The V. Shamim Sisson Ally of the Year Award seeks to recognize a member of the University community who has gone above and beyond in their daily life in supporting the LGBTQ community, furthering the rights and acceptance of queer-identified individuals at the University of Virginia and beyond. Understanding that allies come in many shapes and sizes and with varying access to resources, we encourage and welcome student, faculty, staff, and alumni nominees. This award brings necessary attention to the important role that allies play in the fight for equality, social justice, and the acceptance of the LGBTQ community.
Shamim Sisson was presented with the inaugural award at UVa’s inaugural Lavender Graduation Ceremony on May 1, 2009. As Senior Associate Dean of Students and Director of the Office of Student Life, she worked closely with students, faculty, staff and alumni alike to provide a strong support network and resources for LGBTQQI members of the University community. Most notably, she was an instrumental advocate in the establishment of the LGBT Resource Center in its original Newcomb Hall location and the hiring of UVa’s first full-time faculty LGBT Program Coordinator in October 2006.
Each September, the V. Shamim Sisson Ally of the Year Award recipient is chosen by the LGBTQ Center and is presented annually during QVA’s Gala Awards Dinner.
Biography of V. Shamim Sisson
Shamim Sisson is retired from the University of Virginia where she served most recently as senior associate dean of students and director of the Office of Student Life. Her career in higher education has been primarily in the field of student affairs with previous appointments at Auburn University, Valdosta State University, and Randolph-Macon Woman’s College. She has longstanding professional interests in women’s education, communication between men and women, leadership development, and interracial and intercultural understanding.
Other emphases of her work have included student development theory as applied to university systems and college and university responses to sexual assault. She holds a B.A. from Judson College; M.Ed. from Livingston University, and Ed.D. in counseling and college student development from Auburn University.
Sisson served in numerous capacities in Student Affairs at the University after she arrived in Charlottesville in 1988. Shamim chaired the University’s Sexual Assault Board from 1998 until 2006 and co-founded the Women’s Leadership Development Program. Shamim is a former recipient of the Elizabeth Zintl Leadership Award and the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award at UVa.
Shamim lives in Charlottesville, VA, with her husband Jim Cooper, professor emeritus at the University of Virginia. She and Jim sailed twice with Semester at Sea, in 2009 and 2012.
Prior year recipients are listed below.
2024: Theresa Davis
Theresa M. Davis, a.k.a Lady T, considers herself an Artistic-Educator in 3-D (Dramaturg, Deviser-Director) and believes Theatre is a “Brave Space” that has the power to transform. Tenured at three different institutions, she has taught at Kalamazoo College, West Virginia University, and the University of Virginia, where she joined the faculty in 2007 as an Associate Professor of Cross-Cultural Performance. During her time at UVA, some of Lady T’s most rewarding experiences have been sharing creative space with the Beautiful People of the Multiverses, devising impassioned work including Dissolving The Mask, What If, Speak! The Forbidden Truth and Reclamation. She is also the Associate Artistic Director of the Contemporary American Theater Festival, where she actively supports the values of Fearless art, Inclusivity, and Community.
In addition to CATF, Theresa has dramaturgically collaborated with Geva Theatre, The Working Theater, Azuka Theatre, and Penumbra Theatre. As a Director, she’s had Guest Artist residencies at Macalester College and Purdue University. Lady T is thankful for the opportunities to engage with students speaking and serving Social Justice at UVA and beyond as the founding Artistic Director of the Cultural Awareness Troupe (The CAT), the Director of the Contemporary American Theater (CATF) Hostel YOUTH! Program and Artistic Mentor for UVA’s Black Monologues. She’s also the original Dramaturg and Director for UVA Alumnus Priyanka Shetty’s The Elephant in the Room, with productions at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, 59E59, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and the 2024 DC Premiere at the Keegan Theatre. Lady T is humbled and honored to be a recipient of the V. Shamim Sisson Ally of the Year Award. From Shakirah Bourne: “Whatever we call ourselves– an ally, an accomplice, a co-conspirator— we must do better to understand, empathize, and take action to care for each other.” Lady T sends much love, light, and appreciation to all of those engaged in building a culture of empathy, understanding, and support. Ashe!
2023: Jasmine N. Hall Ratliff
Jasmine N. Hall Ratliff has focused throughout her career on achieving equity across communities and particularly for communities of color and LGBTQ communities. She is the inaugural executive director of Build Missouri Health (BMH). In this role, she leads the organization’s efforts to work with partners to change systems towards achieving health equity across the state. Prior to joining BMH, she was with Keecha Harris & Associates, Inc, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Missouri Foundation for Health.
Ratliff earned a Master of Health Administration from the Saint Louis University College for Public Health & Social Justice and a BA from the University of Virginia. Born in Virginia, Jasmine now resides in St. Louis, MO with her husband, teenage child, and four-legged children, JT the cat and Casey the tortoise. In her leisure time, she enjoys time with her family, reading, going to the movies, and lounging on the beach.
2022: Kate Redding
Kate Redding (she/her), BA Psychology, MPA Nonprofit Management, spent more than ten years at the UVA Alumni Association working with alumni and student organizations, with a special focus and passion for supporting the LGBTQ+ community. In her role as Managing Director of Alumni Services, Kate worked with QVA’s volunteer leadership to build the group’s scholarships and grants program and maximize the scope and impact of the financial support that it provides LGBTQ+ students today. Kate’s guidance, expertise, and passionate support have been critical for QVA’s growth and success. Kate is a 2003 College of Arts & Sciences alum and lives in Charlottesville with her family. She’s looking forward to beginning work with the Focused Ultrasound Foundation, where she’ll provide strategic and operational support to the organization’s leadership.
2019: Susan & Jonathan Bram
Susan Sarnoff Bram is a 1985 graduate of the University of Virginia and has a Masters in Special Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. She is a former trustee of UVA’s College Foundation Fund. Presently she is a trustee of the Ethical Culture Fieldston School and the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services.
Jonathan Bram is a founding partner at Global Infrastructure Partners, a private equity fund that invests in infrastructure around the world. He graduated from Columbia College. Jon is the chairman, and a past president, of Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City.
Susan and Jonathan Bram live in New York City. They have three children: Nathan, age 27, Henry, age 24, and Jenny, age 17.
2018
Bush Bell is the Patient Experience Officer at the UVA Health System. Bush’s career includes a blend of hospitality, consulting and patient experience improvement. He is focused on delivering outstanding customer and patient experiences for all. As co-director of the UVA Health System Transgender Advisory Committee with Dr. David Repaske, he has worked in partnership with allies and LGBTQ patients to raise awareness of the needs of LGBTQ patients, deliver training to UVA team members and change UVA policies and processes to be more inclusive for all patients and their loved ones.
David R. Repaske, M.D., Ph.D., is Professor of Pediatrics and Chief of the Division of Pediatric Endocrinology at UVA. He came to Charlottesville in the summer of 2014 from Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, where he had start-ed the first TransHealth Clinic in Central Ohio in 2010. In Charlottesville, he joined the multidisciplinary UVA TransHealth Clinic (Pediatric Endocrinology combined with trans-friendly primary care in the UVA Teen and Young Adult Clinic). He is co-director of the UVA Health System Transgender Advisory Committee which has guided the Health System in raising awareness and making it easy to do the right thing for every person, including LGBTQ patients and staff. UVA has received national recognition for this work through the Human Rights Campaign’s Health Equality Index.
2014: Laura Widener (College ’16)
At the time of receiving the award, Laura Widener was a third year student majoring in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. During her second year (2013- 2014), she was the LGBTQ Center’s Speakers’ Bureau Intern, organizing over twenty panels for professors, University organizations, and Contracted Independent Organizations (CIOs).
Currently, Laura is a Marketing Communications Intern at University of Virginia’s Maxine Platzer Lynn Women’s Center, providing content for the Center’s Instagram account (@uvawomenscenter). Recently, she accepted a spot in UVa’s all-female student group One Less, which aims to educate students about sexual and domestic violence and to empower survivors.
When she is not fulfilling her duties as a student or an intern, Laura volunteers with Thrive, a local health care medical center. Furthermore, for the past two summers, she worked at the Presbyterian (USA) Church’s Montreat Conference Center with children aged six months to three years. Once she graduates, Laura hopes to work in a career dealing with gender-based issues and aspires to work with children who have siblings with disabilities.
2013: Eric McDaniel (College ’14)
At the time of receiving the award, Eric McDaniel was a fourth year from Richmond, Virginia, studying English in the College of Arts & Sciences. Eric served as the President of Student Council, and served at all levels of the organization from fall of his first year to graduation. His major projects while on student government included the reform of internal structure and recruiting methods to increase diversity among Council’s membership, the creation of the undergraduate-wide newsletter StudCo News, and sponsoring several resolutions to advocate on behalf of marginalized students and student groups.
Outside of Council, Eric served as the head of the Undergraduate Humanities Initiative at the University, where he and a team of undergraduate students planned events and initiatives to promote the Humanities across Grounds. He planned and organized the student speaker series On Being Human, where he and seven others spoke about their thoughts on what it might mean to be a human being.
2012: Dr. Marcus L. Martin
Dr. Marcus L. Martin is professor and past chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Virginia. He held the chair position from July 1996 to December 2006. During his tenure at UVa, Dr. Martin served as Assistant Dean, School of Medicine, Assistant Vice President, Associate Vice President, Interim Vice President and Chief Officer for Diversity and Equity. He was appointed Vice President and Chief Officer for Diversity and Equity in April 2011.
The University’s Diversity Council, Women’s Leadership Council, LGBT Committee, and the John T. Casteen III Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Leadership Award Selection Committee are organized and staffed by the Office for Diversity and Equity under Dr. Martin’s direction. Dr. Martin also established the UVa IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access) Fund and its associated Trustee Board at UVa.
2011: Tara Saylor (Educ ’06)
At the time of receiving the award, Tara Saylor was a PhD candidate at the Curry School of Education. Her dissertation examined what she calls a “sexual minority curriculum” in high school. Ms. Saylor found that this curricula established regulatory learning environments for LGBT adolescents. Sexual minority students learned the rules and codes of appropriate student behavior and the limits of sexual embodiment, but also how to circumvent and resisted school homophobia and heteronormativity. The dissertation has been supported by the Curry School of Education, and the proposal won a Doctoral Research Award in Education Science from the Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning.
She received support to establish a LGBT families program in Oklahoma from the Doris Buffett Fellowship for Families and the Law, funded by the Sunshine Foundation and the U.Va. School of Law. Tara has been an active volunteer with UVa’s Queer and Allied Activism, the Reider Otis Scholarship Committee, Tulsa’s All Souls Unitarian Church with emphasis on LGBT rights in Uganda, and Oklahomans for Equality. She currently resides in Tulsa, Oklahoma with her husband Ryan and their young daughter, Evelyn.
2010: Robert “Bob” Covert (Faculty, Curry School of Education)
Bob Covert has been a faculty member at UVa since 1972. He helped develop and currently teaches the popular Multicultural Education class. He is the co-chair of the Curry school’s Faculty Diversity Group, a member of the University wide Diversity Council and the co-founder and member of the Va. Chapter of the National Association of Multicultural Education. His research focuses on the impact of diversity training on University students and community members. He has done diversity training in a wide variety of settings including public and private schools, universities and social service agencies.