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Community Corner

American Conference on Diversity Atlantic County Chapter "Diversity Legacy" Awards

The American Conference on Diversity Atlantic
County Chapter is honored to announce the 2013 Diversity Legacy Award
recipients. These outstanding honorees will be recognized on December 5 at the
Atlantic City Country Club: radio personality and 2012 New Jersey Broadcasters
Hall of Fame inductee Barbara Altman; Atlantic City Electric Public Affairs
Manager Adalberto “Bert” Lopez; The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey
Holocaust & Genocide Studies (the Master of Arts in Holocaust& Genocide
Studies, and the Interdisciplinary Minor in Holocaust & Genocide Studies)
- The Sam Azeez Museum of Woodbine Heritage & The Sara and
Sam Schoffer Holocaust Resource Center (a joint project of the Jewish
Federation of Atlantic and Cape May Counties).



Where: Atlantic
City Country Club, 900 Shore Rd., Northfield, NJ



When: 5:30
p.m. reception; 6:30 p.m. dinner and program

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To register: Sponsorships, advertising opportunities, and reservations
can be made at http://2013atlanticcountydinner.kintera.org.
The deadline for securing sponsorships and ads is November 25; reservations
must be made by December 2. For more information, call 732-745-9330.



“Our honorees have contributed, and continue to
contribute, to the promotion of diversity and inclusion in Atlantic County and
beyond. They are diversity ground-breakers, creating history as well as helping
us understand the importance of remembering our history,” says American
Conference on Diversity President and CEO Elizabeth Williams-Riley. “The
Atlantic County area has a rich legacy of supporting the American Conference on
Diversity and our work, whether it be participating in this annual awards
dinner, attending the annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Breakfast [January 9,
2014], or hosting one of our many community forums.”

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This year’s awards are as follows:



Community Diversity Advocate Award: Barbara Altman



Ms. Altman, radio personality and 2012 New
Jersey Broadcasters Hall of Fame inductee, is recognized as a pioneer for her
professional and community services.  A lifelong Ventnor, NJ, resident,
Ms. Altman began her broadcasting career nearly 50 years ago, becoming the
first woman to broadcast on a new FM station in Atlantic County. Regarded as
the “first lady of radio,” she currently is the host of one of the most
listened to radio talk shows, Barbara Altman’s Front Porch. The show is
broadcast on NEWS/TALK 1400 WOND and streamed on www.wond1400am.com. Barbara is also one
of the Forum 40 hosts on television station NBC40 (Linwood, NJ). Ms. Altman
turned the Atlantic City Marathon, a small, local race, into a festival drawing
runners from across the country and throughout the world. The Marathon raises
money for local charities including the Atlantic City Marathon Scholarship
Fund, for Atlantic City high-school seniors going to college, and local
high-school chapters of Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD). In
addition to being named to the NJ Broadcasters Hall of Fame, in 2007 she was
inducted into the Atlantic County Women’s Hall of Fame and was the 1999
American Mother’s Association NJ Mother of the Year. She has received numerous
awards, including the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Humanitarian Award,
Franklin Delano Roosevelt Humanitarian Award, Christopher Columbus Humanitarian
Award as well as Humanitarian Awards from the NJ Broadcasters, March of Dimes,
and Blessed Sacrament Church.



Diversity Change-Maker Award: Adalberto “Bert” Lopez




Mr. Lopez is currently a manager of government
and public affairs for Atlantic City Electric, where he has 35 years of
services in a variety of roles. He is the producer and host of a weekly TV
interview show, Latino Motion with Bert Lopez, which airs on NBC40. The
show highlights issues impacting the local South Jersey Latino community while
advancing understanding of Latino cultural heritage and Latino contributions to
our society. It covers issues such as education, healthcare, housing,
employment and such social issues as immigration and advocacy. Mr. Lopez is the
president and a founder of the Hispanic Alliance of Atlantic County. Under his
leadership, Festival Latino Americano raised thousands of dollars for
scholarships while promoting Latino cultural heritage. He is the first Latino
elected to the Atlantic City Board of Education and the first Latino to serve
as president of that board. He is a past chairman of the Atlantic/Cumberland
Chapter of the American Red Cross and has been a leader in behavioral health,
with more than 25 years of service on the AtlantiCare Behavioral Health board,
including 10 years as its chairman. Mr. Lopez also serves on the board of
AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center and is chairman of the Cumberland Economic
Development Board and the Cumberland/Salem Work Investment Board. The recipient
of numerous awards, Mr. Lopez was named a United Way Hometown Hero, received
the 2012 Life Time Achievement Award from the Richard Stockton College Council
of Black Faculty and Staff, and was honored by the Gloucester County Chapter of
the NAACP.



Diversity Legacy Award: The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey Holocaust & Genocide
Studies (the Master of Arts in Holocaust & Genocide Studies, and the
Interdisciplinary Minor in Holocaust & Genocide Studies)
- The Sam Azeez Museum of Woodbine
Heritage & The Sara and Sam Schoffer Holocaust Resource Center (a
joint project of the Jewish Federation of Atlantic and Cape May Counties)



Richard Stockton College’s Master of Art Program
in Holocaust and Genocide Studies, established in 1998, was the first of its
kind in the U.S. and attracts students from across the country. The Minor in
Holocaust and Genocide Studies provides a broad interdisciplinary study of the
Holocaust and other genocides of the 20th and 21st centuries. Studies about the
Holocaust and other genocides address a central tenet of education:  What
does it mean to be a responsible citizen in a democratic society? A unique
piece of world history is found at Stockton’s facility in Woodbine, NJ, a town
purchased by German philanthropist Baron Maurice de Hirsch to assist Russian
Jews fleeing persecution and coming to America in the 1890s. The Sam Azeez
Museum of Woodbine Heritage, listed on the National Register of Historic
Places, is a synagogue built by the settlers and consecrated in 1896. Restored
to its original integrity by Michael Azeez, president of Unitel Wireless, the
property was donated to Stockton in 2012. The museum is the official Teaching
Center for the New Jersey Commission of Holocaust and Genocide Education in
Cape May County.  The site also includes the college’s first instructional
site in Cape May County, the Anne Azeez Hall, named for donor Michael Azeez’s
mother. The museum is named for his father, who grew up in Woodbine.



The Sara and Sam Schoffer Holocaust Resource
Center is named for Sara and Sam Schoffer, survivors of the Holocaust who
settled in southern New Jersey.  Its powerful entrance includes three
20-foot sections of railroad tracks, part of a system that led from the Jewish
ghetto in the Bialystok area of Poland to concentration camps, including
Auschwitz, Birkenau, Trebinka, Theresienstadt, and Majdanek. The Center’s
mission includes educating the public as well as holding local and national
programs for teachers of the Holocaust and other genocides, combating
anti-Semitism, racism, hatred and oppression, and memorializing victims of the
Holocaust, including publishing the memoirs of Holocaust survivors. The Center
fosters academic research and serves as a repository for Holocaust materials.



About the American Conference on Diversity



The programs, services, and initiatives of the
American Conference on Diversity are among the most important work focused on
creating a more inclusive society. It is the unfinished business of living in a
highly diverse nation: educating and empowering our next generation of leaders;
enhancing our workplaces; and helping to create inclusive communities. The
American Conference on Diversity, which has been serving schools,
organizations, workplaces, and communities in New Jersey since 1948, builds on
a historic mission and creates programs and activities relevant and vital to
21st Century life. It is a journey we can all take together. The American
Conference on Diversity operates Regional Community Networks covering all of
New Jersey. Visit www.AmericanConferenceonDiversity.org
to learn more.



Contact:



Gail Zoppo



Media Relations Consultant



109 Church Street



New Brunswick, NJ 08901



gail@AmericanConferenceonDiversity.org 



732-745-9330

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