Straus named recipient of FBA McCree Award

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The Federal Bar Association – Eastern District of Michigan Chapter (FBA) presented its annual Wade Hampton McCree Jr. Award luncheon on Wednesday, Feb. 17, at the Atheneum Hotel in Detroit. The recipient of this year’s McCree Award was Kathleen Straus, president of the Michigan State Board of Education. Straus has committed the majority of her life to the furthering of public education and community services in Michigan. Until her retirement in 1991, Straus was president of the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit. Prior to that, she was director of government relations for the Michigan Association of School Boards, and served as staff director of the Education Committee of the Michigan Senate. She was the executive director of PRO Detroit (People and Responsible Organizations for Detroit), a community-wide coalition of business, labor, civic groups, and schools established to assure that court-ordered desegregation would be implemented smoothly and peacefully. She has been elected to the Hall of Fame of Hunter College, and the Michigan Education Hall of Fame in 1994. She received the “Distinguished Warrior” Award from the Detroit Urban League in March of 2000. She was inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame in October 2000. In 2004 she was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Anti Defamation League.