Awards, Jun 26, 2003

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

Arts. Americans for the Arts (Washington) has presented several awards at its annual meeting. Craig Dreeszen, former director of the Arts Extension Service at the U. of Massachusetts at Amherst, received the 2003 Selina Roberts Ottum Award, which recognizes outstanding local arts leadership. Janet T. Langsam, executive director of the Westchester Arts Council (White Plains, N.Y.), received the 2003 Michael Newton Award, which recognizes exemplary leadership and dedication to supporting the arts through a united arts fund. Harriet Traurig, director of the San Jose Public Art Program (Calif.), received the inaugural Public Art Network Award, which recognizes innovative contributions to public art.

Opera America (Washington) has announced the winners of its 2003 Success Awards, which honor efforts to increase Americans’ knowledge of opera and to encourage attendance at opera performances. The Lyric Opera of Kansas City (Mo.) was honored for working with the U. of Missouri at Kansas City to offer a two-day class on the relationship between opera and other art forms. The Utah Symphony & Orchestra (Salt Lake City) was honored for an internship program that helps high-school students create their own operas with the assistance of a composer, a stage director, and other orchestra employees. Opera America also honored several businesses for their contributions to opera companies. The Brown-Forman Corporation (Louisville, Ky.) was named Corporation of the Year for providing the Kentucky Opera (Louisville) with products, guidance about online advertising, and financial support. Other corporations, in the following regions, were named recipients of Bravo Awards:

— Canada. RBC Financial Group (Toronto), for helping the Vancouver Opera extend its outreach program to schools throughout British Columbia.

— Eastern United States. General Dynamics (Falls Church, Va.), for underwriting productions of the Washington Opera.

— Midwestern United States. Convergence Enterprises (Austin, Tex.), for contributing financial support and marketing and business advice to the Austin Lyric Opera.

— Western United States. ConocoPhillips (Houston), for financial donations and for lending its facilities to the Anchorage Opera to stage events.

Disabilities. The Disability Funders Network (Falls Church, Va.) has presented its inaugural William Diaz Impact Award to Nelson Colón, president of the Puerto Rico Community Foundation (San Juan), for his support of job-training and job-placement programs for people with disabilities. The award, which carries a $500 cash prize, was created in memory of William Diaz, one of the founders of the Puerto Rico Community Foundation.

Health. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (Princeton, N.J.) has named the recipients of its Community Health Leadership Awards. The following recipients will each receive $120,000:

— Elroy Christopher and Clayton Guyton, founders and co-directors of the Rose Street Community Center (Baltimore), where people from a high-crime neighborhood receive substance-abuse treatment and job training.

— Sandra Cox, founder and executive director of the Coalition of Mental Health Professionals (Los Angeles), which offers mental-health services to people in South Los Angeles who have low-wage jobs. Ms. Cox also started programs to provide housing for chronically mentally ill people and counseling for victims of domestic violence.

— Jose Garcia, a pharmacist and founder of Project Coordinating Ambulatory Referrals from the Emergency Room (CARE) at R.E. Thomason Hospital (El Paso), which treats and educates Mexican-American men with asthma and diabetes.

— John Gusha, founder and project director of the Central Massachusetts Oral Health Initiative (Holden, Mass.), a clinic where volunteer dentists offer oral-health screenings and teach mothers about preventing tooth decay.

— Arnell Hinkle, founder and executive director of the California Adolescent Nutrition and Fitness Program (Berkeley), which makes grants to youth groups for projects designed to reduce adolescent obesity.

— Nina Lomely-Baker, director of family services at the Mental Health Association of South Central Kansas (Wichita), who helps families find health care services and school programs designed to assist emotionally disturbed children.

— Silvia Portillo, health-project lead organizer at the Tenants’ and Workers’ Support Committee (Alexandria, Va.), who trains Latinos in Northern Virginia to press for expanded access to health care.

— Martha Ryan, founder and executive director of the Homeless Prenatal Program (San Francisco), which organizes formerly homeless mothers to provide information about prenatal care to homeless women.

— Guadalupe Sanchez de Otero, founder and director of the Andrew Sanchez Memorial Youth Center (Columbus, N.M.), which provides recreational programs for the children of farm workers and hot meals for elderly people.

— Alice Marie Slaven-Emond, founder and executive director of the Northeast San Juan County Health and Wellness Center (Aztec, N.M.), a clinic that provides health services to the families of working people who lack health insurance.

Nonprofit management. The Axelson Center for Nonprofit Management at North Park U. (Chicago) has presented its Alford-Axelson Awards for Nonprofit Managerial Excellence, which honor nonprofit groups in the Chicago area. The awards went to Cristo Rey Jesuit High School (Chicago), for nonprofit organizations with annual budgets of less than $5-million; and to the John G. Shedd Aquarium (Chicago), for organizations with annual budgets of $5-million or more. Each winner received a $5,000 unrestricted grant.

Public service. Independent Sector (Washington) has named Robert L. Payton, professor emeritus of philanthropic studies at the Indiana U. Center on Philanthropy at Indiana U.-Purdue U. Indianapolis, the recipient of the 2003 John W. Gardner Leadership Award. The award, which includes a $10,000 prize, recognizes Mr. Payton for his research on philanthropy. As one of the founders and the first full-time director of the Center on Philanthropy, Mr. Payton, a former president of the Exxon Education Foundation, is a longtime proponent of the study of nonprofit organizations and has advocated the creation of academic centers for philanthropy at colleges and universities worldwide.