Honors among women
Tina Tchen ’78, chief of staff to first lady Michelle Obama, encouraged young women to be part of a “vanguard of change,” and Harvard College senior Madeleine Ballard touted everyday leadership during the 2011 Women’s Leadership Awards Wednesday (April 20) at the Charles Hotel in Cambridge. The two women were recipients of this year’s awards. They were honored at a dinner coordinated by the Harvard College Women’s Center, which promotes awareness of women’s and gender issues, and supports “contributions by women that challenge, motivate, and inspire.” Tchen, the recipient of the Women’s Professional Leadership Award, took to the podium and remembered her years as a student in the last class of women to be admitted solely to Radcliffe College. “That was a class of 400, versus 1,200 slots for men at Harvard,” she told a crowd of students, staff, and alumni. “Then the admissions offices merged and that 3:1 ratio went down...