RPC CEO Presented with Humanitarian Award

Citing a life dedicated to “fighting poverty, ignorance, disease, and all other faces of oppression,” the University of Illinois recently honored RPC CEO Dalitso Sulamoyo with its Alumni Humanitarian Award. Sulamoyo accepted the award during the 2023 University of Illinois Springfield Alumni Gala, with Tim Killeen, President of the University of Illinois System, Janet Gooch, Chancellor of the University of Illinois Springfield, and Carly Hawkins, Chair of the UIS Alumni Board, presenting it.

Here is more information about the prestigious honor:

The University of Illinois

Alumni Humanitarian Award

Dalitso S. Sulamoyo, PhD, MA ’99 CPAE, MPA ‘02

Dalitso S. Sulamoyo, of Champaign, Illinois, received two master’s degrees from the University – one in Political Studies in 1999, and the other in Public Administration in 2002. He is currently the CEO of the Champaign County Regional Planning Commission.

His firsthand experiences with poverty, dissatisfaction with a lack of action to correct injustice, and familiarity with conflict have been influential to his success academically and professionally. He has dedicated his life to fighting poverty, ignorance, disease, and all other faces of oppression. Eight years after arriving in the United States from Malawi, Southeast Africa, he became the youngest and first African American CEO of the Illinois Association of Community Action Agencies (IACAA).

Sulamoyo led IACAA for 16 years, which included advocacy on behalf of the impoverished and highly successful campaigns to generate numerous funding sources for the association of 40 not-for-profits and public entities that serve communities and economically challenged citizens. His work with the Illinois Community Action Development Corporation led to development of $15 million in affordable housing complexes in West Frankfort, Beardstown, and Hoopeston, Illinois. Sulamoyo also led a delegation to Port Au Prince, Haiti, to work with local Haitians to rebuild a school destroyed after the 2010 earthquake.

Among the numerous honors Sulamoyo has received is the Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Award for his leadership in fighting for social justice.

The Alumni Humanitarian Award was established in 2001 and is bestowed upon alumni of the University of Illinois. It is presented to those alumni who have made a significant contribution of leadership or service which has improved or enriched the lives of others and the welfare of humanity.