Diamond Awards to Honor Excellence in Entertainment, Politics, Business, Education, & DEI Leadership
Thursday, February 2nd, 2023
Actors Corbin Blue (The Mahalia Jackson Story) and Jimmy Odukoya (The Woman King), sports commentator Ahmad Rashad, Goodwill North Georgia President & CEO Keith Parker, and a host of mayors and higher education leaders will be among the distinguished guests honored at the 2023 Diamond Awards on Jan. 21 at 7 p.m. at the Byers Theatre for Performing Arts in Sandy Springs. Red carpet begins at 5 p.m.
The Diamond Awards, the “Oscars” of community service, recognizes outstanding work that advances social justice and human rights issues nationwide and promotes cultural understanding, diversity, equity, and inclusion through the arts, philanthropy, educational initiatives, and corporate culture.The Diamond Awards will make its first return to metro Atlanta this weekend since the pandemic postponed the annual celebration in 2020.
Some 20 icons in the entertainment industry, government, business, and public service will receive Diamond Awards Saturday, as well as 50 education administrators making gains in diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. In a new category for the Diamond Awards “The Churchill/Turner Global Diamond Award in Higher Education,” Vanderbilt University and The Ohio State University will be honored for lifetime achievement in advancing diversity. DEI officers at Cornell, Emory, California State, Columbia, and Princeton universities, among other institutions, will also be recognized for outstanding achievement.
“We are thrilled to be back onstage in metro Atlanta to celebrate icons and innovators whose thought leadership, artistry, and game-changing programs are making a positive impact on our diverse society,” said Mark Dodd, founder of the Not Alone Foundation and The Diamond Awards. “The Diamond Awards recognizes excellence. It is one of the few awards shows in which you will see Hollywood celebrities honored on the same stage as CEOs, college presidents, and other essential workers. We celebrate stars across disciplines, and value the contributions of educators who shape minds in classrooms as much those may play them in films.”
The Diamond Awards show and benefit, hosted by the Not Alone Foundation, a nonprofit that provides outreach and resources for those with chronic kidney disease, is the only awards show created by a kidney disease patient to benefit fellow kidney disease patients nationwide. Sponsors of this year’s Diamond Awards include: the Melior Group at Morgan Stanley, AT&T Corporation, The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business, Lucy’s Market, Van Maur, Alliance Medical Transportation, Life Links of Georgia Foundation, Incorporated, Atlanta Spine Doctors, Lardon, Mark Dodd, Productions, Not Alone Foundation, Inc. Tickets for the Diamond Awards can be purchased by emailing: [email protected].
