AAUW Events | Murfreesboro (TN) Branch

EqualiTEA is a (hats optional) high tea held annually in Murfreesboro, Tennessee to raise scholarship and programming funds for the Middle Tennessee Fund for Women and Girls and AAUW Murfreesboro.

The 2023 event returns to the Center Atrium of the MTSU Miller Education, 503 E. Bell St., Murfreesboro, from 4:30-6:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 18. Full tea service will be provided by MT Dining Services. This is a free event and donations are greatly appreciated. More information is available on Eventbrite.

The EqualiTEA is officially hosted by both AAUW and the Middle TN Fund for Women and Girls. This event raises scholarship and programming funds for the Middle Tennessee Fund for Women and Girls, a 501(C)3 organization, in support of the mission of AAUW Murfreesboro: to level the playing field for women and girls in education and in the workforce.

The 2023 Tea is fully booked, but you can still make a difference in the lives of Middle Tennessee’s women and girls by making a donation. You can make a donation from $5-$100 here.

The 2023 Tempest Award Recipient is MTSU professor Dr. Carmelita L. Dotson. The keynote speaker is MTSU Dean of Media and Entertainment Beverly Keel. The 2023 EqualiTEA honorary co-chairs are MTSU First Lady Liz McPhee and Tara MacDougall, Discovery Center President & CEO.

Honoring an individual who has taken action to address the systemic barriers to equity for women and girls. Our 2023 Tempest recipient, has spent over 30 years working and helping others, while encouraging women to pursue higher education and roles of leadership.

Beverly Keel is dean of MTSU’s College of Media and Entertainment, an award-winning journalist, and a music industry activist who works for gender and racial equality in the music industry. She was named a national “Change Agent” by Billboard for her efforts with Nashville Music Equality, which she co-founded in 2020 to create an anti-racist environment in the Nashville music industry. A Nashville native, she earned her bachelor’s degree from MTSU and her master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

About AAUW

Founded in 1913, AAUW Murfreesboro seeks to level the playing field for women and girls to work and learn. The Middle Tennessee Fund for Women and Girls, a 501(c)3 organization, is the charitable arm of AAUW Murfreesboro. Over the last 50 years, AAUW Murfreesboro has offered the Ruth M. Houston Memorial Scholarship to an undergraduate woman at Middle Tennessee State University. In 2017, AAUW Murfreesboro launched the Butler-Fouts Memorial Graduate Scholarship for an underrepresented woman pursuing a graduate degree at MTSU. Each provides $2000 for the academic year.

Despite comprising 17.8 percent of the armed forces, women continue to face obstacles both during their military service and after, and support systems have sometimes lagged.

This was something Beverly Groogan faced when she quickly transitioned from flight nurse to mom when returning home from deployment.

“I went from 100 mph to a stop. I was expected to be Mom again,” she said at the inaugural Women Warriors Celebration, held Tuesday night, Nov. 5 on MTSU campus.

Groogan was the keynote speaker at the event that was organized by AAUW-Murfreesboro branch to celebrate women veterans.

Event organizer L’Oreal Stephens said she was inspired to create the event in advance of Veterans Day after she learned about the needs of women veterans.

“We’re doing this to say ‘thank you for all you do,’” said L’Oreal Stephens, a co-organizer of the event and a lecturer in MTSU’s Department of Communication Studies.

The honorees are:

Dr. Anita L. Herron, who served for 27 years in the U.S. Army, the last five as Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps instructor at Antioch High School;
Teresa Carter, an MTSU psychology/pre-medicine major who served in the U.S. Marine Corps;
Tabatha Wadford, an MTSU anthropology major who served in the U.S. Army as an all-source intelligence analyst;
Brittany Dinaso, a U.S. Army veteran who now is a practicing attorney in Murfreesboro;
Beverly Henley, a U.S. Air Force veteran who was named her squadron’s Airman of the Year in 1978 and her group’s Airman of the Year in 1979; and
Lesa Prime, who served 21 1/2 half years in the U.S. Air Force in security forces; her award will be accepted by Marcia F. Rambert.

Stephens said the honorees were saluted not only for their military service but also their continuing devotion to making life better for other people.

“These women are parents and students and spouses and employees and business owners, and they’re also giving back to their own communities after their military service,” Stephens said.

During her keynote, Groogan, who works as Women’s Health coordinator and Maternity Care coordinator at the Alvin C. York Veterans Administration Medical Center, spoke about “moments frozen in time.”

She recounted the patients who left an impression on her during her service as a flight nurse during Operation Iraqi Freedom. She told stories of success and failure, stories of miraculous recoveries and heart-wrenching losses on the battlefield.

“Our goal was to keep him alive until he could say goodbye,” she said about a mortally wounded officer.

Her career with the U.S. Air Force wasn’t easy. There weren’t the same reintegration or mental health support that returning military veterans get today.

She made the transition from battlefield medicine and back to her family many times from 2005-2013, spending one week to one month at a time deployed to war zones and escorting wounded soldiers from the battlefield to Germany and back stateside.

“It took me years to accept these stories as a part of my life and part of what makes me the person I am today,” Groogan said.

And even now the experiences of women veterans can differ greatly from their male counterparts, meaning their needs differ greatly too.

For many women warriors, they don’t know when and how to get the help they need.

Groogan said all they need to know is that she’s there for them at the York VA.

Women Warriors was co-sponsored by MTSU June Anderson Center for Women and Non-Traditional Students, the Hazel and MTSU Charlie Daniels Veterans and Military Family Center, MTSU President’s Commission on the Status of Women, and MTSU Institutional Equity & Compliance.

Women Warriors was made possible through the generous donations of ABLE, Anna Jarvis, Hilton-Green Hills, Calla Lily Day Spa & Salon, Chicken Salad Chick, Debra Price, Denise Joscelyn, DET Distributors, Empire Distributors, Five Senses & Steakhouse 5, Kendra Scott, Kroger Floral Department, Members of AAUW-Murfreesboro, Murfreesboro Parks & Recreation, Painting with a Twist, Ryman Auditorium, Sam’s Club, Simply Pure Sweets, Slick Pig BBQ, Starbucks, Tangerine Salon and Spa, The Alley on Main, Three French Hens, Wal-Mart, and Wild Goose Chase Events.