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Defender of Diversity

In 1994 the LGBTSFA initiated the Defender of Diversity award. It is given each year to an Ally or Allies who have made distinguished contributions to the LGBT community. It has been administered by the Office of LGBT Equity since 1999.

The award contains the following quotation.

It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man [or woman] stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he [or she] sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.
--Robert Kennedy, South Africa, 1966

Award Winners

  • 2009 C. D. Mote, Jr., President, University of Maryland, College Park

  • 2008 Paul Dillon, Patrol Commander, Public Safety

  • 2007 Donna B. Hamilton, Associate Provost for Academic Affairs and Dean for Undergraduate Studies

  • 2006 Laura D. Scott, Organizational Development Specialist, Center for Leadership and Organizational Change

  • 2005 Susan Bayly, General Counsel, Office of Legal Affairs

  • 2004 Nancy Yeroshefsky, Assistant Director for Human Resources, Facilities Management

  • 2003 Gay Gullickson, Professor of History at the University of Maryland and Chair of the University Senate Human Relations Committee

  • 2002 Victor Korenman, Associate Provost at the University of Maryland

  • 2001 Sheila E. Hixson, Delegate to the Maryland Legislature

  • 2000 Marie S. Davidson, Chief of Staff to the President of the University of Maryland

  • 1999 Parris N. Glendening, Governor of the State of Maryland

  • 1998 William E. Kirwan, President of the University of Maryland

  • 1997 Sharon M. Grosfeld, Delegate to the Maryland Legislature

  • 1996 Margaret Alton, Regent of the University System of Maryland

  • 1995 Cheryl Kagan, Delegate to the Maryland Legislature

  • 1994 Hank Dobin and Art Eckstein, Professors at the University of Maryland

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