The Women's Research Institute gives the WRI Distinguished Research Award annually to honor those who have contributed substantially to the scholarly study of women.

Cheryl B. Preston is the Edwin M. Thomas Professor of Law at the J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University. She teaches contracts, business associations, commercial law, Internet regulation, legal theory and gender and law. Before teaching, she was in private practice with O’Melvany and Myers in Los Angeles, and Holme Roberts and Owen in Salt Lake City. She was also Senior Counsel for First Interstate Bank of Utah for two years. Following graduation from law school, she clerked for Hon. Monroe G. McKay of the Federal Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Professor Preston publishes in the fields of popular culture and law, law and religion, and feminist legal theory – primarily addressing the issue of how images of women relate to violence against women and to the lack of professional opportunities for women. She recently released an educational DVD, entitled Fashioning Women in Law, using images from advertising and interviews with leading women in the legal profession to expose how stereotypes about women continue to affect law. The DVD is useful in training professionals to overcome biases. Her DVD won the prestigious Chris Award at the Columbus International Film Festival.

Professor Preston is currently a member of the American Law Institute and is in the Consultative Group for the Principles of the Law of Software Contracts. She is involved in legal education and has served on site inspection teams and on various Association of American Law Schools committees and in section leadership.

s committees and in section leadership.

Valerie Hudson , PhD

Valerie M. Hudson is a professor of political science at Brigham Young University, having taught previously at Northwestern and Rutgers University. Her areas of research include national security affairs, foreign policy analysis, and gender in international relations, and she is the author of numerous journal articles and books. Her latest book (with Andrea Den Boer), entitled Bare Branches: The Security Implications of Asia’s Surplus Male Population and published by MIT Press, won the Association of American Publishers Award for best book in political science in 2004, as well as the Otis Dudley Duncan Award for best book in social demography that year. Hudson is also recipient of the Karl G. Maeser Excellence in Teaching Award, served as president of the Foreign Policy Analysis Section of the International Studies Association, and directed the graduate program in International Relations at the David M. Kennedy Center for eight years. Dr. Hudson now heads an interdisciplinary research team constructing what is already the most comprehensive database on the status of women cross-nationally. Already over 50% complete, when finished it will cover over 200 variables for 179 nations with populations greater than 100,000 persons. Variables include those relating to women’s health, security, education, legal status, and human rights, among others.

Previous Recipients

2005 - Martha Peacock, PhD Art History

2004 - Marie Cornwall, PhD Sociology