January 16, 2007
For more information, contact:
Charlotte Stratton, 617.357.9620, x125
BOSTON— Former U.S. Sen. James M. Jeffords (I-Vt.) and noted Boston University President Emeritus John Silber are among recipients of the 2007 New England Higher Education Excellence Awards announced by the New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE).
Commenting on the 2007 award honorees, NEBHE President and CEO Evan S. Dobelle said, “The programs, institutions and individuals honored this year illustrate New England’s rich higher education resource and reflect NEBHE’s primary mission to ensure that all of our region’s students have access to quality, affordable higher education opportunities.”
Each year, NEBHE presents four regional awards to individuals and organizations that have shown exceptional leadership on behalf of higher education and the advancement of educational opportunity and six state merit awards that honor the innovative work of organizations, institutions or individuals in each New England state.
Among winners of the 2007 regional excellence awards, Silber will be honored with the regional award for lifetime achievement, named for the late Rhode Island Higher Education Commissioner Eleanor M. McMahon.
Former U.S. Sen. James M. Jeffords (I-Vt.) won the regional award for leadership named for Walter R. Peterson, who served as governor of New Hampshire from 1969 to 1973.
Former Vermont State Colleges board chair Michael Audet won the regional award for trusteeship, which is named for former University of Massachusetts President David C. Knapp.
The School of Community Economic Development at Southern New Hampshire University and the Frederick Hutchinson Center at the University of Maine will share the regional award for program achievement, which is named for former Rhode Island state senator and Newport mayor Robert J. McKenna.
The 2007 New England Higher Education Merit Awards winners are: from Connecticut, the Connecticut-Baden-Wurttemberg Sister-State Higher Education Program; from Maine, the University of Maine’s Onward Program; from Massachusetts: Irving Fradkin, founder and president emeritus of Scholarship America/Dollars for Scholars; from New Hampshire, Ingrid Lemaire, vice president for research and government relations at the New Hampshire Higher Education Assistance Foundation and Peter Sampo, founder and president emeritus of Thomas More College of Liberal Arts; from Rhode Island, The Initiative to Educate Afghan Women; and from Vermont, Gov. James H. Douglas.
NEBHE will honor the winners at an awards ceremony on Friday, March 9, at Boston’s Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel. Click here for more information about NEBHE’s New England Higher Education Excellence Awards.
[ssba]