 2003, recognizes a lawyer who manifests the pioneering spirit of Gertrude Rush, demonstrates leadership in the community and in the legal profession, and demonstrates concern for human and civil rights.
Johnson was also recently awarded the 2014 Outstanding Alumnus Award from the South Carolina’ Governor’s School for Science and Mathematics (GSSM). Each year, the GSSM Alumni Association presents the Outstanding Alumnus Award to honor the achievements of one exceptional alumnus. Nominated and voted upon by GSSM alumni, the award is presented to a person who has exemplified the success one can achieve through the foundation of a GSSM education.
You can read more about this award on the GSSM website.