Clarissa McAdoo presented with Athena Award

Staff

Published Sunday, February 29, 2004

barbara.allen@suffolknewsherald.com

The Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce-Suffolk Division and Duke Automotive honored Clarissa E. McAdoo, the 2003 winner of the Athena Award, during a banquet Thursday night at Nansemond-Suffolk Academy.

The event celebrated McAdoo, the executive director of Suffolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority. She, like all Athena Award recipients, was selected for her professional excellence, community service, and

for actively and generously assisting women in their attainment of professional excellence.

Lydia Duke, president of Duke Automotive on North Main Street, made the presentation to McAdoo.

The award, sponsored by Duke Auto, is a distinctive bronze-and-crystal sculpture that is meant to symbolize the recipient's qualities. The marble base represents the recipient's solid foundation for life, and the unique textures of the bronze differ on each sculpture, just as the life experiences of the recipients differ. The Athena award is presented and sponsored each year by Duke Automotive, and General Motors Corporation in Lansing, Mich. Duke is the only dealership in Virginia to sponsor the award.

Nominated by Dr. Mark A. Croston Sr. of East End Baptist Church, McAdoo has not only served as an exemplary role mode for women, but she has excelled in her professional accomplishments as well.

Prior to her work in Suffolk, she was the development operations manger for Norfolk's Redevelopment and Housing Authority from 1995 to 1996, and she was the senior community development specialist for that city from 1993 to 1995.

McAdoo was a city planner in Suffolk from 1987 to 1993. Prior to that, she was the assistant to the director of economic and community development for the city of Hyattsville, Md. She also worked for the city of Laurel, Md., as a zoning administrator. From 1979 to 1984, she was the zoning inspector in Portsmouth.

McAdoo graduated from John F. Kennedy High School and Virginia State University, where she earned a bachelor's degree in sociology/social work. She also has certificates from the University of Maryland and Old Dominion University's Civic Leadership Institute.

McAdoo initiated the National Night Out Against Crime program in Suffolk, and she established the SRHA Volunteer Program, which is designed to give Suffolk citizens work experience.

She also set up the Honor Roll program to showcase academic achievement of youth residing in public housing, and she established the Orlando Project Area and the Hall Place Project Area Committee, both comprised of residents in their respective neighborhoods to oversee community development initiatives.

She has been honored many times, receiving awards from Norfolk State University and Plumbline Ministries. She was named "Woman of the Year" by the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority in 1998, and received the Community Service Award from the East Suffolk Federated League in 1999.

McAdoo has a long list of professional affiliations, including serving as a charter member of the board of directors of the Hampton Roads Chapter of the National Forum for Black Public Administrators and a member of the Conference of Minority Public Administrators and the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials. She is a member of the Public Housing Authority Directors Association, the Virginia Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials, the Virginia Downtown Development Association and the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

She has also served on the Mayor's Advisory Council on Youth, and she is a past leader for the Girl Scouts of America.

She is an active member of East End Baptist Church where she serves on several auxiliaries.

Past Athena recipients include Joyce Trump, Sarah Leigh Walden, Fan Panton, Sunny Dixon, Lula Holland, Nancy Russell, Gail Pruden, Lorraine B. Skeeter, Ruby Walden, Jinks Babey, Pat Williams, Betsy Brothers, Dr. Margaret Reid, Peggy Wade, and Fran Alwood.

During the evening of festivities, Dr. George Barnett, a Suffolk dentist for 39 years and president of Barnett Rentals, was sworn in as the 2004 Chairman of the Suffolk Division of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce.

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