Dean Jeanette Takamura Receives Ollie Randall AwardFrom the National Council on Aging
March 18, 2006
Contact:
Jeannie Yip
jy2223@columbia.edu
212-851-2327
New York, NY – Jeanette Takamura, Dean of the Columbia University School of Social Work (CUSSW), has been honored with the Ollie Randall Award from the National Council on Aging (NCOA). The award was presented on March 17, 2006 at the joint conference organized by the NCOA and the American Society on Aging (ASA) in Anaheim, California.
“It is an honor for me to accept the Ollie Randall Award. Ms. Randall’s work has been influential in the field of aging. Her legacy continues today through professionals who seek to establish programs and policies that invest in the future of people, young and old, in our communities.”
Presented annually since 1963, the award is presented in recognition of Ollie A. Randall, an NCOA founder who had a distinguished career in the field of aging. Recipients are honored for “singular and outstanding contributions toward advancing the cause of aging.” Past recipients of the Ollie Randall Award have included President Lyndon B. Johnson; Arthur S. Flemming, who was Secretary of Health, Education & Welfare in the Eisenhower Administration; Maggie Kuhn, Founder of Gray Panthers; Carol A. Schutz, Executive Director of the Gerontological Society of America; and James E. Birren, who was the founding Executive Director and Dean of the Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center of the University of Southern California.
Dean Takamura is the first female Dean at the nation’s first school of social work. She has served in senior positions in the state government of Hawaii and from 1997 to 2001 was Assistant Secretary for Aging at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Prior to serving in government, she held faculty and administrative appointments in higher education. She has received numerous awards, among them the Lucy Stone Award from the White House for her advocacy and the enactment of the National Family Caregiver Support Program, which provides support to older women, many of whom are family caregivers. She has been a member of national and international boards and working groups. Dean Takamura earned a BA degree in Political Science and Sociology and a Masters of Social Work degree from the University of Hawaii and her Ph.D. in Social Policy from Brandeis University.
