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Press Release/Communiqué de presse
The Association of Cooperation would like to congratulate our 2021 ACE Award winners!
2021-06-22 - The Association of Co-operative Educators would like to congratulate 3 talented individuals and one organization for their tireless community work in advancing co-operative education. The ACE Award winners will be recognized virtually at the 2020 Annual General Meeting. The award winners are announced below:
Jessica Gordon-Nembhard - 2021 Outstanding Contribution to Co-operative Education and Training
Author of Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice and 2016 inductee into the U.S. Cooperative Hall of Fame, Jessica Gordon-Nembhard, Ph.D., is Professor of Community Justice and Social Economic Development, in the Department of Africana Studies, John Jay College, City University of NY. Dr. Gordon-Nembhard is a political economist specializing in cooperative economics, community economic development and community-based asset building, solidarity economics, Black Political Economy, and community-based approaches to justice. She is a member of the Council of Cooperative Economists of NCBA/CLUSA; the International Co-operative Alliance Committee on Co-operative Research; a Faculty Fellow and Mentor with the Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing at Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations; and an affiliate scholar with the Centre for the Study of Co-operatives (University of Saskatchewan, Canada). Gordon-Nembhard is also a past board member of the Association of Cooperative Educators; and a member and past president of the National Economic Association. She is the proud mother of Stephen and Susan, and the grandmother of Stephon, Hugo, Ismaél and Gisèle Nembhard.
Alex Stone - William Hlushko Award to Young Co-operative Educators
Alex Stone has been the Executive Director of Cooperation Works! (CW) since early 2016. She first became involved with co-ops through student housing co-ops at UC Berkeley, where she lived for three years and participated as a house level
manager and board member. She was deeply involved with the creation of the Berkeley Student Food Collective and served as the store's first Operations Manager through its first two years. Alex co-founded the Cooperative Food Empowerment Directive and coordinated its first training involving over twenty students from seven universities across the west coast. As Executive Director of CW in 2020, she oversaw the conversion of its co-op education program to online, cutting participant costs in half and doubling participation in the process.
Co-operatives First - The John Logue ACE Award
Co-operatives First is a non-profit organization funded by Federated Co-operatives Limited (FCL) and the Co-operative Retailing System (FCL and local retail co-operatives form the Co-operative Retailing System (CRS), which helps build, feed and fuel individuals and communities from Vancouver Island to northwestern Ontario and into the Arctic). Founded in 2015, the organization provides co-op start-up resources, such as feasibility studies, business plans, online courses, and incorporation support to rural and Indigenous entrepreneurs across western Canada. The organization's goal is to help leaders in these communities build new businesses, grow local economies, and support community development. Co-operatives First has quickly become a vital partner in rural and Indigenous co-op development in British Columbia and the Prairie Provinces of Canada, providing co-op education to thousands of students and training hundreds of co-op developers. Pre-pandemic, Co-operatives First developed an innovative web based program entitled The Backroad Diaries. That project showcases the resilience and ingenuity of rural and Indigenous communities across western Canada. It also highlights the role of co-operatives in supporting these vibrant communities. The video diaries visited two communities in each of the four western Canadian provinces in 2018 and 2019. The diaries generated interest in and commitment to the development of co-operatives in rural and Indigenous communities and will return post pandemic. In 2021, the group published an invaluable resource for co-operative development in Indigenous communities, "The Your Way", "Together guidebook" and website yourwaytogether.ca
André Martin - Contribution to ACE Award
André Martin made an enormous contribution to ACE through work as a Board member and through his willingness to organize administration of the Association during a difficult transition period (2016-2017). André organized for his home institution at the University of Sherbrooke to house this process and with a major contribution of his own efforts managed to keep the organization active, successful and solvent. This organizational activity was critical to the maintenance of ACE as a viable organization. André has a long-standing research interest in co-operatives and currently is working in the Department of Philosophy and Ethics at the University of Sherbrooke, as an associate researcher. He recently completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the ethics of cooperation (February 2021). In addition, he is very active with one of the large mutual insurance companies in Quebec, SSQ Insurance. As André states – "the challenges for that company: to revitalize the philosophy of mutualism at SSQ Insurance in a changing world".
Please join ACE in congratulating our 2021 winners!
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ACE is a membership organization that links educators, researchers, cooperative members, and cooperative developers across cooperative sectors and national borders to enhance cooperative development, strengthen cooperatives, promote professionalism and improve public understanding.
Michael Norris, Administrator, info@ace.coop
ACE Institute starts today!
The conference runs from the 22nd to the 24th of June 2021
Should you have any technical difficulties joining the conference, please reach out to Michael at info@ace.coop. Thanks and have a great Institute!
The Association of Cooperative Educators
223 Main St, Ottawa, Ontario, K1S 1C4
1001 Brush Street, Detroit, MI 48226
Contact Michael Norris @ 877-859-2084 x125 or info@ace.coop
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