People, papers and presentations

Ambassador Edward Djerejian, director of Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, received the Award for Humanitarian Diplomacy June 8 at the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Strategic Studies at Netanya College in Israel. The award recognized the ambassador’s career achievements in promoting conflict resolution in the Middle East, and specifically his work to secure increased travel rights for Syrian Jews during his time as U.S. ambassador to Syria from 1988 to 1991.

Public Affairs’ Multicultural Community Relations (MCR) won a Silver Award in the national Circle of Excellence competition sponsored by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education in the category for diversity programs for its Newsgathering: Diversity in the Digital Age conference. The conference, held at Rice last fall, was organized by David Medina, director of MCR; Jan West, assistant director of MCR; and Ty Williams, former events specialist for MCR, with the help of seven journalism groups.

Associate Provost Roland Smith hosted a special meeting of the Houston chapter of the Texas Association of Black Personnel in Higher Education in Duncan Hall’s McMurtry Auditorium the night of June 9. Smith oversees Rice’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion.