Photo caption: Senator Todd Young
The Katie Hall Educational Foundation, Inc. announced it will award its prestigious 2023 Co-Katie Hall Public Service Award to the Honorable Todd Young, senior Republican United States Senator from Indiana, for his public service and commitment to American democracy for all persons in contemporary society.
Senator Young will share the Foundation’s highest award with Christina Shutt, executive director of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum (ALPLM), Springfield, Illinois, the official library and museum of Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of the United States of America.
Shutt is currently the only African American serving in an executive leadership role at any of America’s 15 presidential libraries.
The Annual Katie Hall Public Service Awards Luncheon is the organization’s Spring fundraiser. The 2023 Co-Katie Hall Public Service Award will be presented during an in-person luncheon, April 15 at St. Timothy Community Church Fellowship Hall, 1600 W. 25th Ave., in Gary.
The annual award recognizes notable national and international individuals for their public service efforts in the spirit of the State of Indiana’s first African American member of the United States Congress, Katie Hall.
Moreover, the award honors individuals who have accepted the responsibilities imposed by public service to their “world community.” These individuals exhibit a willingness to “be the change that they want to see,” along with a commitment to the defining principles of American democracy, selflessly serving humanity to make the world a more compassionate and loving place for all people.
In the United States Senate, Young currently serves on Senate Committees of Finance; Foreign Relations; Commerce, Science and Transportation; and Small Business and Entrepreneurship.
Young attended the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, graduating with honors in 1995; he later accepted a commission in the U.S. Marine Corps. In 2000, Young was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps as a Captain. While serving in the Marines and working as a business consultant, Young earned an MBA and his law degree.
In 2010, he ran for Congress and served three terms representing Indiana’s 9th Congressional District. Young was elected to the United States Senate in 2016.
He married his wife Jenny in 2005; they worked together at a small law firm in Paoli, Indiana started by Jenny’s great-grandfather. Today, they reside in Johnson County, Indiana, with their four young children: a son, Tucker, and three daughters, Annalise, Abigail and Ava.
Jenny is the niece of former United States Vice President Dan Quayle. Then-United States Senator Quayle (R-IN) voted in favor of U.S. House of Representatives Bill, H.R. 3706 during the Senate’s roll-call vote on the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., National Holiday Law on October 20, 1983.
Likewise, then-United States Senator Richard G. Lugar (R-IN) was a Senate Co-sponsor of H.R. 3706; in 2013 he was one of the first recipients of the Katie Hall Public Service Award.
In previous years, the Katie Hall Educational Foundation, Inc. has awarded the Katie Hall Public Service Award to Richard Gordon Hatcher, former Mayor of Gary; Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the United States; and Reverend Dr. Bernice A. King, CEO, The King Center.
Other notable honorees include Publisher Dorothy R. Leavell, Crusader Newspaper Group; Eric J. Holcomb, the 51st and current governor of the State of Indiana; and Karen Freeman-Wilson, former Mayor of Gary, presently president of the Chicago Urban League;
Informed of his selection as co-recipient of the 2023 Katie Hall Public Service Award, Young said, “I am honored and grateful to be named as one of this year’s Katie Hall Public Service Award recipients. This award celebrates Americans who do their best to make a difference for their communities, their states, and their country, just as Congresswoman Hall did throughout her trailblazing career.
“I’m proud to join a long list of public servants I admire who have also received this recognition, including President Ronald Reagan, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Senator Richard Lugar.”
“The selection of both Senator Young and Executive Director Christina Shutt represents a giant step forward for African Americans, a quantum leap forward for all Americans, a quantum leap forward for American democracy, and a quantum leap forward for democracy around the world,” commented John Henry Hall, deacon-emeritus, chief legal counsel, and chaplain of the Katie Hall Educational Foundation, Inc.
Additional awardees for the April 15 luncheon are: Attorney Ken Iwama, the first Asian American to serve as Chancellor of Indiana University Northwest, and Dr. Vernon G. Smith, Indiana State Representative, 14th House District.
Established in 2013, the Katie Hall Educational Foundation, Inc. is a 501c3 non-profit organization.
The Foundation’s purpose is to offer creative and innovative educational programming to the general public about U.S. House of Representatives Bill, H.R. 3706, commonly known as the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., National Holiday Law, and its impact on American and world democracy.
Indiana University Northwest is a sponsor of the Tenth Annual Katie Hall Public Service Awards Luncheon Program.
For more information, contact the law office of Attorney John Henry Hall, at (219) 883-7711 or Attorney Junifer Hall, at [email protected].
