ATLANTA – A co-founder of the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) was awarded a Presidential Citizens Medal Thursday at a White House ceremony.
President Joe Biden named 20 recipients of the award this week, including Paula Wallace, 76, who launched SCAD in 1978 with her mother and father, May and Paul Poetter; and her then-husband, Richard Rowan. She became the private college’s president in 2000 and continues to serve in that role.
The Presidential Citizens Medal is awarded to U.S. citizens who have performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens.
SCAD, a private college, now numbers more than 17,000 students, with campuses in Savannah and Atlanta, as well as study abroad opportunities in Lacoste, France, and other locations. The school also offers online degrees.
“A lifelong educator and trailblazer of the arts, Paula Wallace dreamt of a school that would transform how we think about professional education,” according to a White House news release. “By establishing the esteemed Savannah College of Art and Design and serving as its president, she has guided thousands of students into creative industries.”
The list of Presidential Citizens Medal recipients includes several well-known politicians, among them former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, a Republican from Wyoming who lost her seat in Congress after serving on the House committee that investigated then-President Donald Trump’s role in attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election, and Rep. Bennie Thompson, the Mississippi Democrat who chaired the January 6th Committee.
Journalist Joseph Galloway, who died in 2021, was awarded posthumously. He was a war correspondent in Vietnam, where he was wounded while covering the Battle of Ia Drang with the Army’s First Cavalry. He later was awarded a Bronze Star for bravery in the battle made famous in the book he co-authored with his best friend Gen. Hal Moore, “We Were Soldiers Once…and Young.” The unit was based in Columbus at then-Fort Benning which has since been renamed for Gen. Moore. Galloway served as a journalist in wars through the second Iraq war, and later advised defense officials and generals including Colin Powell.
Other former politicians receiving medals include former U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley, a New Jersey Democrat who ran unsuccessfully for his party’s presidential nomination in 2000; former Sen. Chris Dodd, a Democrat from Connecticut; and former Republican Sen. Nancy Kassebaum of Kansas.
This story available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat, an initiative of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.