GALA 2009: Honorees

Excellence in Service Award

The Honorable Edward Rendell
Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

Edward G. Rendell, Pennsylvania’s 45th Governor, began a second term of office on January 16, 2007, following a landslide re-election victory. As Governor, Rendell serves as chief executive of the nation’s 6th-most-populous state and oversees a $28.3 billion budget.

Governor Rendell’s unprecedented strategic investments have energized Pennsylvania’s economy, revitalized communities, improved education, protected the environment and expanded access to health care to all children and affordable prescription drugs for older adults.

Governor Rendell is building on his efforts to make government more responsible to the public, and more responsive to the public’s needs. He has annually cut wasteful spending and improved efficiency to save more than $1 billion and is pursuing a legislative agenda that includes commonsense political reforms to put progress ahead of partisanship.

Governor Rendell’s economic stimulus plan is investing more than $2.8 billion to create new jobs and revitalize communities. Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate continues to be better than, or on par with, the national average. To ensure that all Pennsylvanians share in the benefits of our growing economy, the Governor successfully championed the first minimum wage increase in nearly a decade.

The Governor, who served as general chair of the Democratic National Committee during the 2000 Presidential election, has always been active in the community through a variety of memberships on boards, and also teaches government and politics courses at the University of Pennsylvania. An Army veteran, the Governor is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania (B.A. 1965) and Villanova Law School (J.D. 1968).

The Honorable Norm Dicks (D-WA)	The Honorable Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL)	His Excellency Welile Nhlapo	The Honorable Fidel Herrera Beltrán

Gala Award Descriptions (pdf)

The Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars is an independent, non-profit educational organization founded in 1975.  Its mission is to prepare college and university students for civic leadership through experiential education.  In this way, The Washington Center seeks to promote future leadership for the private, public and nonprofit sectors of society.  It has served approximately 40,000 students from close to 1,000 colleges and universities located in the United States and around the world.  For additional information, please visit our website at www.twc.edu.