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    Nelson Award Recipients

    Honoring the outstanding contributions to the ABA by an individual government or public sector lawyer.

    2024 Award

    Nelson Award recipient, Sylloris Lampkin, Attorney Advisor, U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development, has served in numerous ABA positions that have elevated the voice of public lawyers. As GPSLD’s Law Student Outreach Committee Chair Lampkin organized presentations at numerous law schools providing timely information to students interested in public service careers. Lampkin also helped to educate public lawyers across the country by participating in GPSLD podcasts and CLE webinars. In addition, Lampkin represented public lawyers in ABA-wide entities including serving as Vice-Chair of the Housing and Urban Development Committee of the Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice, as a member of the ABA’s Forum on Affordable Housing, and as a liaison to the ABA’s Council for Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Education Pipeline.

    Past Recipients

    • 2024 Sylloris Lampkin, Atlanta, GA
    • 2023 Mary Smith, Chicago, IL
    • 2022 Gilda (Jill) Mariani, New York, NY (presented posthumously)
    • 2021 Tara Isa Koslov, Washington, DC
    • 2020 Lt. Col. Gary Anderson (U.S. Army Ret.) (presented posthumously)
    • 2019 James M. Durant III, SES, Col. (U.S. Air Force Ret.)
    • 2018 Denise R. Avant, Chicago, IL
    • 2017 Patricia Conners, Tallahassee, FL
    • 2016 Hon. Edwin L. Felter, Jr., Denver, CO
    • 2015 Major General Kenneth D. Gray (USA Ret.), Morgantown, WV
    • 2014 Margaret Kuroda Masunaga, Kealakekua, HI
    • 2013 Pauline A. Weaver, Fremont, CA
    • 2012 Darcee S. Siegel, North Miami Beach, FL
    • 2010 Randolph Tritell, Washington, DC
    • 2009 Allen Giles, Minneapolis, MN
    • 2008 Judge Ellen F. Rosenblum, Salem, OR
    • 2007 David A. Anderson, Dunn Loring, VA
    • 2006 John J. Copelan, Jr., Tallahassee, FL
    • 2005 David C. Caylor, Irving, TX
    • 2004 David J. DeVries, Harrisburg, PA
    • 2003 Judge John R. Tunheim, Minneapolis, MN
    • 2002 Sharon E. Pandak, Prince William County, VA
    • 2001 John Jay Douglass, Houston, TX
    • 2000 Richard P. Lynch, Shepherdstown, WV
    • 1999 Pamila Brown, Baltimore, MD
    • 1998 Major Michael Warner Meadows, Charlottesville, VA
    • 1997 Members of the Task Force on Government Lawyer Participation in the ABA: General E.E. Anderson, Vienna, VA; Neil R. Eisner, Ky P. Ewing, Jr., Karen Hastie Williams, Otto J. Hetzel, and Margaret Colgate Love, Washington, DC
    • 1996 John W. Witt, San Diego, CA
    • 1995 Charles H. Dorsey, Baltimore, MD (presented posthumously)
    • 1994 L. Clair Nelson, Washington, DC (presented posthumously)