At the Legacy Gala, awards will be presented for Civic Service and Alumni Distinction.
Presidential Legacy Award for Civic Service: Glenn Cannon
The 2010 Presidential Legacy Award for Civic Service will be presented to Glenn Cannon, senior vice president for Hillard Heintze and a 1971 graduate of IUP.
Cannon formerly worked as director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA’s) disaster operations. In this role, he was responsible for coordinating the development and execution of interagency plans, policies, and procedures and for overseeing response operations in presidential disasters, emergency declarations, and other incidents of national significance.
In his current position, Cannon helps clients to bring best practices to all phases of their emergency-preparedness efforts.
Before his leadership of FEMA, Cannon served as chief operating officer of Allegheny County from 1996 to 2001. Cannon streamlined forty-one departments into six, reduced operating costs by $218 million, directed the development of the countywide 911 system, and successfully negotiated the county’s labor agreements with eighteen unions.
Cannon served as director of the Allegheny County Emergency Management and Public Safety departments and director of the Division of the State Fire Marshall in Florida. He also served in a number of leadership roles in the City of Pittsburgh, including as director of the Department of Public Safety, where he enhanced the city’s fire, law enforcement, public safety, and EMS capabilities.
Cannon holds a master’s degree in public management from Carnegie Mellon University and a law degree from Duquesne University. Highly active as a member of many public and private boards, Cannon is frequently called upon to brief Congress on key emergency planning and response matters, has been a prolific public speaker for decades, and is an author or co-author of publications on topics ranging from critical issues in emergency planning and response to best practices in establishing public-private partnerships.
An alumnus of IUP’s College of Education and Educational Technology, Cannon began his public-service career as a student in 1966 with the Citizens’ Ambulance Service in Indiana. He later fought his first fire with the town’s volunteer fire department before becoming a member of the Monroeville Fire Department.
Cannon served as master of ceremonies for IUP’s first Legacy Gala in 2008. He received IUP’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 1985 and served as a member of the IUP Alumni Association board of directors.
Presidential Legacy Award for Alumni Distinction: Barbara Russell
The 2010 Presidential Legacy Award for Alumni Distinction will be presented to Barbara Russell, actor-educator, a 1954 graduate of IUP.
Russell is well-known for her thirty-five years of work with the late Don Brockett on the comedy team Brockett and Barbara.
A native of Black Lick, Russell taught fourth grade and sixth grade in Penn Hills for ten years after graduating from Indiana State Teachers College, now Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Her first theater role after college was in a passion play for the Catholic Theatre Guild. At the Pittsburgh Playhouse, her initial appearance was in Many Moons, a children’s show by James Thurber.
One of the first to teach reading on WQED-TV, Russell took a year off from teaching to write and perform 160 half-hour programs for sixth-graders.
Later, she and Brockett would appear on WQED on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, starring the late Fred Rogers, where Brockett was Chef Brockett and Russell’s range of characters included a singing elephant.
As Brockett and Barbara, the pair traveled throughout the U.S. and Europe. In 1985, in observance of the comedy team’s silver anniversary, the late Richard Caliguiri, Pittsburgh’s mayor, proclaimed Brockett and Barbara Day.
Other recognitions have included awards from the Variety Club of Pittsburgh, the Fashion Group, and the African American Council of the Arts.
In 2007, Russell received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Pittsburgh New Works Festival. She was also the recipient of IUP’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 2000.
Over the years, Russell has appeared at a variety of Pittsburgh and regional theaters and has written, directed and produced shows for senior groups like Vintage and Oasis.
She has also been a board member of Persad and the Pittsburgh International Children’s Theater, where she appears as Miss Mini Drama, teaching theater manners to young children.
Russell is an active member of the Screen Actors Guild and Actors Equity. She is currently a Wolf Trap teaching artist for Gateway to the Arts.
