January 10, 2024

Women with service mindset to be honored with Drum Major Award

Three women who have dedicated themselves to advancing equality and community service will be honored with the Martin Luther King Jr. Drum Major Award for Community Service. Moira Branigan of Bay City, Anita Jenkins of Midland and Joyce Seals of Saginaw will be honored during the Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Celebration, which will be held Wednesday, Jan. 17, at 7 p.m. at Saginaw Valley State University.

Branigan is the executive director of the YWCA Great Lakes Bay Region, which offers mission-oriented programs to eliminate racism, empower women and promote peace, justice, freedom and dignity. In 2020, she began the InterACT Diversity, Equity and Inclusion program, which was inspired by similar programs at other YWCAs throughout the country. During her career, Branigan has worked in both the for-profit and nonprofit sectors, fulfilling roles in program development and management, nonprofit operations and outreach. She is a certified IDI (Intercultural Development Inventory®) qualified administrator and has a certificate in diversity, equity and inclusion from Cornell University. In 2022, she was appointed to the Bay City Human Relations Committee.

Jenkins has spent 47 years in the Midland community as a dedicated community volunteer, activist and faithful philanthropist. Jenkins worked for many years as a tax attorney for Dow, where she was encouraged to join a variety of boards and committees. Anita is one of the founders of the local chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. and was instrumental in helping to establish the chapter’s endowed scholarship at the Midland Area Community Foundation. She and her husband, James, have given generously to help others in the community and region. She generously shares her wealth of information on financial literacy by recommending books and encouraging others to not only be financially solvent but also to financially support the local needs of others.

Seals has dedicated much of her life to education and community service. During her career, Seals held positions with the State of Michigan, serving as an educational analyst supervising the King-Chavez-Parks College Program, Title IX coordinator, and ombudsman for post-secondary education and athletics. Locally, Seals taught at the Opportunities Industrialization Center of Metropolitan Saginaw and Buena Vista schools, both now closed. Seals has volunteered her time and talents to a number of organizations, including the Boy Scouts of America, Saginaw County Youth Protection Council, Ezekiel Project and Good Neighbors Mission. She also served on the Saginaw city council for 12 years and was the city’s second Black female mayor. She currently chairs the Saginaw Promise scholarship program and sits on the Saginaw Public Schools Board of Education.

The Drum Major Community Service Award was created by the Great Lakes Bay Regional MLK Celebration event committee. Honorees are selected from Bay, Midland and Saginaw counties. For more information and a list of past honorees, visit https://www.svsu.edu/mlk/drummajoraward/.

For more information or to register for the Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Celebration, visit https://www.svsu.edu/mlk/.