Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Lucy Morgan will be honored tonight by the University of Florida’s Bob Graham Center Citizen as its Citizen of the Year. Jacksonville local Aaron Zahn, a national leader in the wastewater infrastructure and organic waste industry, will be presented with the Young Floridian Award for 2015.
The awards will be given at the annual Graham Gathering which will be held beginning at 6 p.m. at the Haskell Company in Jacksonville.
Lucy Morgan, Citizen of the Year
Lucy Moran has been described as a “modern-day muckraker” and as an “institution in Florida” in a 2012 All Things Considered profile. She spent a prolific career of nearly five decades exposing corporate and political dishonesty in the state of Florida. As an investigative reporter, she won the Pulitzer in 1985 for a series of articles which focused on corruption in the Pasco County Sherriff’s Department. Morgan wrote often about lobbyists in Tallahassee and their deep insider status at the capitol. A strong believer in reporter privilege, Morgan was convicted in 1973 of contempt for refusing to disclose a confidential source. The Florida Supreme Court later overturned that conviction. She was a Pulitzer finalist in 1982 for her investigation of drug trafficking in north central Florida counties. In 2005 the Florida State Senate renamed its press gallery in her honor. Morgan was inducted into the Florida Women’s Hall of Fame in 2006.
Aaron Zahn, Young Floridian
Aaron Zahn is a world leader in wastewater and organic waste recycling infrastructure. As president and chief executive officer of BCR Environmental, Zahn has counseled the U.S. EPA, World Health Organization, Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and state and local leaders on the economic and environmental impacts of innovation in wastewater and organic waste infrastructure. Under his leadership, BCR Environmental has attracted more than $20 million of corporate private equity investment in Florida and completed more than $100 million in public-private-partnerships. During the past 10 years as a result of these partnerships, BCR Environmental has: reduced the cost of wastewater sludge management for Florida’s cities by an average of 40 percent; reduced energy consumption by more than 18,000 megawatts per year; addressed environmental issues including nutrient pollution; and provided for the recycling of more than 120,000 tons per year of organic waste.
In 2012, Artemis Water Review ranked BCR Environmental as one of the Top 50 water companies in the world. In October 2013, the company joined with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and Republic Services to provide compost to Clara White Mission’s White Harvest Farms project. The farming grounds were established to offer job training and creation for homeless and low-income veterans. In 2015, BCR Environmental was selected by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s to receive the Environmental Excellence Award for the State.
The awards will be presented formally at the annual gathering of the Bob Graham Center for Public Service on May 20 at The Haskell Company in Jacksonville, Fla.