Outstanding Alumnae

Agnes Scott College is proud to celebrate the 2022 Outstanding Alumnae Award winners. Nominated by their fellow alumnae, the distinguished recipients were recognized for their notable accomplishments that demonstrate how Scotties are truly leading everywhere.

Medicine, as well as director of Duke’s Cell and Molecular Biology graduate training program.

And in 2019, she received what those in the science field consider the highest honor: election into the National Academy of Sciences. It was the pinnacle of a long career that was sparked at Agnes Scott College, when she took her first genetics class from Harry Wistrand.

Distinguished Career

Dr. Sue Jinks-Robertson ’77

“Sue is brilliant,” says Mary Morris ’87 M.D., Ph.D., an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Harvard Medical School, who worked for Sue Jinks-Robertson as a lab technician.

“I feel fortunate to have witnessed her mind at work.”

Jinks-Robertson has spent more than 30 years in the academic world, teaching and conducting research in the area of genetics. She is now a James B. Duke Distinguished Professor in the Molecular Genetics and Microbiology Department at the Duke University School of

“I took a class from him my sophomore year, and I was hooked,” Sue remembers. “I also went on the first ‘Desert Biology’ course that he also taught and those were the two scientific highlights of my time at Agnes Scott.”

Despite her many accolades, Jinks-Robertson was surprised to receive the 2022 Distinguished Outstanding Alumnae Award. “It really came out of the blue,” she says. “To be recognized and nominated by my Agnes Scott peers was very humbling, and being selected was a great honor.”

Jinks-Robertson earned her doctorate in genetics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She completed postdoctoral research at the University of Chicago, and then accepted a position at Emory University. She worked in the biology department there for 20 years, teaching Introduction to Genetics as well as some upper-level graduate classes. Though she enjoyed teaching, it didn’t leave a lot of time for research. When she was offered a job at Duke in 2006, she jumped at the chance to focus on research.

Now, she oversees a lab where the bulk of the research is studying genome stability, namely the processes that lead to destabilization of genetic material, which can cause problems in the human body. This research has implications for cancer research, as the disease is actually caused by genome instability.

She credits her time at Agnes Scott with laying the groundwork for her successful career.

“My favorite memories are the many afternoon hours I spent in Campbell Hall going to the lab — a component required as part of all science courses — and the two Chaucer courses I took from Dr. Pepperdene,” she says. “The labs developed the critical thinking skills required for successful research, while the Chaucer courses taught me to read carefully, write precisely and communicate clearly.”

Service To The College

Jeanne Kaufmann ’72

To say that Jeanne Kaufmann ’72 (known to her friends as “Jeannie”) is the embodiment of service is a bold understatement. Her list of community involvement is a long one, surpassed only by her steadfast service to her alma mater.

A member of the college’s Board of Trustees from 2005 to 2013, she became an “early champion” of sustainability, including making a large gift to support environmental efforts at the college. She also served in a leadership role in The Greatness Before Us campaign, the largest comprehensive campaign in the college’s history, which raised $116 million.

Kaufmann’s service to the college began while she was a student fulfilling her work/study program by working at the college switchboard as a receptionist.

“During her senior year, she enthusiastically served as president of the Inter-Dormitory Council and served on the Board of Student Activities,” says Helen Webb Godwin ’72, who roomed with Kauffman their first year.

Kaufmann’s dedication over the years includes serving on several committees as well as hosting alumnae and fundraising events for the college.

“Jeannie is not one to boast about her service to Agnes Scott or to the community,” says Robiaun Charles, Agnes Scott’s former vice president for college advancement.

“But without question, the impact of her involvement is grand and will be long-lasting for generations of Scotties to come.”

Kaufmann earned an MBA from Rutgers University and worked as a social program analyst in the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare and as an auditor for the Internal Revenue Service. She has lived on St. Simons Island since the 1990s and was a founding member of several organizations, including the Coastal Medical Access Project, the St. Simon’s Land Trust and the Communities of Coastal Georgia Foundation.

“The college has been a longtime and leading beneficiary of her business acumen and philanthropic generosity,” says Valerie A. Hepburn ’83. “In addition to her many contributions to the college, Jeannie maintains a significant portfolio of volunteer and philanthropic activities in her home community. She has launched or steered almost everything good that has happened in Coastal Georgia in the last three decades.” volunteer roles in the past 50 years is long and impressive.

“Marilyn has committed herself and her multiple talents to improving the city of Gainesville and Alachua County, Fla., and the well-being of the people who live there,” says Linda Kay McGowan ’65.

Tubb is a former board member for the University of Florida Performing Arts Center, the American Red Cross, the American Cancer Society and The Girls Place, and she served on the LifeSouth Blood Centers Advisory Council and chaired the United Way Campaign for Alachua County.

Tubb is a trailblazer, becoming the first woman to be a manager at the Gainesville Chamber of Commerce, where she worked as director of communications. Later, she went on to serve on the chamber’s board of directors, including two terms as chair. She was also one of the first female members of the Rotary Club of Gainesville. So, it should be no surprise that she won the “Fierce” Lifetime Achievement Award given by Business in Greater Gainesville magazine in 2018.

She has a degree in English from Agnes Scott and a master’s degree in communications from the University of Florida. She spent her career in corporate communications and public relations and still found time to volunteer in leadership positions all over the city.

Her dedication to service and social responsibility began at Agnes Scott.

Service To The Community

Marilyn Little Tubb ’65

Marilyn Little Tubb has had quite an effect on her hometown of Gainesville, Fla. After graduating from Agnes Scott College she returned to Gainesville where she had an illustrious career, both professionally and philanthropically.

The list of her leadership and

“At Agnes Scott, I remember her volunteering when the Metropolitan Opera came to Atlanta in the spring, as well as serving on Judicial, chairing Honor Emphasis Week and playing on the field hockey team,” says Libby Malone Boggs ’65. “She had a social conscience before the rest of us understood the meaning of the term.”