Moore, Jimerson to receive Purdue's Dreamer Award

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Jesse Moore, director of supplier diversity, and Jackie Jimerson, who retired in 2012 as director of multicultural programs for the College of Pharmacy, will receive Purdue University's 2012 Dreamer Award during a ceremony at 7 p.m. Thursday (Jan. 24) in Stewart Center's Loeb Playhouse.

Also during the ceremony, which is part of the keynote lecture of Purdue's celebration of the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Amber Ma will receive the 2013 MLK Purdue Dream Teacher Award.

The Dreamer Award, established in 2004, is given annually to an individual or organization within the Purdue community whose contributions embody King's vision of service to others and furthers the university's commitment to diversity.

"They are receiving the award for a lifetime of work," said Carolyn Johnson, director of the Diversity Resource Office at Purdue. "They have both demonstrated an active commitment, advocacy and application of the principles of equality, excellence and social responsibility that mirrors Dr. King’s vision of service to others and his dream of a society marked by equality for all."

Jesse Moore Download Photo

Moore is the first and only director of Purdue's Office of Supplier Diversity. The office was created in 2005 to help minority- and women-owned businesses work with the university. Greater Lafayette Commerce honored the office with the Diversity Roundtable 2010 Workforce Diversity Best Practices Award.

Purdue is a founding member of the Supplier Diversity Coalition of Greater Lafayette, a group of companies in Greater Lafayette committed to expanding opportunities for diverse companies to do business in the community.

Moore helped start Relationship to Partnerships Sessions at Purdue. The annual program brings diverse firms to campus to meet with Purdue buyers. The local companies - such as Caterpillar, Evonik, State Farm, Ivy Tech, Alcoa, Freitag-Weinhardt, Inc., Greater Lafayette Commerce, Vectren and Wabash National - also send their buyers and contracting staff to meet with the firms attending.

In addition to his work at Purdue, Moore volunteers with the Hanna Community Center and the Greater Lafayette Indiana Black Expo.

Jackie Jimerson Download Photo

Jimerson earned bachelor's and master's degrees in education from Purdue. She joined the Purdue staff in 1979 as assistant dean of students and associate director of the Horizons program. In 1992 she became director of minority programs and senior associate director for the Office of Student Services in the College of Pharmacy.

In 2005 she received the university's One Brick Higher Award.

"This award means a great deal to me as it reflects student success and accomplishment," Jimerson said. "I'm grateful to receive this award but wish to acknowledge others who supported the goal and worked with me to enhance student success. This award applauds deans, faculty and staff who shared the commitment and aided in accomplishing the goal."

The Purdue Dream Teacher Award, established in 2012, recognizes at K-12 teacher whose work embodies King's message of commitment to improving the lives of others.

Ma has taught kindergarten at Edgelea Elementary School in Lafayette, Ind., for 11 years. She works with English Language Learners (ELL) children of immigrants. She supports her students' literacy in a language-rich environment.

"Ms. Ma has pedagogical knowledge and skills to work with growing populations of students whose native language is not English and offers differentiated instruction to cater to the needs of all students," said Renee Thomas, co-chair of the Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Committee at Purdue. "She creates a comfortable learning environment in her class where students from diverse backgrounds feel included, respected and have equal opportunities to learn."

The award will allow Ma to purchase Spanish-language materials for English Language Learners in her classroom and school. She has completed coursework for the English Language licensure program at Purdue.

"Her work exemplifies the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr.'s message about the fierce urgency of now," Thomas said. "In her application, she wrote, 'His dream of then is my dream of now … justice for all of God's children and to ensure that all students, no matter their race, gender or ethnicity, are accepted, valued, and given the same opportunities to learn.' "

Writer: Greg McClure, 765-496-9711, gmcclure@purdue.edu

Sources: Carolyn E. Johnson, 765-494-7307, cjohnson1@purdue.edu

Jackie Jimerson, jjimerso@purdue.edu

Renee Thomas, 765-494-3091, rathomas@purdue.edu

Related websites:
Purdue University's Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration events