2009 James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award Recipients Announced

The James Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards recognize California leaders who are advancing innovative and effective solutions to significant state issues. The awards are designed to:

• Advance innovative, proven solutions to critical issues by providing financial support and greater visibility
• Educate policymakers and community leaders about promising approaches for addressing important state issues, thereby contributing to better public policies and practices in the field

Recipients of the 2009 James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award are:

Josefina Alvarado Mena, Safe Passages/Youth Ventures Joint Powers Authority, Oakland
By partnering with other agencies, Alvarado Mena developed a groundbreaking model for providing coordinated social services and leveraging public and private funding to help low-income families and reduce violence in Alameda County.

Tim Dang, East West Players, Los Angeles
As director of one of the country’s oldest ethnic-specific theaters, Dang transformed East West Players into a vibrant artistic center that promotes cross-cultural understanding in an increasingly diverse region.

Kathryn Icenhower, SHIELDS for Families, Los Angeles
Icenhower created an innovative, family-centered drug treatment program that has become a proven model for providing a full range of social services to thousands of families while saving public dollars in avoided foster care and other costs.

Luis Santana, Reading and Beyond, Fresno
In California’s Central Valley, where many children read below grade level, Santana has shown how an effective literacy program — working with parents, young children and school-age youth — can improve educational outcomes and transform lives.

Richard Valle, Tri-CED Community Recycling, Union City
Long before the term “green jobs” was coined, Valle developed an innovative business model that gives at-risk youth the opportunity to work at jobs benefiting the environment and supports their transition to a more productive future.

Jennifer Vanica, Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation, San Diego
Vanica guided the revitalization of a blighted, crime-ridden San Diego neighborhood by engaging diverse residents in planning for their future and providing them with tools to gain an ownership stake in the area’s economic development.

The Irvine Foundation will award $125,000 to each of the recipients’ organizations and will provide additional assistance designed to help recipients share their effective models with policymakers and others in their fields.

The Selection Committee considered detailed information provided through nomination materials and summaries of site visits with the finalists to determine the recipients of the 2009 James Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards.

For more information about this year's recipients, click here to read the news release and here to read a letter from Irvine President and CEO Jim Canales.

Past award recipients can be viewed here.

In August 2009, the Foundation will post nomination information and materials for the 2010 awards here. Nominations are due no later than Tuesday, October 13, 2009 at 5 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time. Selection criteria are outlined here.