pittsburgh – The Atlantic Coast Conference has announced longtime Panthers players Ron Idoko and Sheila I. Velez Martinez as the recipients of the 2023 ACC UNITE Award. The UNITE Award is designed to spotlight league personnel who have made a lasting impact in the areas of racial and social justice.
Idoko joined the Panthers football team in 2002 as a defensive tackle. Although she redshirted her first year, she appeared in 11 games in 2004, recording 10 tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss.
Currently off the field, Idoko is deputy director of the Center on Race and Social Issues at the University of Pittsburgh. He has played a pivotal role in promoting applied race research, coordinating innovative learning experiences, and fostering public knowledge and understanding of race and social issues.
Our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion has earned us countless awards, including the 2022 Chancellor’s Award for Staff Excellence and the 2023 Heroes of the Black Resistance Award.
Mr. Idoko’s work includes the development of the Racial Equity Awareness Framework and the accompanying Racial Equity Awareness Institute, which has enabled countless people to analyze the complexities of racism. , we can now reflect on steps to advance racial equality, both individually and collectively. Idoko’s coordination of the Diversity Forum, a virtual social justice conference, provided a platform for more than 20,000 people to engage in dialogue about social inequality and systems thinking approaches.
His work has not only advanced the mission of ACC CORE, but also made a significant contribution to creating lasting change within our facilities and communities.
Vélez-Martinez serves in many roles within the University of Pittsburgh, primarily as the Jack and Lovell Allender Professor of Asylum, Refugee, and Immigration Law and Director of Clinical Programs in the School of Law. She is active in the community supporting community organizations, consulting with immigration services, and working to promote diversity and inclusion in the legal field.
As a jurist and legal practitioner, Vélez Martinez has left a lasting mark nationally and internationally on topics such as domestic violence, immigration, and discrimination. She has not only passed on her own knowledge to her students, but has played a pivotal role in creating meaningful and lasting change in the lives of her students.
Vélez-Martinez serves as the head of undergraduate athletics at the University of Pittsburgh and serves as an advocate for student-athletes through her leadership on the Pitt Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. She continues to emphasize the needs of student-athletes to faculty and staff on the Senate Athletics and Recreation Committee.
Velez Martinez promotes the need for student-athletes to succeed academically while developing their talent to the conference level. She spends her time reviewing practice times and class schedules, recommending frameworks that increase academic success outside of the competitive arena and solidify the mental health and well-being of student-athletes. With her hard work, it’s no wonder she was selected as her ACC Undergraduate Athletic Representative for the 2023-24 academic year.
The UNITE Award is presented annually to individuals who:
- Best embodies ACC CORE’s mission to advance and encourage racial equity and social justice through education, partnership, engagement, and advocacy.
- We have helped create meaningful and lasting change by improving systems, organizational structures, policies, practices, and attitudes.
- Be a trailblazer in your facility or community and/or have helped pave the way for minorities
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