Jewell Ryan-White Award for Cultural Diversity

The Jewell Ryan-White Award for Cultural Diversity is given annually to those persons who show an outstanding contribution to a process that encourages, facilitates, or creates culturally diverse and/or non-mainstream community involvement in the field of community media.

2021 Winner: JEAN lewis, COMMUNITY MEDIA CENTER OF CARROLL COUNTY

Jean Lewis has been involved with the Community Media Center of Carroll County in many capacities. She worked as the Project Manager and Customer Service Manager from 1969-2001, retiring after 33 years.  Lewis then served on the CMC Board of Directors for 10 years, during which she was the driving force behind the Black Oral History Committee’s Carroll County History Project “Carroll County: Through the Eyes of the Black Experience” In 2011 the Maryland Historical Trust awarded the Carroll County History project with the Maryland Preservation Award for Educational Excellence.  

Lewis also served as producer for several documentaries and special projects including:  “William Decatur: Story of a Buffalo Soldier”, “White Rock Church History”, “The March on Washington” and the series: “African American Trailblazers of Carroll County”. In 2014 and 2016 Lewis was named CMC Board Member of the Year.

Jean Lewis also served as President of Carroll County NAACP (2006-2020) working to ensure to political, education, social and economic equality of all citizens.

Working with Maryland State Delegate Susan Krebs and the Maryland Historical Trust, Lewis was instrumental in securing recognition for the Henryton Sanatorium and Nursing School (LPN) School, Maryland’s first tuberculosis sanatorium for African American’s and student nurses. Historical Road Signs for both Henryton Sanatorium and Nursing School were dedicated in 2016
  
Jean Lewis is a tireless advocate for her community. She is a member of Carroll Citizens for Racial Equality, Carroll County Public Schools Multicultural Council and the Carroll County Human Relations Commission, and numerous other community boards. 

Jean and her husband, John H. Lewis Jr., were the 2015 Carroll County Human Relations Award Recipient’s for their 50 years of civil rights work. They have 6 children, 11 grandchildren, and 8 great-grandchildren. 

View Jean's acceptance speech here.


 

List of Winners by Year

2021 - Jean Lewis, Community Media Center of Carrol County
2020 - Kathryn "KatMeow" Garcia
2019 - Shannon Gee, Seattle Channel
2018 - Tia Price
2017 - T-Time in Olympia (Presented to producers Staci Layton, Amy Layton, Lucas Miller, and Melissa Miller)
2016 - Bepsie Perry, Hello! West Hartford
2015 – Jennifer Dynes, MetroEast Community Media
2014 - Chag Lowry, Native Cultures Fund, part of the Humboldt Area Foundation
2013 – Kim Lawson, CreaTV San Jose
2012 – Kwame McDonald, St. Paul Neighborhood Network
2010 – Richard Rosenthal
2009 – Cherie Tessier
2008 – Graciela Rivera Oven
2007 – Michael Zinzin
2006 – Edmund Broussard, Berkeley Community Media
2005 – Malkia Cyril
2004 – Thenmozhi Sondararajan
2003 – Tarek Bagdadi, Minneapolis Telecommunications Network
2002 – Onida Coward-Mayers
2001 – Azaka Ajanaku
2000 – Ben and Sue Charles – Native Media (Tacoma, Washington)
1999 – Richard Turner
1998 – CeCe Pinheiro
1997 – Fernando Moreno
1996 – Rick Maultra
1995 – Maggie Johnson-Reese
1994 – Curtis Henderson
1993 – Jewell Ryan-White