Washington (March 6, 2023) – The National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA) is pleased to announce the 2023 NLADA Exemplar Award Honorees: Margaret Egan, executive vice president, general counsel, and secretary, Hyatt and Nadine Jones, senior vice president general counsel and board member at Kuehne + Nagel Inc.
“I’m very excited to present one of our most prestigious awards to Margaret and Nadine. They both exemplify excellence through their pro bono service to the equal justice community and a commitment to advancing racial equity and inclusion within our communities,” said NLADA President & CEO April Frazier Camara. “I am very proud to honor them both with the NLADA Exemplar Award.”
Egan and Jones are being honored for their extraordinary leadership in promoting equity and inclusion in the legal profession.
Margaret Egan lead’s Hyatt’s global legal and corporate services as well as serves as the Executive Sponsor of World of Care. World of Care brings the Hyatt’s purpose of care to life through actions in advancing care for the planet, people and responsible business. Egan’s previous roles included interim General Counsel and Secretary, and Senior Vice President and Associate General Counsel at Hyatt, overseeing the company’s legal global transactions teams. She also serves on the board of Sarah’s Circle, a non-profit in Chicago that provides a full continuum of services for women, including housing, life necessities, and supportive services, to help them permanently end their homelessness.
“It is an honor and privilege to be presented with this award by NLADA, alongside Nadine Jones,” said Margaret Egan, executive vice president, general counsel and secretary, Hyatt. “NLADA’s commitment to providing inclusive and equitable justice to those without access is exemplification of how organizations can leverage their reach for good. It inspires me as I work alongside Hyatt colleagues to progress out Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) as part of our Change Starts Here goals. Together, we’ll continue to take action to ensure we are advancing DE&I across our organization, industry and communities.”
Nadine Jones is the first woman and person of color to serve as the senior vice president and general counsel of Kuehne+Nagel Inc., responsible for the North America Region, including the United States, Canada and Mexico.
“I am so grateful to Kuehne+Nagel for making it possible for me to serve in this role, where I am a role model and “first” in a few areas, while fully supported by the global management and teams. That’s what both diversity and inclusion should feel like.” Said Nadine Jones.
She is a graduate of Howard University School of Law. After graduation, she joined Arnold & Porter LLP’s Washington, D.C. office, where she practiced in the area of regulatory compliance for nine years. Jones left the firm to join Kuehne+Nagel Inc., one of the world's leading logistics companies with North American headquarters in Jersey City, New Jersey, as the Vice President of Compliance for North America. After five years, Jones joined the General Counsel’s office as Corporate Counsel. Jones is also a co-founder of The Initiative: Advancing the Blue & Black Partnership (“The Initiative”). “Kuehne+Nagel placed me on paid leave for six months to help standup The Initiative, and followed its development closely, even up to level of the top management of the publicly listed parent company in Switzerland. By doing this, Kuehne+Nagel demonstrated the important role that businesses can play in fostering collaboration to build safer communities for all.”
The Initiative was co-founded with two-other Howard Law alumna and was established to implement a collaborative approach to building healthy, scalable, community policing models. Jones partnered with members from both the Blue and Black communities to champion the organization’s mission to ensure that all community stakeholders feel both seen and heard.
The 2023 Exemplar Awards will be presented at the organization’s annual Exemplar Awards Gala on Thursday, June 8, in Washington, D.C.
For more information about our Exemplar Award honorees please reach out to Rabiah Alicia Burks, Vice President of Communications and Team Building, by email at [email protected].
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The National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA), founded in 1911, is America’s oldest and largest nonprofit association devoted to excellence in the delivery of legal services to those who cannot afford counsel. NLADA has pioneered access to justice at the national, state and local levels, playing a leadership role in the creation of public defender systems and other important institutions from The Sentencing Project to the Legal Services Corporation. A leader in the development of national standards for civil legal aid and public defense, NLADA also provides advocacy, training and technical assistance for equal justice advocates across the country.