HAVERFORD, Pa. – Joel Censer '08 and Leigh James Castanos '03 have been named the 2018 recipients of Haverford College's Larry Forman '60 Award.
Friends and relatives of Larry Forman approached the College in 1991 about creating an award in his honor. Haverford responded enthusiastically with an award designed to recognize someone whose athletic career in college and subsequent devotion to serving society was reminiscent of Forman.
The first award, fittingly, went to Harris David '60, Forman's basketball teammate and also captain of the Haverford baseball team. Harris has been for many years a public interest attorney in Northern New Jersey. Other Forman Award winners have included Bill O'Neil '73 (basketball/United Nations Human Rights specialist), Holly Taylor '80 (field hockey/physical therapist for seriously handicapped individuals) Ernest Prudente (long-time HC coach) and Bob Swift '68 (tennis/representative of victims of oppression in the Philippines).
Joel Censer currently serves as the chief program officer at Harlem Lacrosse, where he presides over day-to-day operations of the program and their in-school intervention programming in five different cities. Joel earned a B.A. in history from Haverford in 2008, where he was a member and captain of the men's lacrosse team and earned All-American honors during his senior year. Before becoming CPO, Joel was the director of advancement at Harlem Lacrosse where, among other things, he built an independent school and college admissions counseling program that helped send over 75 students to independent schools and top-tier colleges with over 25 million dollars in scholarship dollars earned.
From 2013-2015, Joel served as the boys program director at Frederick Douglass Academy in Central Harlem where he managed Harlem Lacrosse's flagship school site and also built much of the programmatic curriculum and philosophy that has come to define Harlem Lacrosse's work today. Joel has been interviewed and featured in numerous publications and was profiled in DICK's Sporting Goods "Sports Matter" Campaign in Summer 2015. Before joining Harlem Lacrosse, Joel worked at Lacrosse Magazine, George Mason University, for Barack Obama's campaign in North Carolina in 2008, and as a coach for high school and youth lacrosse teams in the Washington, D.C., Metro area. Joel is married to Jennifer Spector and the couple resides in Brooklyn, NY.
Leigh James Castanos is a Behavioral Health Consultant at the Mary Howard Health Center under the Public Health Management Corporation in Philadelphia. Leigh earned her B.A. in anthropology, with a concentration in education from Haverford in 2003, where she was also an active member and eventual two year co-captain of the women's lacrosse team as an undergraduate. As an alum, Leigh is an active admission representative and proponent for Haverford. After graduation she traveled extensively and lived abroad for two years in Cyprus and Spain. Professionally, Leigh started her non-profit career at the St. Anthony Foundation of San Francisco, where she facilitated support groups for homeless men in a substance use recovery program. This work launched her interest in the social work field.
In 2011, Leigh earned an M.S.W. from the University of California, Berkeley. Upon completing this degree, she spent time as a social worker in hospice supporting patients and families through the emotionally challenging process of dying. She returned to Philadelphia in 2014 to work at the Mary Howard Health Center, where she continues to provide mental health care to underserved and underinsured homeless individuals, demonstrating her continued commitment to serving those in need. On weekends, Leigh frequently runs marathons for charity. She remains connected to the tenants of her Quaker upbringing and education by treating people in her life with compassion, while promoting self-efficacy. Leigh is married to Ryan Castanos and the couple resides in Bryn Mawr, PA with their one year old son.
About Larry Forman: About Larry Forman
Lawrence Forman '60 attended Westtown School before becoming one of the most graceful and versatile athletes in Haverford's long athletic history. Forman was the second Haverford basketball player to score 1,000 career points, leading the Fords to wins over Delaware and Navy in his last two years with the program. His deadly outside shooting and acrobatic drives to the basket often brought Alumni Field House alive with chants of "Roll, Fords, Roll."
Forman was equally successful on the soccer field where he was an All-American goalie his last two seasons on Coach Jimmy Mills' teams which played a schedule dominated by colleges which are today in NCAA Division I. He was also a fine quarter-miler on Haverford track teams. Forman's athletic ability, leadership qualities, support of teammates and grace under pressure won him great admiration.
He went on after Haverford to a career in social service, including relief work overseas. Forman met an untimely death in Thailand, fatally injured in a fall from a building which was being ravaged by fire.