Yale and City Honor Those Who Have Strengthened Town-Gown Ties
New Haven, Conn. — Yale University President Richard C. Levin and New Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr. honored 12 individuals and one group with Yale University Seton Elm-Ivy Awards at a ceremony on campus on April 27.
The Elm-Ivy Awards recognize people whose leadership helps sustain the strong collaboration and supportive partnership of the university and its hometown. Each year, some of the most outstanding efforts that enrich the “town–gown” relationship are recognized through these awards.
Elm Awards are given to members of the New Haven community, and Ivy Awards are given to Yale faculty, staff and students. The awards are so named for the stately elms that lined New Haven’s streets and earned it the name “Elm City” and for Yale’s membership in the Ivy League.
This year’s Elm Awards were given to Christine Alexander, founder of New Haven Reads; Roslyn Milstein Meyer, co-founder of LEAP and the International Festival of Arts & Ideas; Nichole Jefferson; executive director of the New Haven Commission on Equal Opportunity; and Emily Byrne, Office of the Mayor and New Haven Promise.
Faculty/staff Ivy Awards were given to Georgina Lucas, deputy director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars program at Yale; Danielle Gunther-Gawlak, senior project manager in Facilities; Russell Adair, associate director of Institutional Research; and Caesar Storlazzi, university director of Student Financial Services.
Undergraduate Ivy Awards were given to Drew Ruben, SY ’‘11, founder of Blue State Coffee, and Kayla Iman Vinson, DC ’11, founder of Students Activating for Youth.
Graduate/professional student Ivy Awards went to Sarah Miller, a Ph.D. candidate in the Yale School of Engineering and Applied Science, leader in science outreach with the public schools; works with; and to the Yale Student National Medical Assocation in the Yale School of Medicine for its Health Professions Recruitment.
A special Elm and Ivy Award was given to Michael Morand ’87 DIV ’93, for service in Yale’s Office of New Haven and State Affairs and with New Haven community organizations.
The awards were established in 1979 through the inspiration and support of the late Fenmore Seton (Class of ‘38) and his spouse, Phyllis Seton, who established an endowment at the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven to fund the awards. The first Elm and Ivy Awardees were named in 1980. Since that time, 402 individuals have been honored.
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