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
Find out what's happening in Basking Ridgewith free, real-time updates from Patch.
When: 5:30 p.m. reception; 6:30 p.m. dinner and program
Find out what's happening in Basking Ridgewith free, real-time updates from Patch.
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.”
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 1980s.
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.
