Awards, Feb 23, 2006

The following awards have been presented for work in advocacy, fund raising, nonprofit leadership, philanthropy, and other areas.

Arts. Americans for the Arts (Washington) and the U.S. Conference of Mayors (Washington) have presented their 2006 Public Leadership in the Arts Awards. The National Award for Local Arts Leadership went to Mayor Bill Purcell of Nashville, for his support for the arts in Nashville and its identity as “Music City, U.S.A.” The National Award for State Arts Leadership went to Governor Tom Vilsack of Iowa, in recognition of his work to create arts programs in Iowa, including the Vision Iowa Program, an effort to invest in cultural, educational, and recreational attractions statewide. The 2006 National Award for Excellence in Arts Programs for Youth went to the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts/Riverfront, which provides arts training for Louisiana high-school students.

Children and youths. The National Child Labor Committee (New York) has given its Lewis Hine Award to James Piper Bond, president and chief executive officer of the Living Classrooms Foundation (Baltimore), a nonprofit group that provides disadvantaged young people with hands-on education, job training, and other programs.

Criminal justice. The Open Society Institute (New York) has announced its 2006 Soros Justice Fellows, a cohort that includes advocates, economic planners, filmmakers, lawyers, journalists, researchers, and scholars committed to improvements in the U.S. criminal-justice system. Each fellow conducts a one- to two-year project and receives a stipend that ranges between $45,000 and $76,000. The fellows and the institutions with which they are affiliated:

— Katherine Beckett, scholar, Racial Disparity Project (Seattle)

— Susan Burton, grass-roots organizer and founder, A New Way of Life Reentry Program (Los Angeles)

— Paul Butler, lawyer and scholar, Georgetown U. (Washington)

— Angela Chan, lawyer, Asian Law Caucus (San Francisco)

— Alina Das, lawyer, New York State Defenders Association (New York)

— Elisa Della-Piana, lawyer, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights (San Francisco)

— Mika’il DeVeaux, vice president, Citizens Against Recidivism (New York)

— Susan Koch, independent filmmaker (Cabin John, Md.)

— Linda LaBranche, researcher and advocate, Northwestern U., Medill School of Journalism (Evanston, Ill.)

— Dee Ann Newell, advocate, Family and Corrections Network (Little Rock, Ark.)

— Sunita Patel, lawyer, Legal Aid Society (New York)

— Robert Perkinson, assistant professor, U. of Hawaii at Manoa

— Ursula Price, senior mitigation specialist and fact investigator, A Fighting Chance (Houston)

— Debbie Reyes, grass-roots organizer, Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment (Delano, Calif.)

— Rachel Roth, scholar and author, Ibis Reproductive Health (Cambridge, Mass.)

— Cassandra Shaylor, co-founder and co-director, Justice Now (Oakland, Calif.)

— Heather Thompson, associate professor, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Direct marketing. The Direct Marketing Association Nonprofit Federation (Washington) has presented its 2006 Max Hart Achievement Award to Chris Cleghorn, executive vice president for direct and interactive marketing at Easter Seals (Chicago).

Education. The NEA Foundation (Washington) has given its Award for Outstanding Service to Public Education to former President Bill Clinton and to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (Baltimore).

Education fund raising. The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (Washington) has presented its 2006 Independent Schools Awards to individuals and corporations that have enhanced primary and secondary education. The awards and their recipients:

— The John R. Chandler Award for corporations or foundations: Bon Secours Richmond Health System (Richmond, Va.).

— The Robert Bell Crow Memorial Award for development professionals: David Dini, assistant headmaster for external affairs at St. Mark’s School of Texas (Dallas).

— The Seymour Preston Award for trustees: Carolyn Goodman, chair of the board of trustees at the Meadows School (Las Vegas).

— The Support Staff Distinguished Service Award for nonprofessional development staff members: Miriam Graves Kenney, special-events coordinator at the Wheeler School (Providence, R.I.).

Health. The Venice Family Clinic (Calif.) has received the 2005 Foster G. McGaw Prize for Excellence in Community Service, which recognizes groups that provide innovative programs and services that promote the health and well-being of community members. The $100,000 prize is sponsored by the American Hospital Association (Chicago), the Baxter International Foundation (Deerfield, Ill.), and the Cardinal Health Foundation (Dublin, Ohio). In addition, three organizations were named finalists and each received $10,000: Franklin Community Health Network (Farmington, Me.), Healthy Communities Initiative of Bartholomew County (Columbus, Ind.), and Pitt County Memorial Hospital (Greenville, N.C.).

Humanitarianism. The Charles Bronfman Prize (New York) has presented its $100,000 humanitarian award to Alon Tal, founder of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies (Kibbutz Ketura, Israel) and the Israel Union for Environmental Defense (Tel Aviv). The prize is bestowed upon individuals under 50 whose achievements “are emblematic of Jewish values and a regard for humanity that inspire the emerging generation.”

Leadership. Wendy Kopp, president and founder of Teach for America (New York), is the inaugural recipient of the Austin College Leadership Award. The award, which comes with a $100,000 prize, underscores the college’s emphasis on servant leadership and was created to honor an individual who has applied his or her leadership skills to make a positive impact on society.

Libraries and museums. The Institute of Museum and Library Services (Washington) has announced the 2005 recipients of its National Awards for Museum and Library Service. Following are the winning institutions, each of which will receive $10,000: COSI Toledo (Ohio), Johnson County Library (Overland Park, Kan.), Levine Museum of the New South (Charlotte, N.C.), Mathews Memorial Library (Va.), Pratt Museum (Homer, Alaska), and the St. Paul Public Library.

Volunteerism. The Association of Fundraising Professionals (Alexandria, Va.) has presented its 2006 William R. Simms Award for Outstanding Youth in Philanthropy to Vasanth Kuppuswamy, a 16-year-old who attends the Academic Magnet High School (Charleston, S.C.) and has been teaching English to children in the village schools of Maganoorpatti, India, for the past several years.

Women. The Ms. Foundation for Women (New York) has announced the 2006 recipients of its Gloria Steinem Women of Vision Awards. Following are the recipients and a brief description of their activities:

— Woman of Vision Awards: Margaret Chapman, executive director of West Virginia Free (Charleston), which works to guarantee the reproductive rights of women statewide, and Jaribu Hill, executive director of the Mississippi Workers’ Center for Human Rights (Greenville), who has been successful in combating discrimination in employment, housing, and voting.

— Young Woman of Vision: Lamika Ferdinand, a 16-year-old who works with the Center for Young Women’s Development (San Francisco) and uses her own experiences with the juvenile-justice system to assist at-risk teenagers and young women.

— Woman of Vision Corporate Philanthropy: Betty Cohen, president and chief executive officer of Lifetime Entertainment Services (New York), who directs Lifetime’s television programs, public education, and advocacy work on behalf of women and girls.

— Woman of Vision and Action: Susan Grode, a partner at Katten, Muchin, and Rosenman (Los Angeles), a former Ms. Foundation Board member, and a founder of the Hollywood Women’s Political Committee and the California Women’s Law Center (Los Angeles).