American Conference on Diversity Atlantic County Chapter Announces 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

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.