LOCK HAVEN, Pa. – The Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference announced on Monday that Shepherd's Annie Lewin has been named to its inaugural class of L.P. Hill Unity in Sports Award honorees for the 2025-26 season. The award recognizes the contributions of an individual or group on each member campus that, through intercollegiate athletics, epitomizes the promise of Unity, Equity, and Access for All.

Lewin is the Title IX Director at Shepherd. Among the initiatives spearheaded by Lewin is Restorative Justice Week. The initiative provides meaningful dialogue across the campus community and critical training and education to create a culture of mutual respect.

The award is named after Leslie Pinckney Hill, the first President of Cheyney State Teacher's College. From 1913 to 1950, he was the Principal of the Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia and oversaw its establishment as Cheyney State Teachers College. The Phi Beta Kappa, Harvard-educated son of a former slave, taught at Tuskegee Institute and was a renowned educator, writer, poet, and community leader.

In 1927, a year after the first documents that created the Pennsylvania State Normal School Athletic Association, Mr. Hill argued for the inclusion of Cheyney in the Associations bylaws which had been left out in the initial drafting. The Board of Principals immediately rectified this error, and all 14 state-owned institutions were then included in the Association's initial governing documents.