The Trailblazer Project Class of 2019 will be unveiled Saturday, Oct. 12, at 4 p.m. in the Adelbert Hall atrium.
Now in its third year, the portraiture initiative of the Office for Inclusion, Diversity, and Equal Opportunity honors distinguished Case Western Reserve University alumni, faculty, and administrators of color and women. Renowned local artist Thomas Hudson was commissioned for this year’s Trailblazer portraits.
The 2019 honorees are:
- S. Allen Counter (GRS ‘70) was a professor of neurology at Harvard University and at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, and was knighted by the King of Sweden. He was the founding director of the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations. He earned his PhD in electrophysiology at CWRU. He was also known for his achievements as an explorer and once located descendants of escaped slaves in South America and Eskimo descendants of U.S. explorers to the Arctic. He was also elected to the Explorers Club, an international multidisciplinary professional society dedicated to the advancement of field research and the ideal that it is vital to preserve the instinct to explore.
- M. Deborrah Hyde (MED ‘77) is the first African-American female neurosurgeon in the state of California and the second such physician in the nation. She is also the first female to graduate from the CWRU neurosurgery residency program. Additionally, she became the second African-American woman certified by the American Board of Neurological Surgery.
- Wilma Peebles-Wilkins (SAS ’71) has been a practitioner, administrator and educator in the field of social work for over 40 years. She received her Master of Science in Social Administration from what is now the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences. She has worked with autistic children since her early career, served as dean of Boston University’s School of Social Work, and received the Annual Award for Greatest Contribution to Social Work Education by the Massachusetts chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, among many other achievements.
To RSVP for the event, register for homecoming. When completing the form, there will be an opportunity to register for specific events, including Saturday’s Trailblazer Unveiling Ceremony.