27th Annual Fairfield Awards Dinner: "Celebrating a Tradition of Opportunity" | Press Releases

Keynote Speaker: Juju Chang, ABC News Nightline
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Grand Hyatt New York, New York City

Image: J Chang Fairfield University's 27th Annual Fairfield Awards Dinner, "Celebrating a Tradition of Opportunity," will be held on Wednesday, April 9, 2014, at the Grand Hyatt New York in New York City. The Fairfield Awards Dinner is Fairfield University's signature event to raise funds for scholarships. Chairs for this year's event are: Joellin Comerford '74, Sheila Kearney Davidson '83, and Jack L. Kelly '67, P'96 .

This year's Awards Dinner features as keynote speaker Juju Chang, who was just promoted to the position of anchor on ABC News Nightline. Ms.Chang is an Emmy Award-winning special correspondent and has also reported regularly for Good Morning America and 20/20 . Born in Seoul, South Korea, and raised in California, Juju Chang graduated with honors from Stanford University, where she was awarded the Edwin Cotrell Political Science Prize. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a founding board member of the Korean American Community Foundation.

The Fairfield Awards Dinner also recognizes alumni, faculty, and staff for the highest levels of professional achievement, outstanding leadership, academic excellence, and meritorious service. The 2014 dinner honorees are the following:

Alumni Professional Achievement Award: Joyce M. Phillips '74 is a member of Fairfield's first class of women graduates. She is Executive Vice President and Global Head of Human Resources at Cushman & Wakefield, the largest private real estate services company in the world, with more than 16,000 employees in 60 countries.

Alumni Service Award: Nancy A. Altobello '80, is Vice Chair of Talent at Ernst & Young (EY), which currently hires 50,000 people worldwide and more than 12,000 in the U.S., 36 percent of whom are diverse. She was a University trustee from 2002 to 2007, and is now serving a second term. She is a member of the Executive Committee, chairing the Finance Committee, and offering valued support on the Technology Committee.

Distinguished Faculty / Administrator Award: Shelley A. Phelan, PhD, Professor of Biology, came to Fairfield in 1999. She has been awarded over a million dollars in grants from organizations such as the National Cancer Institute, the National Institutes of Health, and others. She was promoted to full professor in 2010 and held the prestigious Elizabeth DeCamp McInerny Chair in Health Sciences from 2007 to 2013.

Fairfield University's Multicultural Scholarship Fund has been the beneficiary of the Awards Dinner, held annually since 1988. Over the course of its twenty-six years, the Fairfield Awards Dinner has raised more than $14 million for the endowed Fairfield University Multicultural Scholarship Fund, providing scholarships to 435 students of color. For additional information, contact the Fairfield University Office of Corporate Relations, (203) 254-4000, ext. 2927, or visit www.fairfield.edu/awardsdinner .