Dr. Beverley Richardson-Blake, Valdosta State University alumna and senior advisor, received the Louie Peeples White Award for Outstanding Community Service.
 
Presented annually by the Valdosta Civic Roundtable, the Louie Peeples White Award honors an individual who has been active in civic affairs in the Valdosta-Lowndes County community.
 
“Initially, I was excited just to be nominated,” said Richardson-Blake. “I was even more excited and appreciative to be recognized by the nomination committee. To receive the award means someone in the community has noticed my work and feels I am working to make a difference.”
 
Richardson-Blake actively seeks to serve her community through her involvement with Bethlehem Baptist Church, Prevent Child Abuse Lowndes County, the Valdosta Civic Roundtable, the Valdosta-Lowndes Metro Section of the National Council of Negro Women, the Valdosta Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Committee, the Hahira-Lowndes County Community Outreach Development Corporation, the Southside Library Boosters Inc., the American Association of University Women, the VSU Alumni Association, Servants of God With Open Arms, the Highland Christian Academy School Council, Valdosta-Lowndes County Community Partners in Education, Southside Recreation Center, Georgia Literacy Program, Greater Valdosta United Way, and the Valdosta-Lowndes County Habitat for Humanity.
 
She is also a graduate of the Leadership Lowndes Class of 1997 and a troop leader for Girl Scout Troop 40046.
 
“Many of the organizations I am affiliated with involve children, which is my passion. I love working with children and young people…they help to keep me young,” she said.
 
Richardson-Blake is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Outstanding Woman of the Year in Higher Education, the Valdosta-Lowndes County Woman of the Year, the Valdosta Business and Professional Women’s Organization’s Young Careerist and Woman of Achievement, the Southwest Georgia Business and Professional Women’s Organization’s Woman of Achievement, and VSU’s Service Excellence and I Caught You Caring.
 
The second oldest of five children, Richardson-Blake said she contributes her community involvement and success to her parents, Laverne and the late Eddie Richardson of Howell, who have always encouraged her to give back and expect nothing in return.
 
In 1992, Richardson-Blake began working at Valdosta State College, now Valdosta State University, as the assistant director for Equal Opportunity Programs. She also served as an assistant professor in the James L. and Dorothy H. Dewar College of Education of Human Services, the administrator for two grant programs focusing on mentoring in the elementary schools and post-secondary readiness, and director of Learning Support Services.
 
Richardson-Blake currently serves as a senior academic advisor for Centralized Advising and as a judicial committee member for the Division of Student Affairs, a campus mediator, and a staff advisor for student organizations, including Heart-to-Heart, the Heart of Faith Ministry, and the National Council of Negro Women.
 
The Louie Peeples White Award is named for White, a 1941 alumna of Georgia State Womans College, now Valdosta State University, and former president of the Valdosta Civic Roundtable, the Valdosta Heritage Foundation, and the Lowndes County Historical Society. She was instrumental in bringing an arts center to Valdosta, as well as a cultural arts guild and a theatre guild, renovating the Lowndes County Historical Society Museum, stabilizing the Roberts House on River Street, and adding Valdosta buildings to the National Register of Historic Places. She was an honorary trustee of the VSU Foundation Inc.
 
Richardson-Blake said she had the honor of meeting and working with White on a few community projects and that while she was well into the age of retirement, she remained active in the community with an “untiring” level of energy.