4A 2002 Community Award Recipients
September 27 Bridgewater, New Jersey

 

4A National Recognition Award

Each year, 4A-AT&T presents awards to managers of AT&T to recognize their commitment to diversity, equal opportunity, affirmative action, and the career development of minorities and women, in general, and Asian Pacific Americans, in particular. The 2002 honorees are: Peter A. D’Amato Vice President, CRM and E-Enablement Delivery “Pete’s organization is a real leader in diversity awareness and education. Pete has established a goal around diversity – the target is for 90% of the organization to have invested 8 hours in diversity activities. In support of this goal, various diversity programs are sponsored and organized by members of the organization in all major locations, and funded by the organization’s leadership.” “Pete is a true role model…” [from the nomination form]   Courtney R. Lewis Local Network Provisioning Vice President “Courtney spent several years working for AT&T in Asia. Despite the cultural differences in Japan, she helped create and implement new customer and business strategies for AT&T and developed a new Customer Service Business Unit. Other highlights include installing the largest cellular network of its time in Korea.” “Courtney has cleared the path for others to also succeed…” [from the nomination form]

Above: Bill Archer, Vice President - AT&T Business Sales (left), presents Pete D'Amato with his award. Below: Courtney Lewis expresses her appreciation for the recognition.

4A Community Organization Excellence Award

The Community Organization Excellence Award is given to an association that: is an Asian/Pacific American community organization is well known within the Asian/Sub-Asian community demonstrates significant contributions to fellow Asian/Pacific Americans and/or the Asian community through: Promotion of diversity awareness of Asian cultures Volunteer work to assist Asian/Pacific Americans Advocacy of Asian/Pacific American community issues Financial assistance in the forms of grants and scholarship to Asian/Pacific Americans For 2002, 4A recognizes: National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium (NAPALC) NAPALC works to advance the legal and civil rights of Asian Pacific Americans through litigation, public education and public policy. NAPALC is a nationally recognized voice on behalf of Asian Pacific Americans and Focuses its expertise on Anti-Asian violence prevention and education, voting rights, immigration, naturalization, affirmative action, and language rights.   Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS) APAICS seeks to build a politically empowered Asian Pacific American (APA) population, to be the political pipeline for Asian Pacific Americans to enter and advance into elected office and to act as a resource to Congress about the APA community.

Above: Bill Stake, Vice President, Sales and Customer Care, AT&T Consumer, presents the award to APAICS's Daphne Kwok (above left), and to NAPALC's Karen Narasaki (below left).

4A National Individual Achievement Award

The Individual Achievement Award is given to a person who: is an Asian/Pacific American is well known within the Asian/Sub-Asian community demonstrates significant excellence in his/her profession or area of expertise demonstrates significant contributions to fellow Asian/Pacific Americans and/or the Asian community through: Volunteer work Advocacy of Asian/Pacific American community issues Served as a role model for Asian/Pacific Americans Recognized by America mainstream as an outstanding Asian/Pacific American
The 2002 honorees are: Giselle M. Rushford “Co-founded the Filipino American Employee Association of AT&T in the mid 80s, which was created to bring about awareness on disparity in hiring and retention practices and started the annual Filipino American Diversity awareness programs at AT&T. Co-founded the [4A-AT&T] Mountain States Chapter in the late 90s, whose mission is to support members in their personal and career development.” “The successes of the 4A Mountain States [Chapter] is due to all the efforts Giselle has set forth.” [from the nomination form]   Albert Siu “Albert founded the China Personnel Club, which is a professional networking organization for sharing effective personnel practices in PRC and Greater China. Albert enthusiastically supported various 4A initiatives and activities for many years through his active participation, promotion and financial assistance at 4A National Professional Development Conference, Asian American Heritage Month and various 4A Networking events.” “Albert is an exemplary leader and role model for Asian Americans” [from the nomination form]		Girish Varma, Vice President, Service Management Systems, AT&T Labs, presents the award to Giselle Rushford (above left), and to Albert Siu (below left).

4A National Scholarships

Clayton Lockhart, Vice President Architecture and Strategic Operations Planning, AT&T Labs (right), assisted by Suwathin Phiansunthon of 4A (left), presents a scholarship award check to Neil Vangala, who accepted on behalf of the six recipients.