In The News | Professor Diba Khan-Bureau Receives Rockfall Foundation Award

The Rockfall Foundation Announces Recipients of 2021 Environmental Champion Awards.

From The Rockfall Foundation

The Rockfall Foundation bestowed a certificate of appreciation to Professor Diba-Khan Bureau of Three Rivers Community College. At left is Rockfall Executive Director Tony Marino. (Photo from The Rockfall Foundation)

The Rockfall Foundation is pleased to announce the recipients of our 2021 Environmental Champion Awards. The award winners were selected from nominations submitted by members of the community across the Lower Connecticut River Valley. Kim O’Rourke has been selected for the Tom ODell Distinguished Service Award, which honors long-term accomplishments in environmental conservation and preservation. Certificates of Appreciation are being awarded to Bernie Gillis of the East Haddam Conservation Commission and Dr. Diba Khan-Bureau of Three Rivers Community College.

Kim O’Rourke:

Kim has served 30 years as Recycling Coordinator for the City of Middletown. Starting as the City’s second coordinator at a time when mandatory recycling was new in Connecticut, Kim has built a program in Middletown that has received recognition statewide and regionally. Throughout her career, Kim has expanded the purview of her one-person operation to include multiple aspects of environmental conservation, including ecosystem protection, sustainability, waste reduction, composting, and organic food production. Learn more about Kim’s accomplishments here.
Certificates of Appreciation

Bernie Gillis:

Bernie is a Member of the East Haddam Conservation Commission, East Haddam Land Trust, and East Haddam Planning & Zoning Commission who is dedicated to the preservation of, and public access to, open space. Learn more about Bernie’s accomplishments here.

Dr. Diba Khan-Bureau:

Diba works as a professor and the Program Coordinator for the Environmental Technology and Biology TAP Pathway at Three Rivers Community College who has successfully blended her career as a professor with her dedication as a local conservationist. Learn more about Diba’s accomplishments here.

The original article can be found here: 2021 Environmental Champion Awards

In the News | Bill Stanley honored with the Crawford Award

Three Rivers College Foundation President Bill Stanley has been named the 2017 recipient of William Crawford Distinguished Service Award by the Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut. Both The Day and the Norwich Bulletin recognized his accomplishments through editorials, which are below.

Stanley credits mentors for the Crawford Award

New London, CT (The Day, November 8, 2017) — As befits one who merits an award for service to neighbors and improving the quality of life in eastern Connecticut, Bill Stanley stands on the shoulders, if not of giants, then of public-spirited mentors who guided his professional life.

Inspired by them, he has shaped a career based on the expressed belief that when the local hospital, the United Way, and a host of other good causes are doing well, the community will do well. A series of sagacious bosses has acknowledged that vision and encouraged him to lead, both on and off the job.

In the philanthropy of this region, William A. Stanley stands tall. It is fitting, then, that the Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut selected him as the 2017 recipient of the William Crawford Distinguished Service Award. The award, which the chamber will present tonight at the Mystic Marriott in Groton during a dinner in Stanley’s honor, cites his decades of service to the region’s nonprofit community.

For nearly two decades, Stanley has served as vice president for development and community relations at Lawrence + Memorial Hospital in New London. While overseeing community relations and millions of dollars in fundraising at L+M — now part of Yale-New Haven Health — Stanley has served lengthy leadership terms on the boards of Three Rivers Community College Foundation, the United Way, the Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut, and the New London Redevelopment Agency. Locally, the Boy Scouts and the NAACP have recognized his leadership with awards.

His is a public service career that can be told in chapters, each one with a theme and heroes.

From his parents, the late state Sen. William B. Stanley and Margaret Stanley, Bill Stanley learned public service and volunteerism. He developed a taste for politics by helping to run the elder Stanley’s campaign headquarters in the family rec room in Norwich.

From Co-publisher Deane C. Avery at The Day, where he went to work after a stint at The Norwich Bulletin, Stanley learned not only the tenets of journalism but the bigger picture of how to build a career in the profession, particularly in political reporting. The willingness of Avery, and later, former state Sen. Lew Rome, to guide a younger colleague, showed him what mentorship can do.

At Lawrence + Memorial, his longest tenure, he has found his ultimate heroes and role models: the medical and support staff who work long hours in tough jobs and the volunteers who expect no limelight, just the opportunity to serve. He singles out Naomi Rachleff, whom he describes as working 70 years, since candystriper days, for nothing other than a love of the hospital.

The great gift of all his mentors, and Stanley’s own return on that gift, is a community that benefits not only from the dollars raised but also from the unity of people coming together for a good cause. He exercises calm and affable leadership with the loyalty, decency and unselfishness he salutes in his role models. He seems to be everywhere there is a good cause to be served and, because of that, many people in the region have seen him on the podiums of banquets and fundraisers, the ultimate master of ceremonies of eastern Connecticut civic causes. And whether they know it or not, it is Bill Stanley who polices the speakers, keeps them on time, then wishes them a safe drive home.

As someone who has spent years working for causes that benefit people who are poor, sick, homeless or jobless, Stanley worries about Connecticut’s decline and about the safety nets for them. The politician in him wants urgent political compromise to solve our state’s ills, but no doubt the philanthropist-mentor-volunteer in him will keep working on solutions for the nonprofit agencies that try to fill the gaps.

The Day congratulates our former colleague Bill Stanley on this well-deserved honor.

— By The Day Editorial Board

The original article can be found here: “Stanley credits mentors for the Crawford Award”

Our View: Stanley’s dedication to community service a shining example

Norwich, CT (Norwich Bulletin, November 8, 2017) — Even for wordsmiths, it’s difficult to frame what William “Bill” Stanley truly means to southeastern Connecticut; the time he’s given and the decades of service to a variety of organizations.

The Norwich native calls his volunteerism “a great ride.” We call him the very definition of a role model.

Stanley, the Vice President of Development and Community Relations for Lawrence + Memorial Hospital/Yale New Haven Health, is being honored tonight as the Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut’s 2017 recipient of the William Crawford Distinguished Service Award.

The Crawford Award honors those who go above and beyond the call of duty in helping one’s neighbors – a strong depiction of Stanley.

Whether coordinating fundraising campaigns or assisting with community events, Stanley is always there for the local nonprofit community. He’s called a “friend to all.”

Stanley received his associate degree from Three Rivers Community College in 1974 and graduated from Eastern Connecticut State University with a bachelor’s degree in English in 1977.

He worked for two years at The Norwich Bulletin and 10 years at The Day before becoming Capitol bureau chief in Hartford. Stanley worked as campaign press secretary for former Governor William O’Neill, became a lobbyist and then was named director of corporate communications at The William W. Backus Hospital. He has been at Lawrence + Memorial Hospital since 1999.

He currently sits on the Three Rivers Community College Foundation’s Board of Directors. He also sat on the Chamber of Commerce of Eastern CT’s board of directors for 20 years – his most recent term ending in 2015.

Lawrence + Memorial President Patrick Green said: “Bill’s long history in our community, from his early years as a newspaper reporter, his activism and political expertise on important issues at the State Capitol in Hartford, and his tireless dedication to the promotion of healthcare in our community, truly make him a worthy recipient of this prestigious honor.”

We wholeheartedly agree.

— By Norwich Bulletin Editorial Board

The original article can be found here: “Our View: Stanley’s dedication to community service a shining example”