Awards, Jan 25, 2007

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

Humanities. The Grawemeyer Foundation at the U. of Louisville (Ky.) has announced the recipients of the 2007 Grawemeyer Awards, which were presented in four categories. Each recipient receives a $200,000 honorarium. The award in religion is given jointly with the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. The winners:

— Education. James Comer, a professor of child psychiatry at Yale U.’s School of Medicine (New Haven, Conn.), for his work to improve student achievement, including his book Leave No Child Behind: Preparing Today’s Youth for Tomorrow’s World, in which he argues that education works best when parents, teachers, and community members come together to support personal growth among children.

— Ideas for improving world order. Roland Paris, a professor of public and international affairs at the U. of Ottawa, for his book At War’s End: Building Peace After Civil Conflict, which espouses his ideas that, to secure peace in Afghanistan, trade organizations and international alliances must focus on training Afghan police and soldiers, ferreting out governmental corruption, and keeping Pakistani Taliban insurgents out of the country.

— Psychology. Leonardo Fogassi, Vittorio Gallese, and Giacomo Rizzolatti, professors of human physiology at the U. of Parma (Italy), for their research on systems of brain cells that may explain how people empathize, communicate, and learn from others.

— Religion. Timothy Tyson, a senior scholar of documentary studies at Duke U. (Durham, N.C.), for his book Blood Done Sign My Name, an account of the 1970 murder of a young black man by two white men in North Carolina.

International. Alcan (Montreal) and the International Business Leaders Forum (London) have presented the 2006 Alcan Prize for Sustainability to the Barefoot College (Rajasthan, India) for its efforts to teach practical skills to people in rural communities and help them acquire the training to become accountants, engineers, health workers, and teachers in order to serve their villages. The $1-million award is given annually to a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization in recognition of its contributions to “economic, environmental, or social sustainability.”

Nonprofit research. The Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (Indianapolis) has presented its 2006 awards honoring members’ accomplishments. The recipients:

— Elizabeth Boris, director of the Center for Nonprofits and Philanthropy at the Urban Institute (Washington), was presented with the award for Distinguished Achievement and Leadership in Nonprofit and Voluntary Action Research for helping develop and implement the National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities.

— Mark Chaves of the U. of Arizona (Tucson) received the award for Outstanding Book in Nonprofit and Voluntary Action Research for Congregations in America.

— Jiang Ru of Stanford U. (Calif.) received the Gabriel G. Rudney Award for Outstanding Dissertation in Nonprofit and Voluntary Action Research for his dissertation entitled “Environmental NGO’s in China: The Interplay of State Controls, Agency Interests and NGO Strategies.”

— Paul F. Salipante of the Mandel Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Case Western Reserve U. (Cleveland Heights, Ohio) and Judith Y. Weisinger of New Mexico State U. (Las Cruces) shared the award for Outstanding Article published in Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly for their essay entitled “A Grounded Theory for Building Ethnically Bridging Social Capital in Voluntary Organizations.”

Public interest. Public Citizen (Washington) has presented its Phyllis McCarthy Public Interest Service Award to Marlene Thorpe, an archivist at the Center for Study of Responsive Law (Washington), which conducts research and educational projects to encourage economic, political, and social institutions to be more aware of citizen and consumer needs. The award honors people who have worked for lengthy stints at public-interest groups, but have received little or no acclaim.