Named for the 10th president of Florida State University, the Bernard F. Sliger Award is the single highest honor given by the FSU Alumni Association. This award recognizes a member of the university community who has made a major contribution toward the fulfillment of the mission of Florida State University. Winners of the Bernard F. Sliger Award, named below, are automatically accorded membership into the Circle of Gold.
Sally Karioth
(M.S. ’72, Ph.D. ’77), College of Education
Tallahassee, FL
Dr. Sally Karioth is a nationally renowned grief therapist and longtime faculty member of the Florida State University College of Nursing. For more than 40 years, Karioth has been in private practice focused on parents who have lost a child to death.
A Certified Traumatologist (CT), Karioth counseled the survivors of the 9/11 terrorist attack on the Pentagon and children who lost parents in the World Trade Center. Karioth is called frequently as a commentator and expert on worldwide traumatic events and speaks to tragedy survivors and mental health officials suffering compassion fatigue. Karioth is an author, a TED Talk speaker, has appeared in two award-winning films and teaches one of the university’s most popular courses, “Death, the Individual and the Family.”
A lauded professor beloved by students, Karioth has no shortage of awards from FSU. She’s a member of the Mortar Board, Omicron Delta Kappa (ODK), Circle of Gold, Phi Kappa Phi and Gold Key. In addition, she’s received FSU’s Undergraduate Teaching Award, Ross Oglesby Award, FSU Transformation through Teaching Award, Guardian of the Flame Award, Burning Spear Award and has been recognized by the College of Education as an outstanding alumna.