NEW ALBANY, OHIO (December 8, 2022) – The New Albany Community Foundation’s 20th annual Remarkable Evening benefit was held on December 7th featuring Dr. Mark T. Esper, 27th United States Secretary of Defense and Dr. Richard Haass, President, Council on Foreign Relations in a conversation moderated by ABC News Anchor Linsey Davis. The event also included the announcement of the 2022 Jeanne & John G. McCoy Community Service Award recipient, Colleen Briscoe.
The Jeanne and John G. McCoy Community Service Award was established by the Foundation in 2004 to recognize citizens who have made a significant impact in the community through their leadership, generosity and volunteerism. Through their philanthropy and community service in New Albany and central Ohio, Jeanne and John G. McCoy embodied the spirit of this award and were the first to be honored with the distinction in 2004 when it was established in their name.
Colleen Briscoe was elected mayor of New Albany in 1995 and served eight years as Mayor and another 18 years as a member of New Albany City Council. She established a collaborative approach to governing, often working with other entities such as the school board, Plain Township and The New Albany Company. This resulted in public-private partnerships and many successful, transformative community initiatives such as new parks, the McCoy Center and the Rocky Fork Metro Park. It also resulted in collaborative planning such as the Rocky Fork-Blacklick Accord.
When describing her decision to engage in community service, Briscoe said, “I worked very hard, and at that point you could go door to door because New Albany wasn’t that big. Nobody was as surprised as I was when I won.” As mayor, she not only fulfilled her pledge to pursue well-managed growth, she also helped revitalize the historic village center and spur commercial development to enlarge the tax base and create economic sustainability. To ease financial growing pains as local school enrollment expanded, she helped pass a resolution ensuring that new, for-profit development would translate into funding for the schools and necessary infrastructure improvements. She also promoted expanding parks and walking trails.
During her tenure as a public servant, New Albany grew to nearly 11,000 residents— evolving from a village to a city—and built an enviable business park that is home to respected companies such as Abercrombie & Fitch, Aetna, American Electric Power, Axium, Google, Lower.com, Meta and more, and recently attracted a $20 billion investment by Intel.
“She always stands by ‘the three Ps,’ as she calls it: partnership, prioritization and planning. And New Albany is known for all of those things,” said Mayor Sloan Spalding. “If you look at one example of those three things that she was able to accomplish in her time, it’s the business campus. She was there guiding council along the way. It was really a field of dreams and, thankfully, it came true,” Spalding added.
“The hardest thing for me was starting the economic development,” Briscoe remembered. The first business Briscoe worked to attract was Discover in 1996. With its small population and tax base, New Albany then had few resources to build the infrastructure needed for commercial development. It committed to pay those costs “only from the income produced from the business campus,” she said.
“That was the first arrangement we made and, obviously, it worked very well,” Briscoe said, adding that at the time, “It was tough. It was scary.” As things turned out, development in the business park not only paid for itself, it helped pay for improvements across the community.
Another key, Briscoe said, has been to ask businesses “to commit to community service,” giving back to the city, township, school district or local initiatives. “One of the things that’s made this city go so well is that we’ve partnered with our other stakeholders.”
Craig Mohre, president of The New Albany Community Foundation, said, “During New Albany’s years of rapid transformation, Colleen guided the community and made it a better place. She respected everyone and always advocated on behalf of the community.”
Briscoe opted not to seek re-election in 2021 and now is enjoying time to travel with her husband, Bob Berry, and to volunteer, such as helping adaptive skiers with cognitive and physical challenges in Colorado.
Looking back, she said, “We never allowed growth to get out of hand, and therefore we ended up with a community as good or better than I’d hoped. It was the effort of a lot of people. I sometimes felt like I was just along for the ride.”
Clearly, Briscoe was not just “along for the ride” over a quarter-century of public and community service.
“She’s had a really far-reaching impact in New Albany,” Mohre summarized. “Her work led to good planning, a larger tax base, great schools, beautiful parks. She has given so much to the community.”
REMARKABLE EVENING, THE NEW ALBANY LECTURE SERIES
Funds raised from Remarkable Evening support the Foundation’s annual grantmaking to area not-for-profit organizations and support community projects and initiatives. Funds raised also support The New Albany Lecture Series, a leading lecture series presented by the Foundation that features distinguished diplomats, experts on foreign policy, national security, health, Pulitzer and Nobel Prize-winning authors, journalists and historians. In addition to community lectures, speakers have interacted with more than 27,000 students representing school districts across central Ohio.
Since its inception, the Foundation has awarded more than $22 million in grants to advance lifelong learning, the arts, health and wellness and environmental sustainability. These grants are made possible through the support of generous donors and sponsors who contribute annually through Remarkable Evening or who have established endowment funds at the Foundation. Contributions have also helped make possible transformational projects like the New Albany Branch Library, the Jeanne B. McCoy Community Center for the Arts, and the Charleen & Charles Hinson Amphitheater.
Lead sponsors for this year’s Remarkable Evening included American Electric Power Foundation, Huntington, VanTrust, Meta, The New Albany Company, Nickolas Savko & Sons, Inc. and Turner.
The New Albany Community Foundation and its donors are working together to build an extraordinary community. The Foundation develops collaborative partnerships and invests in transformational projects that benefit all residents and contribute to the greater good: developing a community of lifelong learning, the arts, health and wellness and environmental sustainability. By championing forward-thinking initiatives, the Foundation and its donors have already had a significant positive impact.