Valley Leadership Announces Man & Woman of the Year
Valley Leadership has named David Tierney and Dr. Maria Harper-Marinick as its 68th Man & Woman of the Year. The pair will be honored for their long-term contributions and commitment to the community at the Annual Man & Woman of the Year awards luncheon March 30, 2017.
Tierney and Harper-Marinick join a prestigious list of past recipients. U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater was honored as the inaugural Man of the Year, and most recently Dr. Michael Crow and Elva Coor were recognized.
Tierney has been a partner in the Phoenix firm of Sacks Tierney P.A. since 1974, practicing primarily in Commercial Construction Law. Before moving to Arizona in 1969, Tierney was active in civil rights issues. In 1962, he made trips to Mississippi in the height of civil rights violence to help with voter registration, visiting churches that distributed information about related issues. After completing Harvard Law School in 1965, he joined the Peace Corps, where he served as assistant to the city manager in Barguisimeto, Venezuela. He later became regional director for the Peace Corps in Venezuela, before moving to Phoenix.
Tierney serves on more than two dozen community boards and organizations, and has created committees, coalitions and nonprofits that serve the disenfranchised and less fortunate. He was a member of the inaugural Valley Leadership Institute, Class 1, and continues to actively support the organization’s mission by serving on committees and presenting at program days.
Dr. Maria Harper-Marinick is the chancellor of the Maricopa Community College District, one of the largest community college systems in the nation. She is the first woman and the first Hispanic to be appointed as chancellor of MCCD. In this capacity, Chancellor Harper-Marinick oversees operations for the MCCD system, which serves 200,000 students and nearly 10,000 faculty and staff members across 10 colleges, two skills centers and several satellite campuses.
Arizona State University President Michael Crow, who co-chaired the MCCD chancellor’s search committee, said that Dr. Harper-Marinick “excelled among the candidates interviewed and identified as a national leader in terms of understanding the unique and complex education landscape in Arizona, and the need for innovation and collaboration. Her commitment to strengthening the quality of education in Arizona and keen insights on major issues make her perfectly poised to propel Maricopa Community Colleges to the next level.”
PHOTO COURTESY VALLEY LEADERSHIP
