Elizabeth Colbert-Busch leads Riley award effort for 2nd year

CHARLESTON, SC – The YWCA of Greater Charleston announces Elizabeth Colbert-Busch, director of business development for the Clemson University Restoration Institute, as chair of the Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Vision Award Selection Committee. Named for Charleston’s mayor, the Riley Award is presented every January at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Business and Professional Breakfast, co-sponsored by the City of Charleston and the YWCA. Mayor Riley is serving his sixteenth year as Honorary Chair of the breakfast. For details visit: www.ywca-charlestonsc.org.

“We have assembled some of South Carolina’s brightest millennial-generation leaders to serve on this year’s Riley Award committee,” said Colbert-Busch, in her second year as chair. The selection committee will meet in November to select a corporation, institution or individual whose model citizenship reflects outstanding community service and commitment to diversity.

Committee members include: E. Grier Allen, CEO, BoomTown; Marcus Amaker, Graphic Designer, Marcus Amaker Design; Daja Dial, Miss South Carolina 2015; Quinetha Frasier, Major Gifts Officer, Trident United Way; Victoria Hansen, News Anchor, WCIV TV-4; Danielle Hardee, Secretary, Board of Directors, YWCA of Greater Charleston; Jack Maybank, President, Maybank Industries Group; Barbara L. Melvin, Senior Vice President, South Carolina State Ports Authority; Tommy Preston, Jr. Director, National Strategy & Engagement, Government Operations, Boeing South Carolina; Joseph P. Riley III, Brokerage Director, The Carolinas Financial Network; W. Bratton Riley, Business Broker, Maybank Industries Group; Erica Wright, Director, Charleston Young Professionals, Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce.

According to YWCA Board President Kerri Forrest, the inaugural presentation of the Riley Award under Colbert-Busch’s leadership, attracted enormous interest from the business community. “Elizabeth brings exuberance for Dr. King’s legacy, and for the merits symbolized by this award. More than 600 corporate, civic and clergy leaders attended the sold-out MLK breakfast event in 2015.”

At Clemson, Colbert-Busch directs the University’s SCE&G Energy Innovation Center and the Duke Energy Electrical Grid Research Innovation and Development Center (eGRID). She is responsible for Clemson University Restoration Institute’s (CURI) private-public strategic planning for business and economic development. CURI projects and programs totaling approximately $200M include the U.S. Department of Energy $47M in grants to build a state-of-the-art Wind Turbine Drivetrain Testing Facility and 15MW Hardware in the Loop Grid Simulator, The Zucker Family Graduate Education Center and the Warren Lasch Conservation Center.

Inaugural donors who established the Riley Award include: Clemson University; The Beach Company; City Councilman William Dudley Gregorie; The Law Office of Paul E. Tinkler; Dr. Celeste and Mr. Charles W. Patrick; and Dr. David Rivers of the Medical University of South Carolina. The award, a 24” x 20” solid bronze perpetual wall plaque with a relief of Mayor Riley etched into the bronze, is on view at the YWCA of Greater Charleston.

For more information on the Riley Award and the MLK Business and Professional Breakfast, call the YWCA at 843-722-1644 or visit www.ywca-charlestonsc.org.