Furman names Wilkins Leadership Award recipients

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State Rep. Gary Simrill, R-York, and Nella Barkley, president of Crystal-Barkley Corp., will receive The Riley Institute at Furman University’s 2019 David H. Wilkins Leadership Awards recognizing outstanding legislative and civic leadership in the state.

The awards will be presented on the first night of the legislative session on Jan. 14 at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center. Registration for the reception, dinner and presentation is available online.

Simrill, the legislative award recipient, is the House majority leader and vice chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. Barkley, the civic award recipient, has spent much of her life in leadership roles at organizations devoted to improving the lives of South Carolinians by elevating education, sustaining and improving the arts and creating opportunities for marginalized populations, according to a news release.

“The Riley Institute is proud to recognize leaders with the ability to put aside their differences and work together for the good of South Carolinians. We all benefit from the pragmatic, principled leadership of Rep. Simrill and Nella Barkley,” Don Gordon, executive director of The Riley Institute at Furman, said in the release.

The annual awards are named for David H. Wilkins, who served as speaker of the S.C. House of Representatives and as U.S. ambassador to Canada. Wilkins will cohost the event with Dick Riley, former U.S. secretary of education and South Carolina governor, and Furman President Elizabeth Davis.