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CORVALLIS - Four Oregon women - including a Portland youth official, a county health leader and two Oregon State University educators - have earned the OSU Women's Center "Women of Achievement Awards 2000."

A free public reception will be held at the Women's Center, April 28 from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. to honor the women. Four-in-Hand, a women's close harmony quartet, will perform.

Women of Achievement recipients include Marlis Miller, Susan Shaw, Karen Higgins and Mary Anne Deagan. The awards are based on devotion to equality and furthering the status of women, and for excellence in work not widely recognized, yet with potential for creating change.

Miller is public affairs director for the Portland area Council of Campfire and is a member of the Equity Foundation board of directors, a community philanthropic group. She is a leader in planning the annual conference of Oregon Women in Higher Education and served as coordinator of OSU's Women's Center in 1987-88. She also organized the campus Memorial Union Program Council's Women's Leadership Conference and did national lobbying for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment.

Shaw is interim director of the OSU Difference, Power and Discrimination Program, which teaches faculty to integrate race, gender, class, sexual orientation and other differences into their courses. An instructor in women's studies since 1996, she served as acting director of the program in 1997-99. She is an ex-officio member of the OSU President's Commission on the Status of Women, board member for Women in International Development and a member of the Athletic Advisory Board. She also chairs the Equity, Welfare, and Sportsmanship Committee of the NCAA Accreditation Council. Shaw preaches locally and at a Portland United Church of Christ.

Higgins is an associate professor in OSU's School of Education. She researches and writes articles that highlight women's contributions in mathematics. She served as president of the Oregon Council of Teachers for Mathematics and focuses on gender roles, stereotyping, gender equity, and strategies for increasing girls' participation in science and math in her writings and presentations.

Deagan is a deputy administrator with the Benton County Health Department. She is active in both the Benton County Breast and Cervical Council Coalition and Corvallis Benton Advocacy Team, an awareness/advocacy group working to share information on breast cancer to promote prevention and detection. She began her career with Benton County Health Department in 1971 as a registered nurse.