Earlier this week, William English "Brit" Kirwan, co-chair of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, was awarded the 2010 TIAA-CREF Theodore M. Hesburgh Award for Leadership Excellence. Kirwan is Chancellor of the University System of Maryland.

"Chancellor Kirwan brings a collaborative and cooperative leadership style to higher education welcoming all viewpoints," said Stephanie Bell-Rose, Managing Director and Head of the TIAA-CREF Institute. "This coupled with his forward thinking makes him one of the nation's most dynamic and effective higher education leaders and we are so pleased to honor him today."

Knight Foundation would like to congratulate Kirwan on this very prestigious honor. You can read more about Kirwan on the Knight Commission website. More information about the award is available here.

Sunshine Week is honoring local heroes. Mark Mahoney is one of them. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 2009 for his open government coverage and ASNE’s editorial award in 2004.

Mahoney is an editorial page editor at the Post Star in Glens Falls, N.Y. His editorials focus on the dangers of government secrecy.

Here are a few samples of his work.

-- Marly Falcon, Knight Foundation contributing blogger

Juan J. Martinez, Knight Foundation's Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, is the winner of South Florida Business Journal's 2010 CFO Awards in the non-profit category.

Martinez believes an effective CFO is only as good as his team. To that end, he has a very strong finance team ... Martinez has empowered them to solve problems and communicate freely so he can concentrate on adding value to management decisions "as opposed to being drawn constantly intro transactions."

Today, the Greater Wichita chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals gathered in celebration of National Philanthropy Day to honor six individuals or organizations. Knight Foundation was given the award for Outstanding Foundation of the year.

According to the Wichita Eagle, "National Philanthropy Day acknowledges the services provided by the nonprofit community and recognizes the impact that philanthropy has on society."

J-Lab Executive Director Jan Schaffer discusses the winners of the Knight-Batten Awards.

Last week, J-Lab announced the winners of the annual Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Media. The New York Times won top honors for a body of work that includes their debate analysis tool, Document Reader, Word Train, "Living With Less" project, custom newspaper newsbox and Represent. Special Distinction Awards went to Apture, ProPublica's ChangeTracker, PBS' Patchwork Nation, Printcasting, and the Center for Public Integrity. The Wilmington Star News won a Citizen Media Award for MyReporter.

At J-Lab, you can read more about the winners and browse through other notable entries to the contest.

2009 marks the 12th year the Knight International Journalism Awards have been given to "media professionals worldwide who have taken bold steps to keep citizens informed despite great obstacles." This year's winners -- Cao Junwu of China and Chouchou Namegabe Nabintu of the Democratic Republic of the Congo -- "were selected for their ability to tell important stories that others have shied away from despite the risks."

Read more about the award, which was presented at the Knight Foundation Conference Center at the Newseum.

Marc Fest is Vice President of Communications at Knight Foundation.

Robert W. Briggs

Knight Foundation vice chairman Robert W. Briggs today received the 2009 Sir Thomas More Award. The Catholic Diocese and St. Bernard Church in Akron sponsor this award each year to recognize a member of the legal profession who is concerned for the community and has provided outstanding service in furtherance of justice and humanity.

Find out more about the award here.

Please join us at Knight in welcoming a new colleague and congratulating two of our own for a lifetime achievement award and a new elected position.

Welcome to Dennis Scholl, the new Miami Program Director for Knight.

From the press release,

Scholl will work with local leaders to identify opportunities for investing in innovative ideas and programs. His efforts will include leading the Knight Arts Challenge, a $40 million initiative to unite South Florida through the arts.

An art collector for more than 30 years, Scholl has lead local and national philanthropic efforts in the visual arts. He served as founding chair of the Guggenheim Photography Committee, of the Tate Modern American Acquisitions Committee and of the Miami Art Museum Collectors Council. He has also served on the boards of the Aspen Art Museum, the North Miami Museum of Contemporary Art and the alternative art space Locust Projects, of which he was chair.

Congratulations to Damian Thorman, National Program Director for Knight Foundation on his election as Vice Chair of the National Fund for Workforce Solutions.

Congratulations to Susan Patterson, Charlotte Program Director for Knight Foundation, on receiving a lifetime achievement award at the Hornets Nest Girl Scout Council's 4th annual Women of Distinction Award Luncheon. Here she is with her mother, who was her first Girl Scout leader.

Jose Zamora is a Journalism Program Associate at Knight Foundation

Last week Development Seed released new open-source code in preparation for part of their Knight funded mapping project. This piece of software allows anyone to switch between mapping providers without writing any code.

Development Seed received a $195,000 grant to add a mapping tool to Drupal. With it, people will be able to geo-tag stories and see their location on a map. The developers are also creating a news monitor that allows people to aggregate multiple local news sources based on topic or issue to the open and free Drupal platform.

Knight Foundation’s grant to Development Seed is one of a package of six grants that made up the Knight Drupal Initiative, a contest that tapped into a massive network of computer programmers to get their recommendations for speeding media innovation. In separate posts I will talk about each of the grants.

The Drupal community is a group of more than 350,000 members, mostly computer programmers who write free software together, collaboratively, on the web and the individuals and organizations that use the software to publish content online. You can learn more about Drupal at: www.Drupal.org.

A video on how this new piece of software works is available on Planet Drupal TV.

Do you have innovative ideas on how to use this mapping tool to improve the way you receive, share and understand news about your community?