WOMAN OF EXCELLENCE
Picard Center Staff Member Honored for Community Involvement

LAFAYETTE, La. – Martha Bryant has always been considered a woman of excellence by her employer. Yet a highly regarded community organization formally bestowed that title to her as one of its 2009 Women of Excellence.

Martha Guidry Bryant, Acting Project Director at the Cecil J. Picard Center for Child Development and Lifelong Learning at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, was nominated by former colleague Dean Frost for her 38-year span of professional and community outreach efforts.

“Martha reflects beliefs in giving back by volunteering to help young and old alike and has the determination of a woman with dreams for others less fortunate than she,” said Frost in her nomination. “Her smiling face and positive reactions in spite of problems faced by women, coupled with her commitment to Christ and her example for all females, make her an undeniable Woman of Excellence.”

Bryant is the second-term president of Beta Sigma Phi, an international’s woman’s invitational group, a volunteer for the St. Martin Battered Woman’s Shelter, a former religion instructor for special needs children, a member of Junior League of Lafayette, and a volunteer flute player for various choirs and places of worship. She also serves as a volunteer tutor for economically disadvantaged children and is an executive board member for Iberia Community Band. She has recently been named the 2010 president of the St. Martin Parish Retired Educators Association.

Additionally, Bryant volunteers her time at the University of Louisiana of Lafayette as a volunteer trainer, assisting economically or culturally deprived students at risk for academic probation. Having served as an educator for 25 years, Bryant also finds time to mentor females interested in elementary education.

The Women of Excellence Awards honors women who have attained outstanding levels of achievement and whose contributions have made a significant impact upon the lives of the community’s citizens.

“I am very honored to have a 2009 Women of Excellence on my team,” said Dr. Billy R. Stokes, Executive Director of the Picard Center. “Everyone at the Picard Center recognizes her invaluable contributions to our research center, but to have the community recognize her contributions could not be more fitting.”

The Lafayette Commission on the Needs of Women annually sponsors the Women of Excellence Awards luncheon and serves to create an awareness of the status and needs of women by providing information on services available to women in the local community.

The Picard Center, named in honor of former State Superintendent of Education Cecil J. Picard, is dedicated to providing high-quality research and strategic evaluations of programs that address learning from birth through adulthood and investigates ways to bring scientifically-based research to bear on public policy in all areas of child education, health and quality of life. The Center awaits the development of its new 22,000 square-foot building, to be built within two years at a cost of approximately $7.2 million in the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s Research Park.