NEW YORK -- On March 30, Martin F. Scheinman, B.S. '75, M.S. '76, a prominent arbitrator and mediator of workplace disputes and a longtime supporter of Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations, received the Judge William B. Groat Alumni Award. One of the highest honors that the school bestows on its graduates, the award recognizes exceptional professional accomplishments in the field of industrial and labor relations.

Also receiving one of the ILR School's highest honors March 30 was Adele C. Smithers-Fornaci, president of the Christopher D. Smithers Foundation, which targets alcoholism. Smithers-Fornaci was the recipient of the 2006 Jerome Alpern Distinguished Alumni Award, which honors graduates and friends of the ILR School whose career accomplishments are outside industrial and labor relations.

Both awards were presented by ILR School Dean Harry Katz as part of the school's Celebration 2006 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel on Park Avenue in New York City.

Scheinman has arbitrated more than 10,000 disputes throughout the United States -- most recently the New York City Transit Workers Union dispute in December 2005 -- and served as a fact-finder in hundreds of cases. Formerly an adjunct professor at Hofstra University and at the ILR School, he is the most senior member of the school's extension faculty in New York City. He recently joined with other alumni in a gift to the Labor Law Reading Room in Ives Hall's Catherwood library in honor of the school's commitment to collaboration among labor, management and mediators. In addition to his ILR degrees, he received a J.D. (1979) from New York University Law School. He credits one of the ILR School's founding professors, Jean McKelvey, with stimulating his lifelong interest in mediation.

Smithers-Fornaci has been a member of the National Council on Alcoholism since 1960, where she has spoken out against the marketing of alcohol to America's youth and promoted programs that address alcohol-related problems in women and the elderly. Her many honors include the Pioneer Award from the United Nations' International Council for Caring Communities and recognition from the American Society of Addiction Medicine for her efforts to improve public understanding of alcoholism as a treatable disease. Her late first husband, R. Brinkley Smithers, was instrumental in establishing the ILR School's New York City-based Smithers Institute for Alcohol-Related Workplace Studies, which conducted a much-cited study on New York City firefighters and stress post-Sept. 11, 2001.

The awards are named for Judge William Groat, who helped found the ILR School and draft its charter, and Jerome Alpern, B.S. '49, MBA '50, a businessman, financial consultant and prominent ILR School supporter.