The Institute for Women's Health and Leadership at Drexel University College of Medicine is pleased to announce that its 2015 Woman One honoree is philanthropist and civic activist Lynne Korman Honickman.

The Woman One program recognizes outstanding women leaders in the Philadelphia community and raises scholarship funds for talented, underrepresented women medical students at Drexel University College of Medicine. Honickman will be honored as the 13th annual Woman One recipient on Monday, April 27, 2015, at the Rittenhouse Hotel in Philadelphia.

"Throughout her life, Lynne has worked to improve the lives of her fellow citizens," said Lynn Yeakel, director of the Institute for Women's Health and Leadership. "Her contributions to the community transcend traditional giving. She is a wonderful example of a woman who sees a need and addresses it with wholehearted enthusiasm."

In 1989 Honickman founded The Honickman Foundation, dedicated to the support of projects that promote spiritual growth, creativity, education and social change. The foundation partnered with Project HOME and Comcast a decade ago to build The Honickman Learning Center Comcast Technology Labs in North Central Philadelphia. Currently, the center serves more than 375 children and 925 adults each year.

The Honickman Foundation has also established two national book prizes, one in poetry with the American Poetry Review (its 18th book coming soon) and one in photography with the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, now in its 7th book competition.

Honickman is a trustee of Project HOME and of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, among her many civic responsibilities. She is an inaugural member of the Friends of the Alfred Stieglitz Center. She was the founder of Moms Against Guns, which merged with CeasefirePA in 2010, and serves on Ceasefire's board.

Honickman has received numerous honors, including:

• An honorary doctor of laws degree in 2002 from Chestnut Hill College
• The 2005 G. Fred DiBona Jr. Individual Leadership Award from the Arts & Business Council of Greater Philadelphia
• The 2006 Take the Lead Award from the Girl Scouts of Southeastern Pennsylvania
• The 2008 Judge Lois G. Forer Child Advocacy Award from the Support Center for Child Advocates
• The 2009 Humanitarian Award from Magee Rehabilitation

"For me, Woman One is a very special entity that serves a very important mission – that of providing student assistance to women entering the medical profession, enabling them to give critical care in underserved communities," said Honickman. "By helping these incredibly bright and determined women, we create a better world for all of us."

Formally trained as a writer and artist, Honickman is an activist for the arts and for pressing social issues. Her core values are derived from her family and her Jewish heritage – a legacy that values family, hard work and civic responsibility. She and her husband, Harold, have two adult children and four grandchildren.

In 12 years, the Woman One program has raised more than $2.5 million and has supported scholarships for 27 current and former scholars in Drexel University College of Medicine. Each of the 2015 scholars – Stephanie Coriolan of Port-au-Prince, Haiti; Jaclyn Heilman of Philadelphia; and Jillian Thayer of Seattle – receives $80,000 in tuition support over four years.

Past Woman One Award recipients include Estelle Richman ('03); Leslie Anne Miller ('04); Dawn Staley ('05); Suzanne Roberts ('06); Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, MD, ('07); Stephanie Naidoff ('08); Jane Pepper ('09); Eliana Papadakis ('10); Sara Manzano-Díaz ('11); Dianne Semingson ('12); Lisa Thomas Laury ('13), and Laurada Byers ('14).

One of the original six programs to be designated a National Center of Excellence in Women's Health by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Drexel University College of Medicine's Institute for Women's Health and Leadership helps carry out the College's commitment to women's health and women's leadership in medicine and science. Its core initiatives include: the International Center for Executive Leadership in Academics, with its acclaimed Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) Program for Women; the Legacy Center, which preserves and protects the largest collection of archival material on the history of women in medicine, much of which comes from one of the College's predecessor institutions; the Woman One Award and Scholarship Fund; and Vision 2020, a national initiative to achieve women's economic and social equality.