Oprah among Minerva Award recipients

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) – Oprah Winfrey will be among the five women honored with this year’s Minerva Awards by California First Lady Maria Shriver.

The awards will be presented to the honorees on October 26 at the Women’s Conference in Long Beach.

Created by Shriver in 2004, the Minerva Awards honour women “who serve on the frontlines of humanity.” Winfrey will receive the award for her Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa and the Oprah Angel Network.

Former Supreme Court judge Sandra Day O’Connor also has been chosen to receive the award, as have Operation Gratitude founder Carolyn Blashek; Oral Lee Brown, whose foundation assists high school students in Oakland, California; and Sister Terry Dodge, the executive director of Crossroads Inc, a residential programme in Claremont, California, that offers support and counseling to women who have been incarcerated.

“This year’s Minerva Award honorees are women who live with a deep sense of purpose and who are passionately dedicated to serving others,” said Shriver. “These Minervas all identified problems and unmet needs in their communities and have worked tirelessly to solve them.”