2011 Awards & Milestones

On December 2, 2011, Shodor's Associate Director, Patricia Jacobs, was honored at the annual Women Extraordinaire awards luncheon. Patricia was recognized as a top woman leader of the South through Business Leader's Women Extraordinaire award for her role as an "influential leader" within Shodor and for her "extraordinary impact" on Shodor's economic success and forward-thinking strategies.

On April 16, 2011, Shodor's Executive Director, Dr. Robert Panoff, received the Michael C. Jackson Distinguished Service award from the North Carolina Science Leadership Association, sponsored by Fisher Science Education. This award was in recognition of Dr. Panoff's "excellent work and dedication to science education."

In February, Shodor was honored by being named a "Best of the Web" resource by Shmoop, a national educational website for teachers and students, specifically for Shodor's resources in pre-algebra. Shmoop declared Shodor's materials "Best of the Web" for the categories of basic statistics and probability, basic operations, and fractions and decimals. Shmoop's mission is to make learning fun and relevant for today's students. Each of the learning guides includes a "Best of the Web" section where teachers and students are directed to quality, reliable websites for further exploration.

In 2011, Shodor intern Ada Taylor and her team, Unisecurity, took first prize at the Conrad Spirit Innovation Competition located at the NASA-Ames Research Center. The theme was to develop mobile applications based in security. Their winning Android app, MedPAL, is intended to work in conjunction with Bluetooth heart rate technology to look for user health emergencies. If detected, MedPAL automatically notifies specific contacts and/or a call center with patient and situational information including a GPS location.

Shodor won the 2011 Alfred P. Sloan Award for Business Excellence in Workplace Flexibility for its use of flexibility as an effective workplace strategy to increase business and employee success. This prestigious award, part of the national When Work Works project, recognizes employers of all sizes and types in the Triangle area and across the country. Shodor became a four-time winner of the Alfred P. Sloan Award ('06, '08', '09, '11).