12/08/2025
Meet the honorees of the 2025 Race & Health Equity Awards! This year’s HSI Race & Health Equity Awards honorees reflect decades of commitment to academic excellence, community-building, and social impact. The 2025 honorees are:
Paul J. Adams, III, Executive Chairman and Founder, Providence St. Mel School, who has led the school for 50 years and who has had 100 percent of graduating seniors accepted to colleges and universities for the last 47 consecutive years
Bernard Clay, Executive Director and Founding Member, Introspect Youth Services, Inc., which recently celebrated 50 years of providing educational services for students grades six to 12, helping more than 50,000 students further their education
Creasie Finney Hairston, Ph.D., Professor and Dean, Jane Addams College of Social Work, University of Illinois Chicago, who has served on the boards of national, state, local and community organizations and is well known for her pioneering work on the impact of incarceration on prisoners' children and families
Haki Madhubuti, MFA, Ph.D., Award Winning Poet, University Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Chicago State University, and Founder and Publisher of Third World Press, the oldest independent Black publishing house in the U.S. dedicated to promoting African-American literature
Carol D. Lee (Safisha Madhubuti), Edwina S. Tarry Professor Emerita, School of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University, who has led national and international organizations focused on education and is founder of three African-centered schools in Chicago spanning a 53-year history
Lisa W. Rollins, Regional Development Director – Chicago Region, United Negro College Fund (UNCF), who is responsible for fundraising and cause-related marketing across 10 states; and whose innovative initiatives have helped raise millions of dollars to help deserving students get to and through college
David Sanders, President, Malcolm X College, who led the programming, design and construction of the new $251 million institution and manages a $74M budget, nearly 15,000 students, over 900 employees, and 27 health science programs annually
