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Philadelphia Resident Honored with Prestigious EPA Diversity Award

Release Date: 08/05/2009
Contact Information: Donna Heron 215-814-5113 / [email protected]

PHILADELPHIA (August 5, 2009) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency presented its Suzanne E. Olive Award for Exemplary Leadership in National Equal Employment Opportunity to 15 managers nationwide from the agency’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT) Diversity Programs at a ceremony held June 12, 2009, at the Warner Theatre in Washington, D.C. Mike Frankel, of EPA’s mid-Atlantic region, headquartered in Philadelphia was a recipient.

The award recognizes employees who excel in promoting the tenets of equal employment opportunity and civil rights, and for demonstrated commitment to workforce diversity through actions that clearly exceed the responsibilities of their immediate position or assignment. Frankel has served as an officer on the agency’s national GLBT Advisory Council and as manager of the regional GLBT diversity program for more than six years and was a founder of the regional program.

“This award is very special. The recipients are an amazing group of dedicated people from across the country whose tenacity inspires me,” said Frankel. “EPA is at the forefront of federal agencies working toward GLBT inclusion and equality in the workplace. Diversity requires the attention of all of us to ensure fairness and equal opportunity to everyone.”

Frankel’s work on diversity is in addition to his primary duties as a communications coordinator for the agency. Frankel regularly conducts workshops on “Creating and Maintaining a GLBT Friendly Workplace.” Most recently, Frankel brought his presentation to the Federal Executive Board’s annual EEO day of training in Philadelphia. That event provided training to managers from many of the federal agencies located in the mid-Atlantic region with more than 600 managers in attendance.

In October Frankel will be part of a group of EPA GLBT diversity program managers presenting at the 2009 Out & Equal Workplace Summit, being held in Orlando, Fla. Out & Equal is the pre-eminent national organization devoted to the GLBT community in the workplace.

He is also a recent addition to the City of Philadelphia’s Police Liaison Committee to the GLBT community.

Frankel, who grew up in Bucks County and in South Florida, graduated from Nova High School in Fort Lauderdale, Fla, and received a bachelor’s degree in humanities/communications from Thomas Edison State College in Trenton, N.J.