PROVIDENCE – The R.I. Commission on Women has selected three distinguished individuals to share 2007 Women of the Year honors.

The mission of the 26-member R.I. Commission on Women is to promote rights and opportunities for all women and advance the cause of gender equity. Its announcement describes the annual award as “an important way to the work of positive female role models who have made significant contributions to women in our state.”

Named were:

• Lynn T. Antonelli of Cranston, a Navy engineer and world leader in laser-based sensors technology, who pioneered an optical solution for detecting underwater sounds from the air. Since 1999, she has been providing educational laser demonstrations for local schoolchildren. Antonelli has worked to encourage middle school- and college-age women to study math and science, sharing glimpses of her life as a female engineer.

• Sister Mary Reilly of Bristol, founder and executive director of the Sophia Academy, who has spent 60 years working “to empower women and girls to meet the challenges of their world.” Besides her work at Sophia Academy, Reilly was a founding member of McAuley House and Dorcas Place and serves on the boards of directors of organizations including Day One (formerly, the Rhode Island Rape Crisis Center), The Women’s Center and the Genesis Center.

• Karen F. Stein of Kingston, an English professor who is a co-founder and the current director of the Women’s Studies Program at the University of Rhode Island. She also has “headed various committees to improve working conditions for part-time faculty, who are primarily women,” the state panel said. Stein currently serves as co-chair of the URI President’s Commission on the Status of Women.

The 2007 Women of the Year awards dinner, slated for Wednesday, Oct. 3, at the Radisson Airport Hotel in Warwick, will begin with a 6 p.m. reception. Tickets are $45 per person.

All net proceeds from the event will benefit the R.I. Commission on Women’s Freda H. Goldman Education Award, established to assist low- and moderate-income women of seeking education and training with such practical expenses as child care and tutoring.

For more information, or reservations to the Oct. 3 awards dinner, contact the R.I. Commission on Women at 225-6105 or swells@ricw.ri.gov or visit www.ricw.ri.gov.