15th ANNUAL ALUMNI AWARDS ANNOUNCED
Recognizing outstanding achievement and service
Get your applause ready. The 15th Annual Alumni Awards are coming up on Saturday, December 12, at Foy Hall on the Priscilla Payne Hurd Campus. Registration begins at 4:00 pm, followed by the awards ceremony at 4:30 and a light dinner reception at 6:00. Alyson Remsing ’03, President of the Moravian University Alumni Association, will serve as Master of Ceremonies. Here’s a sneak peek at this year’s winners:
Emerging Leader Award: Jessica Preston Grillo ‘08
This award is presented to an alumna or alumnus who graduated within the last ten years and who has shown exceptional leadership and dedicated service to Moravian University.
Jessica Grillo ‘08 has served the campus community both as Secretary and Communications Chair of the Alumni Board and is currently President-Elect. In those roles, Grillo has been an active leader in a variety of significant alumni events.
Young Alumni Achievement Award: Jonathan E. Latiano ‘06
This honor is presented to an alumna or alumnus who has achieved exceptional success in his or her profession and who graduated within the past two to ten years.
Sculptor, Jonathan Latiano ‘06, whose work has appeared in art exhibitions across the country and in London, won the prestigious Mary Sawyers Baker Prize in Art in 2013, which led to his first solo museum exhibition at the Baltimore Museum of Art. He was recently awarded his first major permanent public arts commission by the City of Baltimore, which is scheduled to debut in 2017.
Benigna Education Award: Joseph M. Shosh, PhD, ‘88
The Benigna Education Award recognizes an alumna or alumnus for his or her outstanding contributions to the field of education.
Chair of the Education Department at Moravian University, Joseph M. Shosh, PhD, ‘88 also directs the action-research-based graduate education program. He is respected nationally and internationally as one of the world’s leading Action Researchers. Furthermore, Shosh is one of five international initiators of the Action Research Network of the Americas and currently serves as the Chair of the Executive Committee of the Coordinating Group.
Medallion of Merit: Amy Lesser Mende ’76 (posthumously)
This honor is awarded to an alumna or alumnus in recognition of his or her outstanding service to Moravian University or the Alumni Association.
Amy Lesser Mende ‘76 served her Alma Mater as an unwaveringly loyal volunteer for nearly 40 years. Her dedicated service to Moravian included volunteering on the Alumni Association’s Alumni Weekend Committee, as well as its Homecoming Committee, where she assisted with registration, coordinated tours, and helped plan weekend-long events.
Haupert Humanitarian Award: Steven J. Milligan ‘86
This award honors an alumna or alumnus who has rendered outstanding service in the cause of human welfare.
Steven Milligan ’86 founded TOPSPORTS in 2000 to provide free athletic activities and social interaction for special needs children and their families. Since its formation, TOPSPORTS has gone from a soccer program serving six children to an organization that offers several recreational and athletic activities for more than 500 special needs children throughout Philadelphia, Bucks, and Montgomery counties.
Comenius Alumni Award: Odell Guyton, Esq. ‘77
The Comenius Award is given in recognition of outstanding achievement or service in an alumna's or alumnus' field of work. This is the Alumni Association's lifetime achievement award.
Odell Guyton, Esq. ‘77 earned his B.A. in Criminal Justice from Moravian in 1977 and his law degree from American University, Washington College of Law. After earning his law degree, Guyton was hired by then District Attorney, Edward G. Rendell, as an Assistant District Attorney for the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office where he was instrumental in establishing Pennsylvania’s Victim Witness Assistant Programs. Later, Guyton was appointed Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and was honored with the prestigious Director’s Award for Superior Performance as an Assistant U.S. Attorney.
The 2015 Alumni Fellows
In addition to alumni awards, the Alumni Association annually recognizes several full-time Moravian University students for their superior scholastic merit and the outstanding contributions they have made to campus life and to the community. Congratulations to this year’s fellows:
Meghan Cote ’16 of Stewartsville, New Jersey. Cote is an English major and Spanish and management double minor.
David Pasquale ’16 is an economics and finance major and management minor from Orfield, Pennsylvania.
Kimberly Polanco ’16 of Reading, Pennsylvania. Polanco is a nursing major.
Kate Polles ’17 is an accounting major and business management and sociology double minor from Nazareth, Pennsylvania.
To read more about any of these award winners, go to http://www.moravian.edu/alumniAwards
To nominate an alumna or alumnus for the 2016 Alumni Awards, click here.