President Broderick Receives Impacting Lives Award from Local Newspaper New Journal and Guide
October 27, 2016
President John R. Broderick
John R. Broderick, Old Dominion University's eighth president, was among nine Hampton Roads citizens honored at the third annual Impacting Lives breakfast hosted by the local newspaper The New Journal and Guide.
The gathering was part of the newspaper's 116th anniversary celebration. The New Journal and Guide is Virginia's oldest African-American weekly newspaper.
Brenda Andrews, the owner and publisher of the New Journal and Guide, recognized Broderick for his commitment to diversity and inclusiveness at Old Dominion and in the community. The proclamation presented at the celebration said President Broderick "is known on and off the campus for leadership in forging progress at Old Dominion, solving real-world problems and building on the region's strengths."
In 2013, Old Dominion's Board of Visitors renamed the University's Diversity Champion Award for President Broderick to recognize his commitment to diversity and inclusion, which has helped create a vibrant, multicultural campus.
Last fall, Old Dominion enrolled nearly 6,000 African-Americans, more than any other public four-year school in Virginia, as well as students from more than 100 countries.
At the opening of the Kate and John R. Broderick Dining Commons, which was named after Old Dominion's first family following a suggestion by student leaders, President Broderick challenged the University community to bring that spirit of fellowship in the new state-of-the-art dining facility.
"Help me keep my promise that nobody on this campus ever feels alone or marginalized," President Broderick said at the dedication for the building in September, which was attended by more than 1,500. "Kate and I sincerely hope the dining facility is a setting to spend time to better know and understand each other."
President Broderick's others honors have included the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities' Humanitarian Award, the Urban League of Hampton Roads' Marian Palmer Capps Award and a Visionary Award from the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce.
The Impacting Lives Award proclamation also thanked Broderick for the "25-plus-year partnership" that the newspaper has maintained with Old Dominion, "which has advertised monthly in the pages of New Journal and Guide, to present the ODU message of inclusion and diversity."
Other Impacting Lives Award recipients were writer E. Curtis Alexander; Berkley historian Matthew Austin Sr.; musician Geraldine T. Boone; WTKR NewsChannel 3 anchor Barbara Ciara; Melvin O. Marriner, senior pastor of Grove Church in Portsmouth; composer Julius McCullough, and Apostle Joyce White Tasby of the Young People's Guild School of Performing Arts.
Evelyn Sears Peevy, a retired educator and school counselor in her 90s, received a special recognition award from New Journal and Guide for her life-long advocacy and education efforts with the local African-American community.
Founded on April 14, 1900, The New Journal and Guide is Virginia's oldest African-American weekly newspaper. It is a member of the African American Press, comprising more than 300 newspapers across the United States.