Category: Honors and Good News

Kudos Kyley Hagan who is now public coordinator for TEDxUF 2017. Stay tuned for speakers if you are expecting to be down in Gainesville.

Celeste Giuliano, who I will always know as Cessie and is not a geek, is this week’s Geekadelphia “Geek of the Week”

She is a photographer extraordinaire and her site can be found here.

Cessie Giuliano Geek of Week

Kudos to Chester County’s Gloria Seeburger Gellman who has received the Pi Beta Phi Fraternity for Women’s prestigious Carolyn Helman Lichtenberg Crest Award in honor of her community service. 

The award is presented annually to distinguished alumnae of Pi Beta Phi who exhibit excellence and outstanding leadership in their career or volunteer service to their communities. It is named for past Pi Beta Phi President Carolyn Helman Lichtenberg, who was instrumental in forming Pi Beta Phi Foundation during her term from 1985 to 1991.

Gloria is among the founders of the Humanities Associates, the annual giving society for the School of Humanities at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), and has played a major role in fundraising for Opera Pacific, which operated for 22 seasons in Orange County, California, before closing in 2008.

She was also a longtime board member for Orange County’s Pacific Symphony, helping organize fundraising groups such as the Symphony Supper Club and the Symphony 100, an exclusive group offering adult music education classes and unique field trips.

Gloria now lives in Chesco and serves on the Chester County Women’s Commission.  She is also a leader for the Mainline-Pennsylvania Alumnae Club of Pi Beta Phi and the Jeptha Abbott Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the largest chapter in the state of Pennsylvania.

“When I was widowed at the age of 32, my dear mother encouraged me to go out and do something for my community,” she said. “That led to an active career as a volunteer. It brought me joy and satisfaction. It feels good to have done work that is providing ongoing support for many groups.”

Gloria Gellman Gets Crest Award

The Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape will present its 2015 Vision of Hope Award to Joan Mills of A Child’s Place at Mercy in Pittsburgh, PA, March 28 at the Vision of Hope Gala & Auction at the Hershey Lodge in Hershey.

The Vision of Hope Award is presented annually to recognize those who show a commitment to protecting children through violence prevention and intervention and ensures the safety of children through increasing awareness, strengthening policies or creating campaigns that promote healthy families and communities.

“Joan’s heart and soul is dedicated to improving the lives of children who have been impacted by child sexual abuse” PCAR CEO Delilah Rumburg said. “She’s gracefully led A Child’s Place at Mercy where thousands of children have received help, worked to change state laws and established community partnerships to help prevent sexual abuse.”

For nearly three decades Ms. Mills has worked to establish child-centered and trauma-informed interventions and treatment services at A Child’s Place at Mercy while promoting collaboration between organizations such as children advocacy centers and rape crisis centers.

“I am honored and humbled to receive this award, especially after seeing all the past recipients,” Ms. Mills said. “The Vision of Hope Award to me represents recognition of the thousands of victims’ cases I have been involved with over the past several decades; I see their eyes still. I accept this award for them—all of them. Being part of the systemic changes in the response to evaluating and investigating child abuse cases that have taken place in our Commonwealth over 27 years has been quite dramatic and awe inspiring.”

One example is the use of filmed forensic interviews of child victims. Mills argued that this would reduce the trauma for a child during trial while providing evidence to the jury in the child’s own words. While this doesn’t preclude the child from testifying during the trial, the child’s exposure to trauma and court room tactics may be limited by the opportunity to rely on a high quality forensic interview.

In a child sexual abuse case last July in Westmoreland County assistant district attorney cited the use of the forensic interview as the difference in the jury returning a guilty verdict.

Joan Mills Receiving Vision Of Hope Award