The Peace and Justice Center has named WVIA President and CEO Carla McCabe as one of its 2026 Peace Award recipients.
McCabe received the Susan Merrill-Constance Kozel Award, “honored for her leadership of WVIA and her commitment to serving the communities of Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania,” according to a statement from the Peace and Justice Center.
The Peace and Justice center established the Susan Merrill-Constance Kozel Award in 1995. The award honors “an individual whose contribution to society reflects the principles of justice and peace,” according to the Center.
The honor acknowledges the importance of McCabe’s work “as local newsrooms across the region and the country have shrunk, leaving public media to fill a growing gap in trusted, community-focused reporting.”
This year's other honorees are The Lands at Hillside Farms and Lillyan Mahmoud.
"Peace isn't something we wait for — it's something we build, together, one act of courage and care at a time,” said Noreen O'Connor, Steering Committee Coordinator, in a statement on behalf of the Peace and Justice Center.
“Carla McCabe, The Lands at Hillside Farms, and Lillyan Mahmoud show us what that looks like in practice: telling the truth our communities need to hear, tending the land and each other so that what we've been given only grows richer, and opening a hand to whoever needs welcome,” O'Connor said.
The Lands at Hillside Farms
The nonprofit educational dairy farm in Shavertown, Luzerne County received the David Frey Community Service for Peace Award, which was established in 1997 to honor an individual or group whose work advances peace and justice in the community, in recognition of its commitment to education, sustainability, community service and what the Center calls the well-being of future generations.
Lillyan Mahmoud
Mahmoud received the Athena Smith Ford Student for Peace Award for her work at Crestwood School District to create understanding and challenge stereotypes about Muslim and immigrant populations.
The Athena Smith Ford Student for Peace Award, created in 1996, recognizes a young person who demonstrates a commitment to peacemaking through both academic and extracurricular activities.
'It's something we build, together'
“When I look at their work, I feel genuinely hopeful about what's possible here — that a more just, more connected future isn't a distant idea, it's already taking root in the people right around us,” O’Connor said.
The recipients will be honored at the Peace and Justice Center’s annual awards ceremony, 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 4 at Appletree Terrace in Dallas.
