Dr. Frances Lucas-Tauchar, the president of Millsaps College, has been chosen as the 2002 Business Woman of the Year by the Mississippi Business Journal. Lucas-Tauchar, the tenth president of the Jackson college, was honored along with 11 other finalists at a Jan. 23 awards luncheon held at the Mississippi Trade Mart.

"I'm honored to be included in such an impressive and accomplished group of business women," Lucas-Tauchar said. "The work of these professionals exemplifies all that women have achieved in the workplace and the valuable contributions women can make to the business world."

Lucas-Tauchar came to Millsaps from Emory University in Atlanta, Ga., where she served as Senior Vice President for Campus Life. A 1978 alumna of Mississippi State University, she received her M.A. and Ph.D. in administration of higher education from the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. Lucas-Tauchar has also studied at the Institute for Educational Management at Harvard University.

Lucas-Tauchar has served as a student affairs administrator at both Baldwin-Wallace College and Mississippi State University. She is a member of the Southern Association of Student College Administrators, which awarded her the Bob Leach Award for outstanding contributions in 1998. Lucas-Tauchar is also a member of the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (Region III), which honored her in 1995 with the John Jones Award for Outstanding Performance by a Dean.

The awards luncheon was sponsored by Baptist Health Systems, BellSouth, the Mississippi Business Journal and the Mississippi Economic Council.