Last month, over 300 people gathered at the Garfield Park Conservatory for Habilitative Systems Inc.’s fifth annual Race and Health Equity Awards. This year, the awards recognized leaders in education across Chicago, including three from the West Side.
“We must recognize the relationship between race, health equity and education,” said Donald Dew, president and CEO of HSI, a longstanding behavioral health and human services organization. “When communities of color face barriers to quality education,
those inequities ripple into health outcomes, economic stability and overall well-being.”
This year’s awardees include Paul J. Adams III, executive chairman and founder of Providence St. Mel School in Garfield Park. Under decades of Adams’ leadership, 100% of Providence’s graduating seniors have been accepted to four-year colleges and higher learning institutions.
Bernard Clay was awarded as executive director and founding member of Introspect Youth Services Inc. in Austin, which provides educational services to middle and high schoolers. Since 1975, the organization has helped over 78,000 young adults enter into post-secondary education.
David Sanders, president of Malcolm X College, was also recognized. He’s helped operate and manage the college for over a decade, overseeing 15,000 students, 900 employees and a $74 million budget. He’s also currently developing Malcolm X’s West Side campus in Austin.
Other awardees included Dr. Creasier Finney Hairston, professor and dean of the Jane Addams College of Social Work at the University of Illinois Chicago; Dr. Haki Madhubuti, an award-winning poet, the founder and publisher of Third World Press and professor emeritus at Chicago State University; Carol D. Lee (Safisha Madhubuti), a professor emerita at Northwestern University’s School of Education and Social Policy; and Lisa W. Rollins, the regional development director of the Chicago Region for United Negro College Fund.
