Two local citizens are being honored for their humanitarian contributions to the community.
The Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities, an organization that works with schools, businesses and communities to deliver programs on inclusion and diversity, named Martha Katz-Hyman and Brian Skinner as two of the recipients of the 2015 Humanitarian Awards.
Katz-Hyman, a curator for Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, is an active volunteer in the peninsula Jewish community and is the author of several articles related to 18th century slave material culture.
As curator, Katz-Hyman works on artifact acquisition, media projects and new outdoor interpretive areas for the forthcoming American Revolution Museum at Jamestown.
Skinner, who oversees about 125 bankers as President of TowneBank Peninsula/Williamsburg, also serves on several boards including An Achievable Dream and United Way of Virginia Peninsula and has worked for 18 years with the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Virginia Peninsula.
The three other 2015 Humanitarian award recipients were Tommy Garner, who owns an air conditioning and heating company in Newport News; Chavis W. Harris, director for EEO, Ethics and Compliance at Newport News Shipbuilding and Ashby Kilgore, superintendent of Newport News Public Schools.
All three serve on several boards and commissions and are frequently involved in the local community.
The awards will be presented Feb. 26 at the Newport News Marriott in City Center. For more information, visit www.inclusiveva.org.
