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Making a Difference on Campus and in the World
The Alumni Association of Case Western Reserve recognized recipients of its 2023 Alumni Awards during a homecoming celebration in October
Mohamed Ibn Chambas
Distinguished Alumni Award
Mohamed Ibn Chambas, PhD, JD (LAW ’84, HON ’14)
In 2003, Mohamed Ibn Chambas took on a role that remains a career high point: serving as a mediator to help forge the Accra Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which ended the Liberian Civil War.
“It is a thing of pride that two decades on, the UN has closed its peacekeeping mission in the country, and the agreement still holds,” said Chambas, who spent decades as a Ghanaian lawyer, politician and diplomat, often focused on preventing or ending conflicts in several countries.
Through the years, Chambas served as Ghana’s deputy foreign secretary, deputy minister of education and deputy speaker of Parliament. He also was president of the Economic Community of West African States, and the United Nations Secretary General’s special representative for West Africa and the Sahel.
Though Chambas retired in 2021 from the UN, he serves the African Union as high representative for Silencing the Guns, an initiative to achieve peace and security in Africa.
“Even in my retirement,” Chambas said, “I continue to make myself available to my country, the West Africa subregion and our beloved continent of Africa.”
Phillip J. Resnick
Professional Achievement Award
Phillip J. Resnick, MD (ADL ’59, MED ’63)
Phillip J. Resnick is a world-recognized expert in forensic psychiatry, consulting on some of the nation’s most infamous mass-murder cases, including those involving the Unabomber and the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City.
Whether asked to diagnose a mental illness, determine an accused killer’s motivation, or give testimony in a death-penalty case, Resnick has a keen knowledge of case law and an ability to distill tens of thousands of pages of documents or complex situations into cogent summaries.
He also has had an indelible impact as an educator working with fellows in his specialty for decades. “The most gratifying part of my work has been teaching and influencing people in terms of how they approach forensic cases,” Resnick said.
He’s director of forensic psychiatry at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, and a decades-long professor of psychiatry at Case Western Reserve. One of his gifts to CWRU established the Phillip J. Resnick, MD Professorship in Forensic Psychiatry.
“I certainly feel indebted to Case [Western Reserve],” Resnick said, “and see it as kind of the springboard of my career.”
Grover “Cleve” Gilmore
Newton D. Baker Distinguished Service Award
Grover “Cleve” Gilmore, PhD
During Cleve Gilmore’s 20 years as dean of the university’s Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, he cultivated academic excellence and critical investments in people, research and building renovations.
The school consistently ranked among U.S. News & World Report’s top 10 list of social work schools. It also opened six additional research and training centers and raised $9.2 million for construction of the Mandel Center for Community Studies building, which opened in 2007.
Gilmore’s tenure also saw a $44 million capital campaign to renovate the Mandel School building, as well as for program support, professorships and scholarships.
As a longtime member of the university’s psychology faculty, Gilmore investigated visual perception and cognition in older adults, specifically people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. It was work he continued even as a dean.
“Case Western Reserve is a place where I was able to flourish,” said Gilmore, who spent 46 years on campus, “and I am very grateful to the students, faculty and the staff members for your willingness to work with me to help me learn and grow.”
James Lawrence Reinis
DANIEL T. CLANCY ALUMNI SERVICE AWARD
James Lawrence Reinis (WRC ’74)
Jim Reinis has always been an organizer energized by bringing people together. As a Case Western Reserve undergraduate, he recruited students to campus and served on student government. After Reinis moved to Southern California in the late 1970s, he launched the CWRU Los Angeles alumni chapter and was the founding president
He also created an annual event for alumni to picnic together and attend concerts performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra, Diana Ross, the late Tony Bennett and others at the Hollywood Bowl.
“When I started this event, I joked that I’d host [it] for 25 years,” said Reinis, who is an expert in scheduling and operations having spent his career managing supply chains for various manufacturing companies.
That picnic and concert event has now been held for 30 years, with other alumni leading it for the last five.
“I did all of this craziness with the support of my family,” Reinis said. “And in the process of those 25 years, I met some terrific people. It was just wonderful.”
Victoria Lichet
YOUNG ALUMNI AWARD
Victoria Lichet (LAW ’16)
As Victoria Lichet neared graduation from CWRU’s School of Law, the increasing urgency of threats from climate change prompted her to seek work helping to preserve the environment for future generations.
Today, as executive director of the advocacy organization, Global Pact for the Environ- ment, Lichet pursues her passion by urging governments to adopt laws to protect and foster healthy environments.
“Our overarching goal is to build a global movement for the recognition of the rights to a healthy environment,” said Lichet, who lives in New York City.
Last year, the nonprofit was among those advocating for a United Nations (UN) resolution recognizing the right to a healthy environment. The UN General Assembly adopted it in the summer of 2022.
“It’s a great first step,” Lichet said, “but now we need states to implement the resolution; we need real laws to protect the environment.”
Her advocacy organization and others are now urging that a protocol for the right to a healthy environment be added to the European Convention on Human Rights, a treaty among 47 states that are members of the Council of Europe.
