In her careers both professional and volunteer, Anne Adkins Weissenborn has aimed to tie her work and life with her faith and church.
SILVER SPRING, MD, June 27, 2019 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Marquis Who's Who, the world's premier publisher of biographical profiles, is proud to present Anne Adkins Weissenborn with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. An accomplished listee, Ms. Weissenborn celebrates many years' experience in her professional network, and has been noted for achievements, leadership qualities, and the credentials and successes she has accrued in her field. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Ms. Weissenborn was born and grew up in the small mid-Ohio town of Circleville as the eldest child of Joseph (Joe) W. Adkins, Jr. and Eleanor Yeagley Adkins. Her father, an attorney from a family of attorneys/judges and teachers, was considerably ahead of his time in terms of sensitivities to racial inequities in American life and in his support of women who aspired to and/or lived outside the roles generally expected by their communities. Her mother, a pianist and high school English teacher, brought her daughter gifts of theological study and encouragement of aspirations beyond marriage and children. As a child Ms. Weissenborn took piano lessons, read almost constantly including the daily newspaper, and was free to roam on her bicycle. Later she was active in the youth fellowship of the local Presbyterian church and in her high school's band, orchestra and other organizations.
Western College for Women in Oxford, OH more than lived up to expectations, having been selected by Ms. Weissenborn in 1957 because of its newly-initiated intercultural studies program with an emphasis on non-western parts of the world. She was able to take part in two of the four summer travel programs provided during her years at Western, one to Africa in 1958 and one to the Middle East and the Soviet Union in 1960, to benefit from professors hired especially for their expertise in areas other than Europe, and to become friends with numerous Western students from around the world, including a Palestinian refugee originally from Bethlehem. She served as president of the college government association her senior year. After earning her Bachelor of Arts magna cum laude with honors in history in 1961, Ms. Weissenborn moved on to the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC, where her area of concentration was Africa and from which she earned a Master of Arts in 1964. Later she enrolled at Harvard University where she completed a Master of Education degree in 1968. In 1977 she graduated with a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from the Catholic University of America School of Law, having, during her third year, worked as an intern in the Africa Division, General Counsel's Office, USAID. She was admitted to practice by the Maryland State Bar in 1977 and later also became a member of the Bar of the District of Columbia.
Ms. Weissenborn began the earliest part of her professional career as a program specialist for the Teacher Exchange Section, US Office of Education, in Washington, DC from 1963-65, where she, inter alia, assisted in implementing a new program of summer seminars to Africa for secondary school teachers and assistant professors. Subsequently she served as a volunteer teacher for the African American Institute (MI) at a secondary school for refugees from Southern Africa in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, funded by USAID (1965-66), and later as a program assistant for the International Visitors Program, MI, Washington, DC (1967, 1968-69). She then returned to Western College for two years (1969-71) as an instructor and also served as intercultural studies coordinator for a year and a dorm head resident. Having met and married her husband, Ernest W. Weissenborn, an instructor in German at Western at the time, she returned to the Washington area where she served as a consultant for TransCentury Corporation tasked with selecting technical specialists for USAID-funded positions in Africa (portions of 1972-75), and assisted the United Church of Christ with advocacy regarding Southern Africa-related Congressional legislation (1973).
Following law school, Ms. Weissenborn began a long career with the Office of General Counsel, Federal Election Commission (1977-2003), finishing as a senior attorney but with several stints as an acting assistant general counsel. She also served as an interim executive assistant to two commissioners in 1986 and in 2001. In 1980 she and her husband welcomed their daughter, Elizabeth Anne Weissenborn, into the world. After retirement, which followed her daughter's college graduation, Ms. Weissenborn served as a substitute teacher in the secondary schools of Montgomery County, MD (2003-09), and as co-planner and co-coordinator of summer programs in the DC area for students from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the University of Macau (2007-2013).
An active member of her community before and after retirement, Ms. Weissenborn has been involved as a volunteer with a number of organizations, including the Task Force on Southern Africa, Potomac Association, United Church of Christ (UCC) (1974-83); the Shaw Community Center in DC which she helped to found (1991-2010); the Western College Alumnae Association, Board of Trustees (1996-02, 2008-present); the Miami University Foundation, Board of Directors (2001-07); the Senior Connection, Wheaton, MD, Board of Directors (1996¬2004); and the Justice and Witness Ministries of the Central Atlantic Conference, UCC the Potomac Association, UCC, and her own congregation, Christ Congregational Church UCC, Silver Spring, MD, with recent emphases on racial justice, immigration and the Israel/Palestine conflict. As a testament to her many activities, she was presented with the Western College Alumnae Association Service Award in 2012 as well as inclusion in multiple editions of Who's Who in America, Who's Who in American Law, and Who's Who of American Women. In her careers both professional and volunteer, Ms. Weissenborn has aimed to tie her work and life with her faith and church.
In recognition of outstanding contributions to her profession and the Marquis Who's Who community, Ms. Weissenborn has been featured on the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement website. Please visit www.ltachievers.com for more information about this honor.
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