NJCASA Lifetime Achievement Awardee

New Jersey Coalition Against Sexual Assautl announces Ruth Anne Koenick as a Lifetime Achievement Awardee

Ruth Anne Koenick is the Director of the Office for Violence Prevention and Victim Assistance at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. A graduate of The University of Maryland and George Washington University, Ms. Koenick has worked in the field of violence against women for 40 years having co-founded the Women's Crisis Center at The University of Maryland. The former Coordinator of the Middlesex County (NJ) Rape Crisis Center, she is a founder and past president of the New Jersey Coalition Against Sexual Assault. She served as chair of the Advisory Committee, charged by the New Jersey Commission on Higher Education to develop the Campus Sexual Assault Victim's Bill of Rights for all post-secondary institutions inNew Jersey and to develop an implementation plan. Ms. Koenick co-chaired the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators conference entitled "Adjudicating Sexual Assault" in December 1997 and 1999. Ms. Koenick teaches in both the Rutgers University Department of Women and Gender Studies and the School of Social Work MSW program and in the Center on Violence Against Women and Children Continuing Education Program.

In 2011 Ms. Koenick received the Wise Woman Award from the American College Personnel Association. This award was given based on her history of contributions towards women in student affairs and on efforts to promote the professional and personal development of women.

Ms. Koenick received the Wynona M. Lipman Leadership Award from the NJ Department of Community Affairs and is a recipient of the RutgersUniversityPresident's Award for Excellence in Administration and a recipient of the Rutgers University President's Award for Outstanding Service and Contributions to the University Community. In 2000, she was honored as a "milestone of the 20th century" by the Feminist Majority Foundation for her "unique contribution to the historical struggle for women's equality and human rights". She was appointed to the NJ Governor's Advisory Council Against Sexual Violence and the National Campus Advisory Board for the United States Department of Justice Grants to Reduce Violent Crimes Against Women on Campus. She is a member of the Rutgers School of Social Work Center on Violence Against Women and Children Advisory Board.

Ms. Koenick was appointed to the first Middlesex County Commission on Women in 1986 and served as chair in 1990. Since 1994 she has been a member of the Board of Trustees of Hyacinth AIDS Foundation, New Jersey's oldest AIDS Service agency where she served as the Vice President for Development and chaired AIDSWALK New Jersey for 10 years. She has been married for 38 years to Paul A. Herman. Her son Joshua, daughter-in-law Lisa, and grandchildren, Mackenzie and Bryce, live in California and her daughter Molly is an elementary school art teacher for the Fairfax County, Virginia Public Schools.

http://njcasa.org/events/110924/njcasa-celebrates-its-30th-anniversary