Barbara Nelson, UCLA Luskin Dean Emerita, was recently honored with the inaugural Torchbearer Award for co-founding the Center on Women, Gender, and Public Policy (CWGPP) at the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota.

Nelson was recognized along with the late Arvonne Fraser at the Founders and Futures celebration in October for the 40^th anniversary of CWGPP, the first academic center in the field of gender and policy analysis in a public affairs school.

“Barbara was visionary in creating a center that could adapt to new directions in scholarship and new policy questions,” said current CWGPP director Professor Christina Ewig. “She and Arvonne increased the impact of all of our gender-based programs by creating communities of scholars, students, and problem solvers locally and globally. The depth and breadth of 40 years of students becoming leaders and research improving policy making deserved recognition and celebration.”

In her remarks, Nelson said she and Fraser, a prominent Minnesota women’s rights advocate and political campaign leader, established the center “because multicultural gender analyses needed an institution to integrate course work, research, and public engagement. A center created the infrastructure that encouraged long-term collaborations.”

One of Barbara Nelson’s key innovations was the creation of the Women, Gender, and Public Policy major in the Humphrey School, another national first for the CWGPP.  Building on the major, the Center inaugurates an all-university graduate minor on Gender, Intersectionality, and Public Policy in 2026 at the University of Minnesota.