Eduardo J. Padrón
REPORTER FILE PHOTO / ELIZABETH GARCIA
Briefing

Eduardo J. Padrón Receives 2020 Outstanding Floridian Award

Ashlie Rodriguez

The Florida Council of 100 presented Miami Dade College’s President Emeritus Eduardo J. Padrón with the 2020 Outstanding Floridian Award on Nov. 12.

The award recognizes Floridians who have gone above and beyond their job to accomplish extraordinary achievements.

Padrón, who served as president of MDC from 1995 to 2019, is credited with leading the College into a position of national prominence by focusing on student retention and access, graduation rate and general achievement. 

His work, which is widely acclaimed as a model of innovation in higher education, earned him a Presidential Medal of Freedom awarded by former United States President Barack Obama. In 2019, the Interamerican Campus was renamed as the Eduardo J. Padrón Campus in his honor.

Ashlie Rodriguez

Ashlie Rodriguez, 19, is a mass communications major at the the Eduardo J. Padrón Campus. Rodriguez, who graduated from Terra Environmental Research Institute in 2019, will serve as a staff writer for The Reporter during the 2020-2021 school year. She aspires to be an environmental lawyer at an organization like Earthjustice.

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