Lifetime Achievement Award
Karen Pittman
Karen Pittman has made a career of starting organizations and initiatives that promote youth development – including the Forum for Youth Investment, which she co-founded with Merita Irby in 1998.
A sociologist and recognized leader in youth development, Karen started her career at the Urban Institute, conducting studies on social services for children and families. She later moved to the Children's Defense Fund, launching its adolescent pregnancy prevention initiatives and helping to create its adolescent policy agenda. In 1990 she became a vice president at the Academy for Educational Development, where she founded and directed the Center for Youth Development and Policy Research and its spin-off, the National Training Institute for Community Youth Work.
In 1995 Karen joined the Clinton administration as director of the President's Crime Prevention Council, where she worked with 13 cabinet secretaries to create a coordinated prevention agenda. From there she moved to the executive team of the International Youth Foundation (IYF), charged with helping the organization strengthen its program content and develop an evaluation strategy. In 1998 she and Rick Little, head of the foundation, took a leave of absence to work with ret. Gen. Colin Powell to create America's Promise. Upon her return, she and Irby launched the Forum, which later became an entity separate from IYF.
Under their leadership the Forum has made good on its tag line – moving ideas to impact – by leading the charge to create ready youth, ready communities and ready leaders. This work is anchored in the Forum's broad Ready by 21 initiatives and implemented through its core team and three affiliates: the Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality, Community Systems Group and SparkAction.
Karen has written three books and dozens of articles on youth issues, including as a regular columnist in the youth development newspaper, Youth Today. She is also a respected public speaker and has served on numerous boards and panels, including those of the Kauffman Foundation, the Educational Testing Service, the National Commission on the Senior Year of High School, the National Center for Children in Poverty, JCPenney Afterschool Fund, National Collaboration for Youth, and the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation Board. She currently sits on the America's Promise Board of Trustees and YouthBuild USA.
Karen has been honored with the National Commission for African American Education Augustus F. Hawkins Service Award (2002), the American Youth Policy Forum Decade of Service Award for Sustained Visionary Leadership in Advancing Youth Policy (2003), the Healthy Teen Network Sprit of Service Award (2007), The Non Profit Times' Power & Influence Top 50 (2009), and most recently, was named one of the 25 most influential leaders in afterschool by the National Afterschool Association.
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Lifetime Achievement Award
D. Kenneth Patton
 D. Kenneth Patton is a renowned real estate consultant and developer with more than 35 years of experience synthesizing livability and economic development. Ken began his career in urban economic development as a neighborhood activist in Brooklyn. Since then he has served as dean of NYU Schack Institute where he oversaw the graduate program triple in size. More recently, he served as interim special advisor for Schack.
Prior to his work at NYU he served as COO of Helmsley-Spear Inc. and was the first full time president of the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY). In his role with REBNY, he worked with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to convert the Urban Action Development Grant Program to one of subordinate loans.
Ken has also served as the New York City's Economic Development administrator and as the Commissioner of Commerce under Mayor John V. Lindsay. As commissioner, he created more than 16,000 jobs by leading the construction of Hunts Point Market, South Street Restoration and assembling 2,000 acres of land for urban industrial parks and downtown development in New York City's outer boroughs. He also was instrumental in the renovation of Yankee Stadium and the acquisition and development of the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
Ken remains active in civic life, currently serving as a trustee for the New York City Police Foundation and is on numerous other boards, including the Pratt Institute and the Theater Development Fund. He serves on the board of the Community Preservation Corporation and is Director of the Bryant Park Business Improvement District. His years of contributions to urban economic development serve as the framework for his message that successful community revitalization requires active involvement in all sectors and that cultural, civic and design elements are even more important today as society migrates from the manufacture of goods to the focus on services and media.
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Vision & Stewardship Award
Openlands, Gerald W. Adelmann, President & CEO
Gerald W. Adelmann joined Openlands in 1980 to coordinate a special program that led to the creation of the Illinois and Michigan Canal National Heritage Corridor, the first federal land designation of its kind. Today, there are nearly fifty federally designated heritage areas across the United States.
In 1988, Jerry was appointed executive director of Openlands. Under his guidance, Openlands launched the 21st Century Open Space Plan, which called for expanded parklands, greenways, and trails in northeastern Illinois and the surrounding region. His leadership in creating the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie; in preserving the rare and scenic landscape at the Openlands Lakeshore Preserve for public enjoyment; and many other conservation and preservation accomplishments has earned him numerous honors and conservation awards. In 2012, the Chicago Botanic Garden awarded him the prestigious Hutchinson Medal.
Jerry is chairman of the Center for Humans and Nature and an emeritus member of the National Board of Advisors of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. He also chairs the City of Chicago's Nature and Wildlife Committee, where he played an integral role in the initiation and recent completion of the Chicago Nature and Wildlife Plan, and is a trustee of the Illinois State Museum as well as the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation.
He has served on the boards of numerous organizations and agencies such as the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission, Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois, Illinois Historic Sites Advisory Council, The Nature Conservancy's Illinois Chapter, the Hegeler-Carus Foundation, the Liberty Prairie Foundation, and the Governor's Task Force that established the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency in 1985.
In addition, Jerry was a founding board member of the Chicago Maritime Society. He is also a member of the Advisory Council of the Center for United States-China Arts Exchange at Columbia University, the Executive Council of Chicago Metropolis 2020, and the National Council of The Conservation Fund.
He has been active in preservation, conservation, and planning efforts in his hometown of Lockport, Illinois since the 1970's and has been involved in conservation and historic preservation projects in Southeast Asia since the early 1990s. He lectures extensively throughout the United States and abroad. Jerry has received an honorary doctorate from Lewis University and is an honorary member of the American Association of Landscape Architects. He was a recipient of Chicago magazine's 2010 Green Awards, which honor local individuals creating and carrying out innovative projects directed at preserving the earth.
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Bridge Builders Award
YMCA of Central Florida & Lockheed Martin
The YMCA's Lockheed Martin Technology Centers The Lockheed Martin Technology Centers located within the South Orlando and Tangelo Park YMCAs represent the best of what happens when partners join together for the good of the community. In addition to providing fun, high-tech learning experiences for at-risk youth, volunteers from the YMCA, Lockheed Martin and Microsoft inspire students to become the future engineers and scientists of tomorrow. Like every YMCA Youth Development initiative, this program provides the after-school safety, values and mentoring kids need to thrive.
YMCA Links2Learning With a shared commitment to youth development and social responsibility, the Y and Lockheed Martin also team up to support the YMCA Links2Learning program. Through this partnership, the YMCA's Lockheed Martin Technology Centers at South Orlando and Tangelo Park enrich the minds and lives of Central Florida students, inspiring and encouraging them to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). These enriching programs impact over 20,000 students every year. One example of the programs' successes was introducing inner-city youth to a new sport ─ golf. The young program participants learn about the STEM skills behind the sport while the project also instills in the youngsters the qualities of civility, sportsmanship and values.
Jonathan Gamble, a computer science major at the University of Central Florida and Lockheed Martin intern, credits his educational success to the value of the Technology Center. "Through the Lockheed Martin/YMCA Technology Center, I didn't only grow to want to be in the engineering community, I became a part of it," Jonathan said. "The technology center gave me a place to learn more about engineering in a nice, safe setting with people with interest just like me, and my internship with Lockheed Martin successfully kick-started my career as an engineer."
Jonathan started attending the Technology Center's after-school program at the beginning of his high school career. With education and the help of mentors at the YMCA, he secured an internship at Lockheed Martin the summer before he began his computer science studies at the University of Central Florida.
"Jonathan was one of three Lockheed Martin interns hired from the Central Florida Technology Centers last year," said Quality & Mission Success Vice President John Varley. "All three will return this year with additional interns as we continue to grow this STEM-focused program."
The technology center continues to build lasting relationships with students to inspire them to pursue a technical degree in college, helping support our local community, workforce and country. From science experiments that teach students how to build paper airplanes and digital bridges to college preparation courses and tours at local corporations like Lockheed Martin, the technology centers enhance the curricula local students learn in their classrooms.
"The YMCA Technology Centers are helping develop the next generation of scientists and engineers to meet the needs of the United States and global security," said Varley. "By engaging these students in extracurricular STEM activities, we show them the real-world relevance of the concepts they are learning in the classroom."
The Lockheed Martin/YMCA program prepares students like Jonathan to excel in the classroom and community, developing well-rounded leaders for the future.
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Founders Award for Civic Leadership
Anthony Catanese
Anthony James Catanese is the president of Florida Institute of Technology, a major research institution with more than 16,000 students. Florida Tech emphasizes academic and research programs in engineering, the sciences, liberal arts, business, psychology and aeronautics. It has a major distance learning program using advanced technology. Such groups as the Carnegie Foundation and U.S. News and World Report rate it amongst America's top universities. The Times Higher Education Rankings from London places it among the best universities in the world.
Dr. Catanese was previously president of Florida Atlantic University, which grew to 25,000 students on seven campuses during his leadership tenure. He was the provost of Pratt Institute in New York City, dean of the College of Architecture at the University of Florida, dean of the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, associate dean of the School of Engineering and Environmental Design and James A. Ryder Professor at the University of Miami, and professor and director of the Center for Planning and Development at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Catanese also was a Senior Fulbright Professor at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogota, Colombia.
He holds a bachelor's degree from Rutgers University, a master's degree from New York University and a doctoral degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. A prolific writer, he has published 13 books, 18 chapters in books and more than 100 articles and monographs.
A member of the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Certified Planners, Dr. Catanese previously maintained a private practice in design, planning and development. His consulting contracts numbered over 50 clients, including coastal zone planning and development in Hawaii and native land claims in Alaska. As a developer, he built several projects for the single- and multi-family markets in Atlanta, Georgia.
Dr. Catanese has been a public servant as well. He was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to the National Urban Policy Task Force. He served as chair of the Milwaukee City Planning Board and the Gainesville City Planning Commission.
Dr. Catanese was president of the Park West Development Corporation, a not-for-profit group that planned and developed a major area in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was the founding president of the Florida State University Presidents Association. He also served as president or chairman of the Independent Colleges and Universities of Florida, Florida Association of Colleges and Universities, Florida Campus Compact, Atlantic Sun Athletics Conference, and Sunshine State Athletics Conference. He has served on numerous boards, including the National Collegiate Athletics Association, John Cabot University (Rome), Orange Bowl Committee, AvMed (South Florida), Wachovia Bank (Florida), Securit-E.com and Modus Operandi Inc.
Dr. Catanese was a past chairman of the board of the United Way of Brevard, as well as the 2006 campaign chair, and is on several local boards including the Maxwell C. King Center, Henegar Center, Leadership Brevard, and Central Florida Partnership.
He is the recipient of numerous awards, the most recent of which include the Chief Executive Leadership Award from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, Trailblazer Award from Rotary International, Diversity Champion Award from the Urban League, Outstanding College President's Award from the All-American Football Foundation, Golden Eagle Award from the Boy Scouts of America, Junior Achievement Hall of Fame, Space Coast Sports Hall of Fame, and Space Coast Business Leader. He recently was inducted into the Florida Institute of Technology Sports Hall of Fame and the Eckerd Brevard Walk of Fame.
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