Dr. Bettina Love, Herb Douglas Receive 2022 ACC UNITE Award
10/20/2022 10:00:00 AM | General
PITTSBURGH – The Atlantic Coast Conference has announced Forever Panthers Dr. Bettina Love, and Herb Douglas as recipients of the 2022 ACC UNITE Award, an award created to honor individuals affiliated with the league who have made an impact in the areas of racial and social justice.
Dr. Bettina Love, a member of the Pitt women's basketball team from 2000-03, is the award-winning author of We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom and Hip Hop's Li'l Sistas Speak: Negotiating Hip Hop Identities and Politics in the New South.
Her writing, research, teaching, and educational advocacy work meet at the intersection of disrupting education reform and strengthening public education through abolitionist teaching, Black joy, and anti-racism.
Love is a founding member of the Old 4th Ward Economic Security Task Force with the Atlanta City Council. The goal of the task force is to bring guaranteed income and income stability to Black women residents living in Atlanta. In 2022, the Task Force launched the program In Her Hands, distributing more than $15 million to Black women living in Georgia. In Her Hands is one of the largest guaranteed income pilot programs in the U.S.
As part of its 50th anniversary in 2022, the Kennedy Center named Dr. Love one of the Next 50 Leaders who are making the world a more inspired, inclusive, and compassionate place.
In 2014, she was invited to the White House Research Conference on Girls. For her work in the field of Hip Hop education, in 2016, Dr. Love was named the Nasir Jones Hiphop Fellow at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. In April of 2017, Dr. Love participated in a one-on-one public lecture with American author and social activist, bell hooks, focused on the liberatory education practices of Black and Brown children. In 2018, Georgia's House of Representatives presented Dr. Love with a resolution for her impact on the field of education.
Herb Douglas enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh in 1945 and would go on to have milestone achievements as both a track and field athlete and football player. He won four intercollegiate championships in the long jump and one in the 100-yard dash. Additionally, he captured three National Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) championships in the long jump. In the 1948 London Summer Olympics, he was the bronze medalist in the long jump with a 24-foot, 9-inch leap.
As a Pitt football letterman in 1945, Douglas became just the second African American to score a touchdown against Notre Dame. He also became the first of only two football athletes to score a touchdown against Notre Dame and win an Olympic medal.
Douglas later would be the founder of the Jesse Owens International Trophy Award, honoring the most outstanding amateur or Olympic athlete in the world. Douglas was inducted into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 1980 and the New York Athletic Club Hall of Fame in 1990. In July of 2022, Philadelphia co-named a street in his honor.
In addition, Chancellor Patrick Gallagher has announced that the 300-meter indoor track at Pitt's future Victory Heights facility will be named in for Douglas to honor his legacy as one of the greatest Panthers athletes of all time.
The UNITE Award is presented annually to individuals who:
2022 UNITE Award Recipients
Boston College: M. Quentin Williams & Dr. Constance Smith Hendricks
Clemson: Wayne Jenkins & Barbara Kennedy-Dixon (posthumously)
Duke: Michael Howard & Gracie Johnson
Florida State: Leonard Hamilton & Morgan M. Jones
Georgia Tech: Lucius Sanford & Lynn Houston-Moore
Louisville: Jim Freeman & Valerie (Owens) Combs
Miami: Corey Jones & Lauryn Harris
North Carolina: Charles Scott & Kathy Crawford
NC State: Dr. Marcus Martin & Charece Willams Gee
Notre Dame: Cason Wilburn & Niele Ivey
Pitt: Dr. Bettina Love & Herb Douglas
Syracuse: Dedrick Etan Thomas & Emily Nugent
Virginia: Marques Hagans & Hailey Barnett
Virginia Tech: André Davis & Reyna Gilbert-Lowry
Wake Forest: Jim Caldwell & Charlene Curtis (posthumously)
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Dr. Bettina Love, a member of the Pitt women's basketball team from 2000-03, is the award-winning author of We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom and Hip Hop's Li'l Sistas Speak: Negotiating Hip Hop Identities and Politics in the New South.
Her writing, research, teaching, and educational advocacy work meet at the intersection of disrupting education reform and strengthening public education through abolitionist teaching, Black joy, and anti-racism.
Love is a founding member of the Old 4th Ward Economic Security Task Force with the Atlanta City Council. The goal of the task force is to bring guaranteed income and income stability to Black women residents living in Atlanta. In 2022, the Task Force launched the program In Her Hands, distributing more than $15 million to Black women living in Georgia. In Her Hands is one of the largest guaranteed income pilot programs in the U.S.
As part of its 50th anniversary in 2022, the Kennedy Center named Dr. Love one of the Next 50 Leaders who are making the world a more inspired, inclusive, and compassionate place.
In 2014, she was invited to the White House Research Conference on Girls. For her work in the field of Hip Hop education, in 2016, Dr. Love was named the Nasir Jones Hiphop Fellow at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. In April of 2017, Dr. Love participated in a one-on-one public lecture with American author and social activist, bell hooks, focused on the liberatory education practices of Black and Brown children. In 2018, Georgia's House of Representatives presented Dr. Love with a resolution for her impact on the field of education.
Herb Douglas enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh in 1945 and would go on to have milestone achievements as both a track and field athlete and football player. He won four intercollegiate championships in the long jump and one in the 100-yard dash. Additionally, he captured three National Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) championships in the long jump. In the 1948 London Summer Olympics, he was the bronze medalist in the long jump with a 24-foot, 9-inch leap.
As a Pitt football letterman in 1945, Douglas became just the second African American to score a touchdown against Notre Dame. He also became the first of only two football athletes to score a touchdown against Notre Dame and win an Olympic medal.
Douglas later would be the founder of the Jesse Owens International Trophy Award, honoring the most outstanding amateur or Olympic athlete in the world. Douglas was inducted into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 1980 and the New York Athletic Club Hall of Fame in 1990. In July of 2022, Philadelphia co-named a street in his honor.
In addition, Chancellor Patrick Gallagher has announced that the 300-meter indoor track at Pitt's future Victory Heights facility will be named in for Douglas to honor his legacy as one of the greatest Panthers athletes of all time.
The UNITE Award is presented annually to individuals who:
- Best exemplify ACC CORE's mission to promote and encourage racial equity and social justice through education, partnerships, engagement and advocacy
- Have helped create meaningful, lasting change by improving systems, organizational structures, policies, practices and attitudes
- Have been a pioneer and/or helped pave the way for minorities either at the institution or in the community
2022 UNITE Award Recipients
Boston College: M. Quentin Williams & Dr. Constance Smith Hendricks
Clemson: Wayne Jenkins & Barbara Kennedy-Dixon (posthumously)
Duke: Michael Howard & Gracie Johnson
Florida State: Leonard Hamilton & Morgan M. Jones
Georgia Tech: Lucius Sanford & Lynn Houston-Moore
Louisville: Jim Freeman & Valerie (Owens) Combs
Miami: Corey Jones & Lauryn Harris
North Carolina: Charles Scott & Kathy Crawford
NC State: Dr. Marcus Martin & Charece Willams Gee
Notre Dame: Cason Wilburn & Niele Ivey
Pitt: Dr. Bettina Love & Herb Douglas
Syracuse: Dedrick Etan Thomas & Emily Nugent
Virginia: Marques Hagans & Hailey Barnett
Virginia Tech: André Davis & Reyna Gilbert-Lowry
Wake Forest: Jim Caldwell & Charlene Curtis (posthumously)
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