The Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies (AIIAS) is very pleased to announce that its president, Dr. Ginger Ketting-Weller, has been chosen as one of five individuals to receive an award for excellence from the Charles E. Weniger Society, to be presented at their 49th Annual Awards Presentation at Loma Linda University Church on February 17, 2024.

The prestigious Charles E. Weniger award and accompanying medallion presented by the society honor the qualities of excellence and kindness that were paramount in Weniger’s life as an educator and educational administrator. The society states, “Through its award program, the society seeks to identify and recognize the contributions made to the world by people with similar significant traits of character.”

Charles Weniger was an English teacher, a seminary professor, and a vice president for graduate studies. He was known for integrating academics with real life as he taught, as well as his personal relationship with God, as evident in his humble, intimate prayers. Weniger died in 1964, but his deeply spiritual influence and emphasis on excellence live on through the society set up by his students and its annual awards and scholarships.

“I like to call these awards the equivalent of the Oscars,” commented Dr. Richard Osborn, president of the Weniger Society and host of the 2023 awards program. Past awardees include well-known Seventh-day Adventist individuals from all walks of life, including denominational leaders, academics, physicians, artists, musicians, authors, evangelists, TV personalities, and philanthropists. The award comes with no monetary component, but the stories of those who are honored serve to inspire.
In the upcoming 2024 program, in addition to Dr. Ketting-Weller, the Charles E. Weniger Society will be honoring Dr. John McVay, Walla Walla University president, Dr. Kimo Smith, Loma Linda University Church organist, Elder Lowell Cooper, retired General Conference vice president, and Sunny Lockwood (Merikay McLeod), award-winning author whose legal action in the 1970s resulted in equal pay for equal work for women employed by the Seventh-day Adventist denomination.

Dr. Richard Nelson, AIIAS vice president for academic administration, has attended previous Weniger Awards programs. He comments, “The group Dr. Ketting-Weller is joining includes some of the most influential characters of our lifetime in the SDA church. She is joining the founders of the Loma Linda Overseas Heart Team, the author of the five-day plan, the world’s greatest infant heart surgeon, some of the brightest theologians and institutional leaders … the list goes on. She has served the church with great distinction, and her life reflects the character values of excellence that the Weniger Society recognizes.”

In addition to in-person attendance at the annual awards presentation, the program can be watched via streaming video on February 17 at 4:30 p.m. (California time) at the Loma Linda University Church YouTube channel.

The original version of this story was posted on the AIIAS website.