On Nov. 12, the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC) presented California State University, Northridge with a 2015 Eddy Award for Educational Leadership during a gala celebration at the Beverly Hilton. The award honors those who have played leading roles in the development of the county’s economy and in the creation of well-paying jobs for its residents. Snapchat Founder and CEO Evan Spiegel, CBRE Group, Inc., and the cities of Palmdale and El Segundo also received Eddy Awards at the gala.

CSUN joins Caltech, USC and UCLA as the fourth university to receive an Eddy Award.

“As the third-largest university in California, CSUN is a catalytic hub of education, research and innovation — playing a critical role in the economic development of the region,” said CSUN President Dianne F. Harrison. “Working collaboratively with LAEDC and public- and private-sector partners, CSUN positively impacts nearly every aspect of life in our community. We, at the university, are honored to be recognized for doing something that is such an integral part of who we are — elevating the social, cultural and economic well-being of Los Angeles.”

To commemorate this award at the gala, a short video was presented to showcase CSUN’s reach in Los Angeles County and beyond. Helping to provide commentary on the video were Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and longtime San Fernando Valley business and civic leader David Fleming, as well as prominent CSUN alumni Eva Longoria ’13 (M.A. Chicana/o Studies), David Nazarian ’82 (Business), Earl Enzer ’83 (Finance), Sue Herera ’80 (Journalism) and Bill Griffeth ’80 (Journalism).

Serving a diverse student body of more than 40,000 students, many of which are first-generation college students, CSUN has been ranked in the top five nationally by EdSmart.org for advancing U.S. economic progress and by the National Science Foundation for graduates who go on to earn doctorates in the sciences. CSUN-related expenditures generated an estimated $1.9 billion in output throughout California. Of this $1.9 billion in output, approximately $1.6 billion occurred within Los Angeles County, helping to sustain nearly 12,000 jobs. CSUN has more than 300,000 alumni, 80 percent of whom live and work in Southern California.

The Eddy Awards® were introduced by LAEDC in 1996 to celebrate individuals and organizations that demonstrate exceptional contributions to positive economic development in the region, consistent with LAEDC’s focus on increasing shared prosperity for residents and communities of our region. As the Southern California region’s premier economic development organization, the LAEDC provides economic development leadership to promote a globally competitive, prosperous and growing L.A. County economy to improve the health and well-being of residents and communities, and enables those residents to meet their basic human need for a job.

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