To Ann Ramsdell’s students, there’s no question why she would receive the Women’s and Gender Studies Program Faculty Teaching Award.

Ramsdell has a reputation for helping students understand complicated and sensitive topics, not just enough to pass the test, but to make a difference in their professional lives. In their course evaluations, students describe her as “amazing,” “phenomenal,” “enthusiastic,” and “respectful.” One student wrote, “Dr. Ramsdell is what I would describe as the perfect professor.

“She provides her students with quality information and gives assignments that are stimulating to the mind while achievable to do and honestly fun. I have never learned so much from one professor. … Dr. Ramsdell has opened my eyes to a completely new perspective on women's health.”

Housed in the University of South Carolina College of Arts and Sciences, the Women’s and Gender Studies Program includes faculty and courses from all around the university, including Ramsdell in the School of Medicine.

Her Women’s Health course is one of the major's most popular classes, according to program director Carla Pfeffer. “Beyond teaching the factual biological and medical terms and concepts, Ramsdell gives equal emphasis to how social, cultural, financial, and political views and agendas shape our definitions and ways of thinking about health and disease,” she says.

Beyond the classroom, Ramsdell mentors students in award-winning research projects, journal articles, conference presentations, and dissertations. She helps them get involved in community advocacy for women's health issues, teaching them to use their voices to influence public policy and understanding.

Ramsdell also is a renowned breast cancer researcher. In February, a research team she was part of received the Sharon D. Lund Foundation Innovation Award at the Susan Love Foundation for Breast Cancer Research International Symposium on the Human Breast