Campus Safety magazine is pleased to announce that William Adcox, John Ojeisekhoba and John Venuti have won the publication’s coveted Director of the Year awards. The winners were announced Wednesday evening at the Campus Safety National Forum in Washington, D.C.
For the first time since the program’s inception nine years ago, there was a two-way tie between the higher ed winners, with Biola University Chief of Campus Safety John Ojeisekhoba and Virginia Commonwealth University Police Chief John Venuti both coming out on top in the higher education category. Adcox, who is the chief of police and chief security officer for the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, received the top honor in the hospital category.
RELATED: Announcing the Fab 14 Campus Safety Director of the Year Finalists!
The accomplishments of the winners, as well as the finalists and runners up, were impressive.
Ojeisekhoba increased officer retention at Biola University from an average of two years to five years. He’s also implemented stronger security measures on campus, including perimeter fences; classroom and office door locks that can be locked from the inside; improved facility access control; and the ability to lockdown the campus during emergencies.
Meanwhile, Venuti’s department achieved IACLEA accreditation. Now, 96 percent of student, faculty and staff respondents to his department’s “perception of safety” survey say they feel safe or very safe on campus.
Healthcare sector winner Adcox’s achievements were also significant. He created a threat management unit resulting in a 300% increase in early intervention reporting since 2012. Additionally, this year his department was awarded the IAHSS Lindberg-Bell award.
Runners up in this year’s program were Donald Charley, who is vice president of parking and security at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center; Clemson University Executive Director for Campus Safety/Associate Vice President Johnson Link; and Southeast Georgia Health System Director of Safety and Security Charlie Wolverton.
Campus Safety magazine wishes to thank the judges of the program, including John Adams of the University of Southern California Department of Public Safety; Amanda Guthorn of Keene State College’s Department of Public Safety; RETA Security’s Paul Timm; University Protection Service’s Rick Ward; and Tony York of HSS.
Full coverage of all three winners will appear in upcoming issues of Campus Safety magazine, as well as on CampusSafetyMagazine.com. Podcasts of the finalists will also appear on CampusSafetyMagazine.com.
