NEWS RELEASE: The American Council on Education

Contact: Paul F. Hassen (202) 939-9367
Office: (202) 939-9367,   Cell: (202) 528-6394
Email: paul_hassen@ace.nche.edu

ANCHORAGE, AK (July 19, 2007) – Washington, DC Metropolitan Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier, the first woman chief of the Metropolitan Police Department, is a 2007 recipient of the Cornelius P. Turner Award by the General Educational Development® Testing Service (GEDTS), a program of the American Council on Education.

The award was presented on July 19th during the annual Graduates Awards Dinner held in conjunction with North to Alaska: Navigating to 2011, the annual GED® Administrators’ Conference underway in Anchorage, AK. The Cornelius P. Turner Award, the highest honor accorded by the GED® Testing Service, is presented for outstanding public service achievement since earning a GED® diploma and is named for the program’s founder who died in 1990. 

“Successful completion of the GED® test process opens the door to lifelong success for many individuals who drop out of high school,” said Sylvia R. Robinson, executive director of the GED® Testing Service. “Cathy Lanier and Molly Robertson are terrific examples of what is possible when individuals are given a second chance.  Lanier’s determination and perseverance have propelled her from a single mother and street officer to chief of the police department in our nation’s capital.  Robertson used her experience as a dropout as inspiration for building a statewide support program to help other high school dropouts find a pathway to educational success.  Both exemplify the spirit and vision of GEDTS founder Cornelius P. Turner.”

Turner Award recipients must earn a GED credential at least eight years before nomination, and must have made a significant contribution to society in at least one of five professional fields: health or medicine, education, justice, public service, or social welfare.

The GED® Testing Service has developed and distributed the GED® test battery, the preeminent measure of high school knowledge and skills for those who did not finish high school, for more than 60 years. More than 21 million individuals have completed the GED tests in each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and territories of the United States, the U.S. military, and Canadian provinces. The GED® Testing Service is a program of the American Council on Education, the major coordinating body for all the nation’s higher education institutions, representing more than 1,600 college and university presidents and more than 200 related associations, nationwide.

Turner Award Recipients

• 2007
  Cathy L. Lanier, Chief, Metropolitan Police Department, Washington, DC
  Molly K. Robertson, Founding Director, GED ON TV/Learn at Home Project, Muncie, IN
• 2006  
  Jimmy Santiago Baca, Poet, Author and Philanthropist
• 2005  
  Susan C. Bowman, Ed.S., LPC, Vice President, Developmental Resources Inc. and YouthLight Inc., Chapin, SC
• 2004  
  John A. Dutra, Assemblymember, California State Assembly, Sacramento, CA
• 2003
  Barbara Ciara, Emmy Award-winning television journalist, WTKR-TV 3, Norfolk, VA
• 2002
  Jack L. Davis, Ed.D., President, Olney Central College, Olney, IL
• 1999
  Warren McDaniels, Chief, City of New Orleans Fire Department, New Orleans, LA (retired)
• 1996
  Emma Rhodes, Ed.D., Arkansas GED State Coordinator, Little Rock, AR (retired)
• 1993
  Carol M. Swain, Ph.D., Professor of Political Science and a Professor of Law at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN