Summer 2004 Feature

ilsr Leadership Award

Pine Manor College Goes to
San Francisco to Honor Mimi Silbert

“We honor you because you have shown us the power of persistence— of never giving up on people no matter how desperate their situation.”

Pine Manor College’s Award for Inclusive Leadership and Social Responsibility was presented to Mimi Silbert, founder, President, and CEO of the Delancey Street Foundation, on March 31, 2004, in San Francisco. President Gloria Nemerowicz and Susan Webber, Vice President for Institutional Advancement, joined 50 alumnae and their guests from the greater Bay Area in honoring Dr. Silbert at a reception, which was followed by a dinner attended by sponsors who contributed more than $5,000 to PMC.

The College selected Mimi Silbert as its honoree because she lives a life of inclusive leadership and social responsibility every day. Silbert began the Delancey Street Foundation in 1971, with four residents, a thousand dollars, and a dream of developing a new model to turn around the lives of substance abusers, former felons, and others who have hit bottom. Thirty years later, more than 14,000 residents have graduated into society as successful citizens with productive lives as lawyers, truck drivers, salespeople, and even a deputy sheriff.

Mimi Silbert and Juliette McLean Anthony ’60

In making the presentation President Nemerowicz said, “We honor you because you have shown us the power of persistence—of never giving up on people no matter how desperate their situation. When you founded the Delancey Street Foundation you had a vision and very little else. Today the Foundation has grown to include five facilities throughout the country and is recognized as the nation’s leading self-help residential education center for former substance abusers and ex-convicts.”

The Delancey Street program is distinguished by its extended family “each one teach one” approach. With no staff, no salaries, no cost to the taxpayers or clients, and no government funding, the entire organization is run by the residents — a real grass-roots effort. Residents earn high school equivalencies and learn interpersonal and social survival skills.

“Your construction in 1990 of a 400,000-square-foot complex on the San Francisco waterfront—the new home for Delancey Street—was an amazing demonstration of the power of collaboration and community,” President Nemerowicz emphasized. “With you as developer and Delancey as its own general contractor, 300 formerly unemployable addicts, homeless people, and ex-felons managed the entire construction process and built a unique development—containing retail stores, restaurants, and 177 dwelling units—that has been called ‘a masterpiece of social design’ by a Pulitzer Prize-winning architectural critic.”

From left: Serena Strazzulla Kokjer Greening ’59, President Nemerowicz, and Susan Webber, Vice President for Institutional Advancement

The Foundation collaborates with numerous public and private agencies and runs a charter public high school for at-risk youths, which Silbert heads. Silbert has designed adult and juvenile justice master plans for numerous cities and states, designed and conducted the largest study in the country on prostitution, and designed curriculums and provided training to more than 50 police, sheriff, and probation departments. For her pioneering work Mimi Silbert was appointed to the National Institute of Justice by President Carter and four times to the California State Board of Corrections by two governors.

Together with Delancey Street, Silbert has received awards and commendations from three presidents, numerous Senate and congressional leaders, and several state legislatures and governors. She has been featured on 20/20, Good Morning America, and Oprah Winfrey Prime Time Special.

Members of the Planning Committee for the San Francisco event included Juliette McLean Anthony ’60, Candace Matsuura Iwanyc ’95, Clare Rolph Wheeler Sias ’46, Patricia Clark Ernsberger ’51, Betsy Van Orsdel Moulds ’64, Susan Pate Ulrich ’78, Serena Strazzulla Kokjer Greening ’59, Cid Roberts-Young ’71, and Heidi Neipris Wexler ’82.

Read Mimi Silbert's letter to Pine Manor College (PDF).

The PMC Award for Inclusive Leadership and Social Responsibility has been presented nationally since 1997, to women who have made a positive difference in the lives of others through collaboration, compassion, and inclusivity. Among the previous 11 recipients are Valerie Red Horse, actress, television producer, and entrepreneur; Wilhelmina Cole Holladay, founder and chair of the board, The National Museum of Women in the Arts; Wendy Kopp, founder and president of Teach For America; Mavis Nicholson Leno, chair, Campaign for Afghan Women and Girls, Feminist Majority Foundation; and Lynn M. Martin, Former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor.