Honors and Awards

• Sacramento City College and Los Angeles Valley College received the John W. Rice Diversity and Equity Award from the California Community Colleges Board of Governors. The award is given to California community colleges that have successfully advanced diversity in staff, faculty, and student enrollments.

The award is named for John W. Rice, the longtime educator who served for eight years on the board of governors of the California community college system. Rice, who died in 2000, was the father of former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Dr. Rice is currently a professor of political science at Stanford University and also the Thomas and Barbara Stephenson Senior Fellow on Public Policy at the Hoover Institution. She was on hand in Sacramento when the awards were made.

• Edgar Johnson, diversity initiatives specialist at the State University Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse, New York, received the 2009 Award for Excellence from the SUNY Council for University Advancement. Johnson has been honored for his work in the marrow donor and clinical trials recruitment and education program.

• Isaiah McGee, chair of the department of music at Claflin University in South Carolina, received the 2009 Excellence in Teaching Award from the association of South Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities. Professor McGee has been on the Claflin faculty since 1997.

• Chuck Harris, a surgeon practicing in a rural area in southwest Virginia, received the Catharine Lealtad Award from Macalester College. The award is given annually to an alumnus/a of color who has distinguished him- or herself through service to the community.