This award is named for Wilma D. Stricklin, a member of the pathfinder generation of women at the university, who took it as an obligation to make the way easier for those who would follow. Stricklin was elected the first chair of the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women and was instrumental in the establishment of NIU's Office of University Resources for Women (now the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center).
Each award recipient is given a work of art created by a woman.