Celebrating the 2025 Martin Luther King Jr. Community Service Awards

By Sarah Timbie

Last February, Emory staff, faculty, students, and Atlanta community members came together to celebrate the 30th Martin Luther King Jr. Community Service Awards. This year’s theme was “Uplifting Humanity: Creating a Future of Justice and Equity through Compassion and Service.” The event centered around King's quotation: “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

These annual awards honor individuals from the Emory and Atlanta community who lead with love and peace while advocating for justice. Recipients of the award exemplify principles that King embodied and advocated for: service, leadership, and justice.

The annual awards program started in 1996 under the leadership of Raymond Greenberg, the founding dean of the Rollins School of Public Health, and faculty member Joyce Essien, MD. It continued through the guidance of James Curran, MD, and leaders from Goizueta Business School, Emory School of Medicine, and Nell Hodgson School of Nursing. This year, the awards program expanded to include Emory Healthcare and Emory’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion.

This year’s honorees were chosen for their efforts in dismantling injustice, helping people to find their voices, and furthering the commitment to human dignity.

Speakers

Daniel Blackman, distinguished presidential appointee under the Biden-Harris administration and founder and CEO of Renaissance 94, delivered a powerful keynote speech to kick off the program. Other speakers included Rajeev Prasad of Emory University’s Office of Spiritual and Religious Life; Daniele Fallin, PhD, dean of the Rollins School of Public Health; Gareth James, PhD, dean of Goizueta Business School; Sandra Lynn Wong, MD, dean of the School of Medicine; and Linda A. McCauley, PhD, dean of the School of Nursing.

The Honorees

The 2025 Martin Luther King Jr. Community Service Awardees celebrated the following people and organizations:

• Start:ME, a program established by Goizueta Business School in 2013, for its work to provide mentorship and grant capital to aspiring entrepreneurs in under-resourced Atlanta communities.
• Boxes of Blessings, an Emory student-led organization, for its campaign to fund orphanages and provide resources for children in Sierra Leone.
• Center for Black Women’s Wellness, for over 35 years of addressing maternal health disparities, environmental health, and community empowerment in the pursuit of health equity and advocacy.
• Yomi Noibi, PhD, for his lifelong contributions to environmental justice, from founding the Atlanta Watershed Learning Network to mentoring future leaders from underrepresented communities.
• Zykevise Gamble, for his work addressing the Black maternal health crisis in Georgia, mentorship of future health professionals, and commitment to community engagement and empowerment.
• BLKHLTH, a local nonprofit that addresses the impact of racism on Black health, for its dedication to education and advocacy outreach, community engagement, and providing fellowship opportunities for health equity in Atlanta, South Africa, and beyond.