Congratulations to the 2020 Campus Safety Director of the Year award recipients! All of the winners were announced on Tuesday at the Campus Safety Online Summit.
The winner of the healthcare division is Eric Clay, CoxHealth’s director of public safety, while the winner of the higher education division is Edgar Rodriguez, Quinnipiac University’s former chief of public safety. The K-12 sector had two protection executives who came out on top: Demario Boone, who is chief at Peoria Public Schools, and Guy Grace, who is director of security and emergency planning at Littleton Public Schools.
Additionally, both the higher ed and school divisions had runners up: Western Carolina University Chief of Police Steve Lillard and Montgomery Independent School District Chief of Police Marlon Runnels.
Unlike previous years when the winners were announced at the Campus Safety Conferences, due to the coronavirus pandemic, Tuesday’s award ceremony took place virtually at the Campus Safety Online Summit.
The ceremony started off with a video montage highlighting some of the achievements of the finalists. Campus Safety Editor-in-Chief Robin Hattersley then announced the winners as well as provided an overview of some of their accomplishments.
Each award recipient gave an acceptance speech, thanking the officers, executives and administrators who helped them achieve their campus security, public safety and emergency management objectives over the years.
To watch the video, click here.
The entries were judged by a distinguished panel of healthcare, higher education and school security, public safety and emergency management experts. The judges included Gary Sigrist Jr. of Safeguard Risk Solutions, former Fuller Theological Seminary Chief Gary Mejia, Allied Universal Vice President of Healthcare Lisa Terry, hospital security consultant Tom Smith, Idaho Office of School Safety and Security Analyst Guy Bliesner, Northern Virginia Community College Chief of Police Dan Dusseau and Campus Safety Senior Editor Amy Rock.
All four winners of this year’s Director of the Year program will be featured in upcoming issues of Campus Safety magazine as well as online at CampusSafetyMagazine.com. Additionally, CS will begin accepting nominations for next year’s program this fall.
Congratulations to our winners, runners up, finalists and their departments!