Director of Campus and Community Engagement Sherri Rae has been selected as Pitt-Johnstown's recipient of the inaugural PSAC L.P. Hill Unity in Sports Award when the conference office revealed this year's honorees on Monday.
 
The award recognizes the contributions of an individual or group on each member campus that, through intercollegiate athletics, epitomizes the promise of Unity, Equity, and Access For All.
 
The award is named after Leslie Pinckney Hill, the first President of Cheyney State Teacher's College. From 1913 to 1950, he was the Principal of the Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia and oversaw its establishment as Cheyney State Teacher's College.  The Phi Beta Kappa, Harvard-educated son of a former slave taught at Tuskegee Institute and was a renowned educator, writer, poet, and community leader.
 
For many years, Rae has been a "Connector" across the entire Pitt-Johnstown campus as well as the Greater Johnstown Community supporting the needs of students by providing resources and environments to promote belonging and unity.
 
In 1927, a year after the first documents that created the Pennsylvania State Normal School Athletic Association, Mr. Hill argued for the inclusion of Cheyney in the Associations bylaws which had been left out in the initial drafting.  The Board of Principals immediately rectified this error, and all 14 state-owned institutions were then included in the Association's initial governing documents.