Dr. Edryce Reynolds Lifetime Learning Award
Since 2018, we have honored a special volunteer who committed so much to CDR through our Dr. Edryce Reynolds Lifetime Learning Award.
Edryce was a trailblazer as one of the first women in her professional field, graduating with a BA in mathematics and physics in 1949, and adding 4 more advanced degrees in her path of learning and curiosity. She had strong opinions about sharing skills and learning opportunities to those who were incarcerated not only because it may help support them upon re-integration back into our communities, but also because everyone has a mind that can be used if the opportunity presents itself for curiosity and learning. This enthusiasm and commitment led her to develop the first ever computer lab at McNeil Island Corrections Center and four types of professional-technical program certificates approved in WA State. In retirement, she joined our Center, became a mediator, and took every course possible to master the skill. She attended nearly every mediator in-service offered.
However, Edryce did not stop pushing herself to learn and grow becoming a mediator. In her late 80s, she took a course on stand-up comedy and performed a set in front of a live audience.
Award Criteria
Edryce does not love personal recognition, so we honor her each year by recognizing a member of our community who shares her commitment to the principles she so clearly demonstrated:
- Active engagement in professional development
- Going above and beyond to create learning opportunities
- A commitment to understanding people: how and why they interact
- A profound curiosity about new ways of doing things
- Persistence in the face of challenges
- And a commitment to civil dialog
2024 Recipient: Carol Mitchell
Among many other things, Carol Mitchell is committed to the relentless pursuit of equity and justice for all. She is the founder of Institute for Black Justice.
Carol creates a place of belonging with her attitude of welcome and inclusion for all people who attend meetings she hosts, oversees and attends. What this means in real life is: If you are there for the first time, if you are not part of the in-crowd, if you are not from a group that the in-crowd usually is around, Carol not only makes you feel welcome, she makes sure your voice is heard.
What this means for peace is that when people and their ideas are included, the risks for conflict are reduced and the group has the benefit of an enriched perspective and understanding, which is a key element of peace-creating and peace-building.
One of her annual activities is bringing younger people and "older folks" (as she would say) together for two days of idea sharing, innovation and connection. Every person who attends walks away feeling a stronger connection to each other and to community.
A strong sense of justice guides how Carol invests her time and love for other people. She takes personal and professional risks to advocate for and insists on justice for other people and at times, for herself. Without justice, there can be no peace. Carol peace-creates and peace-builds through insisting on and pursuing justice.
Thank you to Sally Perks for contributing these words to honor Carol.
Carol's Acceptance Speech
"Take a breath everyone. Breathe in and breathe out. Isn't it amazing that you can breathe in and live? That your lungs and heart collaborate and cooperate with your environment in this miraculous exchange that allows you to grow and exist?
In a learner's life, growth our very existence depends in a similar way from being in an ever-present state of openness to learning.
It is both a state of giving and receiving. It is a sacred breath inward, and a cleansing breath outward. It is a sign to others that we are yet alive -- forces of nature to be reckoned with.
But, let's not be naive. Growth is sometimes a painful process. Just ask my seven-year-old grandson about his new tooth bursting through his gums; or my 88-year-old mother grieving the loss of a treasured son.
Growth extracts a high price at times -- demands a ransom that simply must be paid for the dividends of endurance, faith and resilience.
In a learner's life, we allow ourselves to risk-to not know; to not master; to not control so much of the air in the room; to breathe in the possibilities for joy and relax our addiction to expertise.
In a learner's life, there exists no hierarchy. The educated can learn from the unlearned; the old from the young; and the teacher from the taught.
Like the breath we breathe, learning is reciprocity - the exchange of what and who we know, with what and who we think we know. Breathe in and live.
p.s. I hope never to be so learned, so educated, so wise, that my desire for that life-giving exchange ceases to be.
With gratitude, Carol."
-Carol Mitchell, 2024
Thank you, Carol. For the impact you have in our community and for the things we can learn from you.
