News Media Home | Hopkins Medicine Home
January 7, 2002
MEDIA CONTACT: Beth Simpkins
PHONE: 410-955-4288
E-MAIL: bsimpkins@jhmi.edu
Coretta Scott King Comes To Hopkins
For the 20th year, Johns Hopkins will remember and honor civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., with tributes, music and community service awards. This year's event takes place at noon, Jan. 11 in Turner Auditorium (720 Rutland Ave.), and features civil rights activist Coretta Scott King, widow of the late Rev. Dr. King Jr. as keynote speaker.
In keeping with Hopkins tradition, the celebration will also recognize employee volunteerism, with a presentation of the institutions' Martin Luther King Award for Community Service. (A list of winners, with a description of their contributions is attached.)
Levi Watkins, M.D., associate dean for postdoctoral programs at the School
of Medicine and a professor of cardiac surgery, again presides as master of
ceremonies. Unified Voices, a chorus comprised of Hopkins employees and community
members, will perform special music.
Mrs. King will receive the MLK Ideals Award in recognition of her outstanding
service and commitment to civil rights programs and principles.
Previous speakers at this yearly celebration have included Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Rosa Parks, Harry Belafonte, Dick Gregory, Andrew Young, Stevie Wonder, Kweisi Mfume, Julian Bond, Maya Angelou, Taylor Branch, and Hopkins surgeons Ben Carson and Watkins.
Martin Luther King Jr. Community Service Award
Chirag B. Patel
Graduate Student
Biomedical Engineering
The Johns Hopkins University
A native of Spring, Texas, Chirag Patel arrived in Baltimore as an undergraduate
at Johns Hopkins and immediately volunteered with the English for Speakers of
Other Languages (ESOL) Program at Greater Homewood, teaching classes and tutoring
students one-on-one. In the summer of 2000, he mobilized more than 600 freshmen
for 27 service projects throughout Baltimore City, picking up many of the donations
and delivering them to the sites himself. As a graduate student, Patel has continued
his involvement and broadened its scope, volunteering in the Adult Emergency
Department at Hopkins Hospital.
Christine Gilliard
Infant Teacher, Early Head Start
Martin Luther King Jr., Head Start at Park Avenue
The Johns Hopkins Hospital
Christine Gilliard's community service begins at home. Collaborating with her
husband, who is pastor of Mount Carmel Baptist Church, she has served in multiple
volunteer and leadership roles, including her work with the Assistance for Youth
Academic Counseling Program, as a bible-schoolteacher and youth counselor, and
as director of the youth choir. In the 12 years since Mount Carmel began, the
congregation has grown from 26 to 1000, and Gilliard's youth choir, which began
with four participants, now numbers 110 children. As a result of her master's
thesis research on the dropout rate of teen mothers in East Baltimore, Gilliard
has begun mentoring young women, and in 2000, she helped a teen mother obtain
housing, maintain proper health for herself and her children, and continue her
education.
Clarence Booker Jr.
Counselor
Department of Psychiatry, First Step Day Hospital
The Johns Hopkins Hospital
Clarence Booker Jr. has a long and diverse history of community service. He
mentors adolescents suffering from substance abuse and low self-esteem, organizes
a regular clothing drive for Hopkins patients, serves as a deacon in his church,
where he has a sick and shut-in ministry, and finds time to read and shop for
sick or lonely senior citizens. Two years ago, Booker heard of a family whose
East Baltimore rowhouse had been destroyed by fire. Booker and his wife, after
discussing what they could do to help, gave the family a bedroom set. "The
people had young children," he told a friend. "And it was cold."
Gary Novak
Research Associate
Oncology Center Services Division
The Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine
For the past five years, Gary Novak has been the catalyst and coordinator of
the Dunbar Student Program, providing intensive, laboratory-based experiences
and support for up to eight Paul Laurence Dunbar Community High School students
each year. Arranging for these students to work as part of a team in designated
cancer research laboratories with some of the best-known cancer researchers
in the world, Novak expects them one day to become scientists working to cure
disease, heading-up labs of their own.
Kay Glisan
Facilities Services Manager
Department of Medicine
The Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine
For the last two years, Kay Glisan has organized and run the Hopkins contribution
to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, inspiring volunteers and participants
with her dedication and enthusiasm. As a captain and volunteer, she has helped
the JDRF Walk raise nearly $90,000, earning Johns Hopkins Medicine a national
fund-raising award and moving scientists closer to finding a cure for her daughter
and 16 million other Americans with diabetes.
Linda Dunn
Patient Information Coordinator
Department of Psychiatry, Community Psychiatry Program
The Johns Hopkins Hospital
For more than 30 years, Linda Dunn's work has benefitted the mentally ill, an
often forgotten segment of the population. Co-workers praise her modesty, generosity,
optimism and kindness with patients. Dunn spends all year collecting personal-care
items for "care packages" for more than 60 patients, which she distributes
each Christmas. Her greatest gift, one co-worker said, is "the respect
and friendship" she gives to her "family" of chronically mentally
ill, celebrating and commiserating with those who spend much of their lives
marginalized by society.
Loretta I. Hoepfner
Administrative Assistant/Supervisor
Division of General Internal Medicine
The Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine
Loretta I. Hoepfner's dedication to community service has benefitted many organizations,
including the American Lung Association of Maryland and the Susan G. Komen Breast
Cancer Foundation. In addition to leadership roles in both organizations, she
also enjoys working "in the trenches." In the summer of 2000, she
took a week of her vacation to fly to Ohio to provide medical (and mechanical)
support during the ALA's 3,150-mile Big Ride Across America bike tour. Hoepner
has served on the executive committee of the Komen Foundation's annual Breast
Cancer Symposium for four years, and last year chaired the educational event,
attended by more than 650 registrants. Hoepfner's work honors the memory of
her mother who died of breast cancer in 1988.