Young Alumna of the Year: Dr. Eden Wales Freedman '99
Dr. Eden Wales Freedman is an accomplished scholar and author. She recently became the Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty at Clarke University in Dubuque, Iowa. Before joining Clarke, she served as Vice Provost for Faculties and Academic Affairs at St. Mary’s University of Minnesota and as an associate professor of English, director of diversity studies, and department chair of communication, literature, and arts, as well as the Dr. Thomas R. Feld Chair for Teaching Excellence and deputy Title IX coordinator at Mount Mercy University in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Eden published her first book in February 2020, Reading Testimony Witnessing Trauma: Confronting Race, Gender, and Violence in American Literature, which explores how readers can engage literary representations of race, gender, and trauma both critically and empathically. Eden’s work focuses on empathy, perspectives, and social justice. She credits WFS with instilling in her some of the values she has today, as well as her desire to work in education. She says, “Friends’ mission, to challenge students to seek truth, to value justice and peace, and to act as creative, independent thinkers with a conscious responsibility to the good of all, continues to inform me.” Her achievements illustrate she is truly “letting her life speak.” We are so proud to call her a WFS alumna and honor her as the Young Alumna of the Year.