Awards, Mar 23, 2006

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

Asian-Americans. The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (New York) has presented its 2006 AALDEF Justice in Action Awards, which honor “exceptional individuals who have paved the way for racial justice and equality for Asian-Americans,” to Ivan K. Fong, executive vice president and chief legal officer at Cardinal Health (Dublin, Ohio); Charles J. Ogletree Jr., a professor at Harvard Law School (Cambridge, Mass.); and Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation (New York).

Health. Grantmakers In Health (Washington) has presented its 2006 Terrance Keenan Leadership Award in Health Philanthropy to Robert Eckardt, senior vice president for programs and evaluation at the Cleveland Foundation. Mr. Eckardt was recognized for his innovative approaches to grant making and for his use of philanthropic resources to deal with important yet neglected health issues.

Philanthropy. The Association of Fundraising Professionals (Alexandria, Va.) has presented its 2006 William R. Simms Award for Outstanding Youth in Philanthropy, Ages 18-23, to the Midland College Students in Philanthropy Club. The club was established in 1997 by the Abell-Hanger Foundation (Midland, Tex.) and Midland College. Since the program’s inception, more than 236 students have participated, and 132 grants totaling more than $147,000 have been awarded to various charities.

Religion. The John Templeton Foundation (West Conshohocken, Pa.) has presented its 2006 Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities to John D. Barrow, a professor of mathematical sciences at the U. of Cambridge (England). The award, which includes a cash prize of £795,000 (approximately $1.4-million), honors work that advances understanding of spirituality. Mr. Barrow is a cosmologist who has used insights from astronomy, mathematics, and physics to challenge scientists and theologians to work outside the traditional boundaries of their disciplines when considering such concepts as time, space, and the universe. The most recent of his 17 books is The Infinite Book: A Short Guide to the Boundless, Timeless and Endless, published by Pantheon in 2005.