Date and Time: Wednesday, March 27, 5:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Location: 3rd Floor Ballroom, Campus Center, UMass Boston
UMass Boston’s second annual Veterans’ Excellence Award Gala is on March 27, 2024. The program showcases and honors the outstanding character, patriotism, and service of the men and women who have served and continue to serve with distinction.
Each month leading up to the March Gala, the William Joiner Institute awards a Veterans’ Excellence Award to a Veteran who has been nominated for and selected for their post-service achievements in communities across the country. The William Joiner Institute had nominations from all over Boston and New England, but also from across the country, including California, Texas, Georgia, and New Jersey. The following Veterans were award recipients over the last 12 months: Entrepreneurs Ernest Washington, Jr., and Arthur N. Mabbett; Education Advocate Charles Desmond; Publisher Melvin B. Miller; Nurse Chelsey Simoni; City Councilor Ed Flynn; Educator Lovelle Seymore; Businessman Warren G. Manigault III; Veterans Leader Kevin Bowen; Teacher Heidi Hurley; Veterans Advocate Ariel J. Luna; and Women Veterans Advocate Susan McDonough.
The festivities will be capped off with the awarding of the Director's “Veteran of the Year” Award for 2024.
2024 Keynote Speaker: Dr. Andrea Gayle-Bennett
The keynote speaker this year will be Dr. Andrea Gayle-Bennett, Deputy Secretary, MA Executive Office of Veteran Services.
Andrea earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from City College of New York’s Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education in Physician Assistant Studies in 1981, a Master of Education degree from Lesley College in Business Management in 1988 and a Doctor of Medical Science in Physician Assistant Medicine in 2021.
Her military career includes many notable accomplishments. In 2012, she became the 1st African American female O-6 in the history of the MA Army National Guard. She has served in various leadership positions within Medical Command and served as the State Surgeon for Joint Forces Headquarters, again making history in 2014 as the 1st non-physician and the 1st African American to hold that position. She deployed multiple times in her military career including Paraguay in 2008, Iraq in 2009, and Kenya in 2016. In December of 2020, she was selected to the rank of Brigadier General (Massachusetts), again making history as the first female and the first African America woman O-7 in the Massachusetts Army National Guard.
She was the recipient of the Deborah Sampson Outstanding Female Veteran of the year award from the Massachusetts Department of Veterans services in 2011. In June of 2016, she was appointed to the Governor’s Council to Address Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence and later that same year was appointed to the Governor’s Advisory Counsel for Veterans Services. In 2019, she was appointed to the Board of Trustees at North Shore Community College. On June 5, 2023, she was appointed as the first ever Deputy Secretary of the Executive Office of Veterans Services of the Commonwealth of MA.
She currently resides in Lynn, MA with her husband and 92-year-old parents and is the proud mother of 4 adult children.