Phenomenal Woman, that’s Jessica Davis: RN-B.S. student named 2026 Phenomenal Woman Award recipient

By Sophia Oppedisano Editor-in-Chief The Dean of Students Office recognized 39 nominees for the 19th annual Phenomenal Woman Award Ceremony in recognition of Women’s History Month. The honor was presented to RN-B.S. nursing student Jessica Davis at the ceremony March 26. Rachel Spezia, associate dean of students, broke from tradition and rather than reading just an excerpt from Davis’ nomination, she read the nomination in its entirety. “It’s a very beautiful nomination,” she said. Her nominator wrote, “What distinguishes this person is the way she has used her lived experience as a domestic violence survivor into a powerful source of leadership and advocacy, rather than allowing trauma to silence her. She has stated that she has chosen to move forward with clarity, courage, and a sense of responsibility to others.” Davis “imagines primary health care, not simply as a clinical service, but as an act of social justice, one that honors the mind, body, and spirit of every survivor. This is not an abstract ideal for her. It is a mission she is already pursuing through her academic work, her advocacy, and her daily interactions,” her nominator added. The 2025 Phenomenal Woman, Meghan Larkin, associate director of Student Experience, presented the award to Davis. Prior to the presentation of the award, President Nancy Niemi gave the opening remarks. “We have to keep fighting. And as we keep fighting and making equity, we also have to keep singing, and we have to keep celebrating, because we need to recognize the phenoms who we already are. We are phenomenal, and I am thrilled to celebrate that phenomenalness with you,” she said. Following Niemi’s address, the keynote speaker and 2017 Phenomenal Woman Lisa Eck, chair of the English department, gave her remarks. Eck has found college campuses to be “the place where I have felt most empowered, to become my best uncensored self, to take risks, to take influence, and to feel and to collaborate with others to make new things happen.” Her advice for “living your own best phenomenal life” included committing to your community, travelling “so that you can learn to feel at home in this phenomenal world,” and finding joy in your body and “the ongoing performance that is you.” Eck said every nominee this year has changed Framingham State and committed to our community by simply being their own phenomenal self. “Looking out at all of you today, I appreciate our community more than ever. We need each other's love and support to become who we most want to be. We need events like this to bring us together and help us become visible to each other,” she added. David Baldwin, director of Human Resources and founder of the event, presented all of the nominees. He gestured out to the crowd of nominees and their guests adorned in the color purple. “Purple represents royalty. … [Spezia] has you wear purple today, because you're all queens, and you need to stand in that and be ready to accept that, because that's most important. No one in this room would be here without a woman,” he said. The ceremony concluded in accordance with a tradition that has stood since the inaugural Phenomenal Woman Ceremony in 2007: a video of the Phenomenal Woman poem performed by Maya Angelou.