A USC administrator and Los Angeles Police Department senior lead officer serving Skid Row will receive Community Hero Awards from the Los Angeles Dodgers Thursday evening in connection with African American Heritage Night.
Kimberly Freeman is associate dean and chief diversity officer for the USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, managing the office for diversity and strategic initiatives.
Freeman works with faculty, staff and students to complete the development and implementation of a college-wide diversity strategic plan, including strategies for recruitment and retention of an increasingly diverse community, assessment of ongoing and proposed diversity initiatives, and cultivation of an inclusive college environment.
Deon Joseph has been the LAPD’s senior lead officer for Skid Row for 10 years. Through outreach programs initiated by Joseph, including self-defense seminars for women, crime in the area has reduced by 40 percent.
Comedian Kevin Hart will throw the ceremonial first pitch before the game against the Milwaukee Brewers at Dodger Stadium.
Former U.S. Army Sgt. Brian Lindsay Witten will be honored as the Military Hero of the Game. Witten enlisted in the Army in 1992, and served as a pharmacy technician, responsible for preparing and dispensing prescribed drugs and medicines. He later became a certified pharmacy technician trainer, training over 70 new pharmacists.
After being honorably discharged in 2000, Witten began assisting with veterans’ transition back into the civilian sector, placing more than 350 veterans in various jobs through U.S. Vets, which bills itself as the nation’s largest nonprofit provider of comprehensive services to homeless and at-risk veterans, and developing a national partnership with Hiring Our Heroes, a program of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, which helps veterans, transitioning service members and military spouses find meaningful employment opportunities.