Antioch Alumni Awards – Hill, Crane and Norgard Win Honors

The recipients of this year’s Antioch University Los Angeles (AULA) Alumni Awards include a leader in forensic psychology and mental health community outreach; an award-winning author, activist, and sex worker; and an academic department chair who has been a passionate advocate for alumni engagement.

“This year’s Alumni Award recipients are remarkable social justice champions,” said AULA Provost Dr. Mark Hower. “Each of these three honorees represent Antioch’s mission in different and powerful ways, and their example serves as an inspiration to all of us.”

Dr. Loren M. Hill (BA ’99, MA ’00) will receive the 2018 Alumna of the Year Award. She is a licensed clinical psychologist and Clinical Forensic Department Chair and Director of the Forensic Training Institute at the Los Angeles campus of the Chicago School of Professional Psychology. She has worked tirelessly to provide underserved and under-resourced community members with information on the importance of mental and behavioral health and mental wellness.

Dr. Hill has received numerous awards, including the 2017 Institute on Violence Abuse and Trauma (IVAT) Community Volunteer of the Year Award, the 2014 Distinguished Faculty in Community Partnership Award, and the 2012 Chicago School of Psychology’s Faculty Award of Excellence. Her extensive volunteer work includes co-founding the Sisterhood Book Club and service on the Academy of Science and Engineering Charter School board of directors, University of Redlands Clinical Mental Health advisory board, Casa de Rosa Shelters for Women and Children board, and as a City of Los Angeles 10th District Community Youth Commissioner.

Antonia Crane (MFA ’09), recipient of the 2018 Outstanding Community Service or Activism Award, has long been a champion for the rights of sex workers. She rallied behind the women who organized the NYC Stripper Strike to ensure sex workers were heard in the media regarding their efforts to protest the rampant exploitation, discrimination, and racism in New York strip clubs. She also helped mobilize sex workers in Los Angeles for the June 2018 “Let Us Survive” rally and Lobby Day protesting anti-sex-worker legislation.

Crane led the movement to unionize San Francisco strippers in 1996, resulting in SEIU Local 790: The Exotic Dancer’s Alliance, the first successful exotic dancers’ union in the world. Her screenplay about that effort, co-written by Transparent director Silas Howard, earned a San Francisco Film Society/Kenneth Rainin Foundation Grant in screenwriting.

Crane serves on the board of advisors for “50/50 by 2020,” which aims to achieve equity in Hollywood by 2020. Her essay “Let Us Live” is featured on their website. PRISM magazine named Crane the grand prize winner of their 2018 creative nonfiction contest for her essay “How to Dig a Ditch.” She published her memoir Spent in 2014, and teaches writing courses for UCLA Extension and Antioch.

David Norgard (MA ’08) will receive the award for Outstanding Service to the University. He is Chair of the AULA Management Studies Department and teaches in the MA in Nonprofit Management program. Dr. Norgard and faculty member Nancy Fawcett, who passed away in 2016, co-founded the AULA Alumni Council in 2011. Norgard chaired the Council for its first five years, from 2011-2016, and he has continued to serve as a passionate advocate for alumni relations and engagement.

Dr. Norgard’s enthusiasm for teaching in the area of nonprofit studies derives from his understanding of nonprofit organizations as catalysts of social justice movements and guardians of the advances that such movements achieve. His research interests focus on faith-based organizations and the governance function of nonprofits.

Hill, Crane, and Norgard will be honored at a February 2019 awards ceremony. For more information, please contact AULA’s Institutional Advancement office at (310) 578-1080.

The Actors' Gang

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*