DDBHC Annual Awards Nights Recipients 2009

SueAnn O'Connor: Life Time Achievement Award

SueAnn O’Connor, known for her passion and commitment to helping others through a variety of organizations over the last 20 years. Her past or current affiliations and memberships to organizations in the community includes: Catholic Charities Board, Child Network of Kankakee Board, Hospice of Kankakee Valley PR Committee, American Red Cross- Adopt a Donor for the Blood Program, Neighborhood Partners of Kankakee, Herscher Area Historical Society, Kankakee County Greenways & Trials Citizen Advisory Committee, , she served as co-chair for the United Way campaign in Kankakee County. During those same years she also served on the Kankakee County Economic Development Council fund-raising campaign, which raised more than $600,000.
MRS O’Connor has been honored with awards by various organizations including the Athena Award in 1994 from the Women in Business Committee of the Kankakee Area Chamber of Commerce. In 1993 she was announced Outstanding Volunteer (for the civic-category) of Kankakee County and received the Clara Barton volunteer of the year award from the Kankakee Chapter of the American Red Cross.

Kathleen Kane-Willis- Leadership Award Recipient

Kathleen Kane-Willis is the interim director for Roosevelt University's Institute for Metropolitan Affairs and serves as the project director of the Illinois Consortium on Drug Policy, a collection of drug policy research activities she co-founded in 2005. She has been in recovery for heroin addiction for the past seventeen years.

Ms. Kane-Willis' public policy research experience spans more than a decade. Her main area of focus is on drug policy, drug misuse, drug education curriculum development, and research involving women drug users. In recent years, Kane-Willis has focused her research on drug policy at the intersection of criminal justice reform and has managed over 20 research projects and authored dozens of reports. Kane-Willis' reports on drug use and policies have been featured on the front pages of the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Daily Herald and other publications across the Midwest. She has also appeared on local and national television and radio discussing drug use, trends and policies. Ms. Kane-Willis has presented her research findings academic conferences across the country and is frequently asked to moderate panels dealing with substance use disorders. In addition, she currently serves on the Research and Policy Committees for the Illinois General Assembly's Disproportionate Justice Impact Study.

Tom Marcotte- Leadership Award Recipient