Carolyn Sachs and Alum Receive Alumni Honoree Awards

Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Carolyn Sachs, and WGSS Alum, Maria del Rosario Castro Bernardini ‘17, have received Liberal Arts Alumni Honoree Awards from the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, presented at the 2026 Alumni Awards Ceremony.

Carolyn Sachs, recipient of the Honorary Alumnx Award, is professor emerita of rural sociology and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies at Penn State. She received her master of arts and doctor of philosophy degrees in sociology from the University of Kentucky. She is the author of numerous books on women, gender, agriculture, and the environment, including Invisible Farmers: Women in Agricultural Production; Gendered Fields: Rural Women, Agriculture, and Environment; Women in Sustainable Agriculture; and The Gender and Agriculture Handbook. Her most recent book, Women and Smallholder Farming: Addressing Global Inequities in Agriculture, was published this past August. She has worked in numerous countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America on issues of women, food, agriculture, environment, and climate change, collaborating with organizations including the FAO, CGIAR, USAID, the United Nations, and numerous nongovernmental organizations. She is currently at work on two books: a new edition of The Gender and Agriculture Handbook and The Rural Sociology Handbook.

Maria del Rosario Castro Bernardini, recipient of the Emerging Feminist Leader Award, received a dual-title doctor of philosophy in rural sociology and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies from Penn State in 2017. Her two passions are teaching and conducting research. Before earning her doctorate, she taught research methods and Peruvian social reality at two universities in her native Peru and worked as an independent research consultant on projects spanning education, extractive industries, bureaucratic barriers, labor, agriculture, and gender. After receiving her degree, she served as a postdoctoral teaching fellow in the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Penn State, where she taught introductory courses including Introduction to Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and International Feminism. For the past five years, she has worked at Oxfam America as a senior researcher, focusing on building alliances and collaborative partnerships with research centers, universities, academic associations, and multilateral organizations to develop financing proposals, generate evidence for program design, and produce high-quality publications with public-sector impact. She is currently in a period of professional transition, completing several research publications. In this new phase, Dr. Castro Bernardini seeks to apply her expertise in research, evidence generation, and teaching across academic, programmatic, and advocacy contexts.