Hanan El Marroun and Corine van der Sande joint winners of the 2022 FAME Athena Award

This year we honour two winners for the FAME Athena Award. Joint winners of the 2022 Awards are Hanan El Marroun and Corine van der Sande, for their commitment to promoting women’s growth, as well as their efforts to increase women’s input and influence in important positions.

The jury about the winners

“Both Hanan El Marroun and Corine van der Sande have shown outstanding contributions and a longstanding history of advocating for the recognition of female talent within our institution. They are both recognized as leaders by those around them and have made extensive contributions to VENA (Network for female academics at Erasmus MC) - promoting diversity and inclusivity, both in and beyond their own faculties.”

Hanan El Marroun

As the chair of VENA, Hanan El Marroun initiates the organization of workshops for female academics, creates ways to increase awareness on implicit bias, and advises the dean on policy to decrease the gender gap in science and increase diversity in the academic top. Furthermore, she expressed the responsibility she feels to promote diversity and inclusion in the academic community and beyond during her inaugural lecture. The consul of Morocco was present, and she directly spoke to him about the role of women in academia. She also acknowledged her own bicultural background and the importance of using the terms bicultural versus migration background and how a bicultural background can be an asset.

Corine van der Sande

Corine van der Sande has been working at the HRM Department of Erasmus MC since 2009, and soon after she arrived initiated lots of activities to promote gender equality and improve the career possibilities for female talent. She organizes the Female Career Development programs, for female postdocs with the ambition and capacities to become an Associate professor. She personally supports young talents on their challenging path to the academic top. She does this for young postdocs, for assistant and associate professors.

Joint winners

Why do we have joint winners this year? The jury: “As an initiative concerned with highlighting the collective work of uplifting female talent within the university, we believe the FAME Athena Awards should go beyond the individualist and patriarchal notions of a decisive victory. We feel it is highly valuable to challenge such notions of competitive excellence, particularly when both candidates have equally proved their worthiness of recognition.”

The jury emphasizes furthermore that this joint award highlights the importance of recognizing their collective work in encouraging female academics. “The endeavors they have pursued are not possible without this strong collaboration between academic and supporting staff, and we feel that rewarding them both with this prize will call attention to the further need for collaboration and coalition building.”

Special student mention for Elena Mataix

One of the student nominees, Elena Mataix, also caught the eye of the jury with her consistent efforts to empower female students throughout the duration of her bachelor studies. “From the very start of her studies, Elena has been involved in and has started multiple initiatives - like hosting and co-organizing the first EUC Women’s Week and forming and co-leading the EUC Women’s football team - that focus on diversifying the institutional setting and giving voice to students from oppressed groups. With such outstanding contributions at such a young age, the jury has recommended Elena Mataix as a student mention for this year’s Athena Awards.”

About the FAME Athena Award

Erasmus University Rotterdam and the FAME-network (Female Academics Moving toward Equity) work to achieve equal representation for female members of staff. FAME has established the Athena Award to honour university staff members who have made an exceptional effort to promote female talent – and set a fine example for their colleagues in the process.