PRISM 2024 Honors Six Outstanding Professionals at Annual Awards Ceremony

The first award of the evening, the Technology Innovation Award, recognized the organization that has embraced technological advancement to enhance property risk management. This year’s recipient, Ramboll, was honored for its groundbreaking climate change risk assessment tool, HazAtlas. This innovative tool uses extensive weather and satellite data to evaluate climate-related risks and project future exposures, helping companies in risk disclosure and resilience planning. Elizabeth Krol, Principal at Ramboll, accepted the award, acknowledging the firm‘s commitment to leveraging technology for environmental sustainability.

Next, the Culture of Excellence Award celebrates the company that most effectively adopted measures that foster a positive work environment for its employees, and reflect a strong commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. This year’s winner, Langan Engineering & Environmental Services, received the honor as the results of the company’s outstanding efforts in promoting inclusivity and well-being among their 1,600 employees. Langan’s impressive initiatives include: the use of employee resource groups to foster connections and skills development, a commitment to making substantial financial donations to local charities, and a 6-year commitment to maintaining the company’s carbon-neutral status.

The Developing Leaders Award, PRISM’s most popular category, grew out of LightBox’s mentorship program of the same name, and recognizes an emerging professional with less than 10 years of experience who shows strong leadership potential and demonstrated industry involvement early in their career. Courtney Morrison, a project scientist from Stantec was selected as this year’s winner, honored for her detailed environmental consulting work and her leadership in the Rocky Mountain Association of Environmental Professionals, where she is taking the lead on starting a new chapter. Although Courtney was unable to attend PRISM, her past mentor Heather Ridgway, President of Environmental Professional Partners, accepted the award on her behalf, commending Courtney as “an engaging, motivated, and hard-working young professional. It was my distinct privilege and honor to be Courtney’s mentor last year and to bear witness to her impressive professional growth trajectory.”

PRISM’s Industry Influencer Award goes to an individual who has demonstrated exemplary commitment to championing the industry as a whole and promoting the understanding of property risk management outside of their organization. LightBox was honored to have Christina Lewis, last year’s Industry Influencer Award winner, on-site to present the award to this year’s winner,  Craig Benton from Synovus. Craig was celebrated for his extensive mentorship, leadership, and service spanning over 30 years. He has served as chair of the Chapter Services committee for the Counselors of Real Estate, Past President of the Atlanta Area Chapter of the Appraisal Institute, and past Chair of the Leadership Development and Advisory Council for the Appraisal Institute in 2008. His active involvement in multiple committees and professional organizations highlights his dedication to advancing the appraisal field.

A special PRISM Achievement Award was presented to Julie Kilgore in recognition of her retirement from ASTM and her influential role leading the Phase I ESA Task Group over the past three decades. Julie’s leadership and contributions were crucial throughout the process of revising the E 1527 standard so that it would be recognized in the USEPA All Appropriate Inquiries rule. Though a family emergency kept her from attending, Julie’s influence and contributions were celebrated in her absence, especially by the active ASTM members in attendance.

The ceremony concluded with PRISM’s highest honor, the Industry Hall of Fame Award, which recognizes a special individual for career-long contributions to the industry. Before announcing the 2024 winner, Crocker acknowledged the past seven winners, starting with Julie Kilgore in 2016. Other winners included: Georgina Dannatt (2017), Dean Jeffrey Telego (2018), Anthony Buonicore (2019), Bill Tryon (2020), Cathy McGowan (2021) and Michael Bell (2022) who was on hand to announce this year’s winner.

The 8^th inductee into the PRISM Hall of Fame, joining these other esteemed leaders who have been recognized for their significant contributions to the industry, is, drum roll…attorney William Weissman.