2004 Horace Mann Award Recipients

Marsha C. Botzer, a 1988 B.A. and 1990 M.A. Psychology graduate, is the founder of Seattle's Ingersoll Gender Center, a nonprofit that provides services to those who explore and change their gender. She serves on the boards of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the Pride Foundation and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center and chairs the advisory board on sexual minorities for the Washington Department of Social and Health Services. As a member of the Seattle Commission for Sexual Minorities, Botzer spearheaded the movement to update Seattle's Municipal Code to provide protected class status for gender identity. As a result, transgendered individuals now have the same legal protections at their jobs as other Seattle citizens. "There is always room to change things," she says. "What I truly enjoy is moving systems toward equality in this culture. That's where my heart is."

Steven Reed and the Infectious Disease Research Institute are fighting diseases that attack the world's underprivileged – diseases most government and pharmaceutical companies neglect because they are thought to have no cure and are not profitable. Reed founded the Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI) in 1993. In partnership with Corixa, IDRI developed the first modern vaccine for leishmaniasis, a disfiguring and disabling disease that affects mostly children and causes hundreds of thousands of deaths annually. In addition, Reed led research teams involving scientists at IDRI, Corixa and GlaxoSmithKline to develop the world's first defined tuberculosis vaccine capable of being manufactured on a large scale. IDRI also is developing diagnostic tools and vaccines to prevent and treat Chagas disease, leprosy and malaria. "I like to figure things out," Reed says, "and be a champion for people who need one.

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