Jefferson Awards for Public Service
We are pleased to announce that Dr. Burns is one of five local nominees for the national Jefferson Award for Public Service.
Previous winners of this national award for outstanding public service include Dr. Dorothy Height, Cesar Chavez, and Marian Wright Edelman.
You can read the full article about Dr. Burns in the SF Chronicle here.
You can read the full article about Dr. Burns in the SF Chronicle here.
Dr. Burns was just interviewed by CBS 5 and the story will be airing April 5 at 6:00 pm. The interview will air again on the 6th at noon, and on the 8th at 7:00 am. It will also air on the radio. Here’s a link to their website for more details.
Excerpted from the Chronicle:
Dr. Washington Burns:
Enhancing art and culture for a community in need
Dr. Washington Burns has spent most of the past decade working to better the lives of residents in the West Oakland neighborhood he once called his own.
Now the Executive Director of the Prescott-Joseph Center for Community Enhancement, which offers free health, education, art and social services, Burns first settled at 27th and Adeline streets after moving from northern Mississippi when he was a teenager. He earned a degree in public health from UC Berkeley and a medical degree from the University of Buffalo. In 2000, he retired from his post as lab director in the department of pathology at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, where he had worked for 34 years. “When I retired, I didn’t want to have anything to do with health care issues, I wanted to bring art and culture to this community,” said Burns, 76. “They can learn math and basic English, but studying art can bring wholeness to a person.”
Now the Executive Director of the Prescott-Joseph Center for Community Enhancement, which offers free health, education, art and social services, Burns first settled at 27th and Adeline streets after moving from northern Mississippi when he was a teenager. He earned a degree in public health from UC Berkeley and a medical degree from the University of Buffalo. In 2000, he retired from his post as lab director in the department of pathology at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, where he had worked for 34 years. “When I retired, I didn’t want to have anything to do with health care issues, I wanted to bring art and culture to this community,” said Burns, 76. “They can learn math and basic English, but studying art can bring wholeness to a person.”
The Prescott-Joseph Center offers music lessons, art classes for adults and children — including one for domestic violence victims and drug addicts — and a theater arts program that puts together annual performances of works by Shakespeare and African playwrights. Burns, who volunteers seven days a week as the top executive, also staffs the concession stand at the organization’s many events.
“Here’s a guy who could be off playing golf or traveling the world but chooses to be down here helping. He has lived and walked in their shoes,” said Joseph Debro, a semiretired biochemical engineer who grew up in West Oakland and serves on the Prescott-Joseph board of directors. In addition to donating his time, Burns, who lives with his wife, Paula, in Berkeley and has five grown children, makes financial contributions and calls on his friends to do the same.
The center has a staff of five paid employees and a few volunteers. It runs largely on individual donations and those from foundations and occasional grants from the city of Oakland and Alameda County.Tutoring services, after-school programs and computer literacy classes available in English and Spanish also are offered. An asthma clinic provides education for children on how to manage and monitor their health. The center also collaborates with other nonprofits to provide food, clothing, shelter and other services to children and families in need of help.
Burns has high hopes for the next five years. “We are working with other organizations to strengthen and restore nonprofits in West Oakland. A lot of money has been poured into this area, and some people don’t think much has been realized,” he said. It is something he plans to change.
More links about Dr. Burns, Prescott-Joseph and the Jefferson Awards: