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The UMass Donahue Institute invites the UMass Amherst community to join in recognizing M. Lee Pelton, chief executive officer and president of The Boston Foundation, at its Second Biennial Public Service Award event on Thursday, April 4 from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. in the Student Union Ballroom.

The institute will also posthumously recognize Stephen Kulik, former state representative from the 1st Franklin District, for his service to the commonwealth and UMass Amherst.

The event, which is co-hosted and sponsored by the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts, will include remarks by Chancellor Javier Reyes, State Rep. Natalie M. Blais of the 1st Franklin District, and Pelton. The student a cappella group UMass Dynamics will also perform and hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar will be available.

Pelton is chief executive officer and president of The Boston Foundation, one of the nation’s leading philanthropic organizations with $1.8 billion in assets. He joined the foundation in June 2021 after serving as president of Emerson College from 2011-2021 and Willamette University from 1998-2011. In May 2023, he ranked third on Boston Magazine’s annual list of the most influential people in Boston, following Maura Healey, the newly elected Massachusetts governor, and Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley. He has been awarded three honorary degrees and a list of awards and recognitions for educational excellence and social justice, including being named a “Living Legend” by the Boston Museum of African American History in 2021, the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce’s Academy of Distinguished Bostonians in 2020, and the Governor’s Award from Mass Humanities in 2020.

Kulik represented the 1st Franklin District in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from October 1993 until his retirement in January 2019, representing 26 different small towns primarily in Hampshire and Franklin counties. He passed away at the age of 72 in December 2022.

Kulik’s professional connections with UMass Amherst included working on the University Fund for the Future in 1989, consulting with the president and chancellor in the early 1990s to develop and enact the reorganization legislation to create the five-campus system, and serving on the UMass search committee when Michael Hooker was hired as president. He also attended University Without Walls.

For more information and to register for the event by the March 20 deadline, fill out the UMass Donahue Institute 2024 Public Service Award Ceremony form.