Black Awarded Athena Award by Greensboro Partnership

GREENSBORO, NC – Janet Ward Black, principal of the Greensboro personal-injury firm, Ward Black Law was presented the Athena Award by Greensboro Partnership last night at their Annual Dinner at the Koury Convention Center.  Black was one of three Greensboro business people who received recognitions last night for their service to the community.

The Athena Award is given each year to an outstanding citizen who has devoted significant “time and energy to improve the quality of life for others in the community,” who has assisted other women to “reaching their full leadership potential,” and has demonstrated “excellence, creativity and initiative in their…profession.”  Janet Ward Black is a living testimony to these goals.

The program Black created while president of the 16,000 member North Carolina Bar Association for 2007-2008, “4 ALL,” has been used as a model in the United States and Canada for providing free legal services to the poor. A member and strong supporter of groups that foster and nurture women in business, Black is active in the Women’s Professional Forum, the Women Presidents Organization and the Women’s Resource Center to name a few.  She has also mentored young women for many years via North Carolina Girls State and through a new organization, the Queen’s Foundation, which prepares outstanding girls for leadership roles in the private and public sectors.  A believer in community projects, Black has helped with Habitat for Humanity, Win-Win Resolutions and International Cooperating Ministries and encourages participation by her employees within her law firm.

Other winners at the Greensboro Partnership dinner were Susan Shore Schwartz, CEO for the Cemala Foundation, which aims to enhance the community through grants to various charitable organizations.  Schwartz was awarded the O. Henry Award.  The highest honor went to Tim Rice, president and CEO of Cone Health, who received the Thomas Z. Osborne Award for extraordinary service and achievement.

Greensboro Partnership, made up of the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce, the Greensboro Economic Development Alliance and Action Greensboro, formed in 2005 to coordinate the efforts of these groups to serve as the city’s primary economic and community development organization.

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