Elaine M. Watson, executive vice president for operations at Barat College and vice president of the Barat Campus, is receiving DePaul University’s highest academic honor – the Via Sapientiae Award – prior to her retirement June 30.

Established in 1961, the Via Sapientiae Award takes its name from the university’s motto: Via Sapientiae Monstrabo Tibi (Proverbs 4:11), which translates from the Latin, as “I will show you the way to wisdom.”

These words capture the institution’s educational mission and values and provide the criteria for evaluating the extraordinary contributions of those persons who have spent their professional lives in the university’s service, said the Rev. John P. Minogue, C.M., DePaul’s president.

The award is conferred upon faculty or staff members upon their retirement or posthumously. Watson is one of three retirees who will receive the award June 16 during the commencement ceremonies for DePaul’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Watson has spent the last 38 years of her life at DePaul, beginning as an undergraduate and moving through the ranks, including vice president for administration and secretary of the university, the first woman and layperson to hold that position.

Most recently, in February of 2001, Watson took the helm at Barat when the small liberal arts college in Lake Forest formed an alliance with Chicago-based DePaul University. “Obviously, my time here has been a time of transition, which some might view as difficult,” Watson said. “I chose to see it as an enormous opportunity, one that turned out to be very gratifying. It stretched me as a leader, and I will never be the same for it.”

Watson began her DePaul career as a fine collector in the university library, soon after earning a degree in mathematics. In subsequent years, she took on more than a dozen different roles within the university, including associate library director; manager for organizational development; director of administration; and associate vice president for administration. She also established the Office of the Centennial and oversaw the university’s yearlong 100th anniversary celebration in 1998.

She earned a master’s degree in business administration from DePaul and a master’s in library science from Rosary College in River Forest, Ill.

Watson became known as an expert in identifying and implementing cost-containing and service-enhancing operations for the university. She chaired DePaul’s process facilitation teams, improving services while saving more than $500,000 annually. She initiated a voluntary budget savings plan that cut expenditures by 1.5 percent across the university. In addition, she established and managed several operational departments, including a centralized purchasing department, a telecommunications department, a printing and duplicating department and a parking services department.

This expertise earned Watson several awards, including the Charlotte Danstrom Woman of Achievement Award from Women in Management in 1985, and the National Association of College and University Business Officers’ 1987 Cost Reduction Award. Her commitment to the university was recognized with the Spirit of DePaul Award in 1999.

In addition, Watson has been quite active in furthering the development of higher education administration across the country. She has served on numerous committees with the Central Association of College and University Business Officers (CACUBO) and the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO), including terms on the board of directors for both associations. During the 1996-1997 program year, she served as CACUBO president.