GPPI Congratulates Joy Lyu Monahan, William Gaston Award Winner

Julie Farr Connolly (C’88) (2010-2012), President of the Georgetown University Alumni Association, Joy Lyu Monahan (C’91, MPP’94), and Bill Reynolds (C’79, P’10, P’13), Executive Director, Georgetown University Alumni Association.

— Joy Lyu Monahan (C’91, MPP’94) won a 2011 William Gaston Alumni Award at the Georgetown University Alumni Association Awards Banquet on Friday, February 3, 2012.

The William Gaston Alumni Award recognizes outstanding service by undergraduate alumni who have exhibited leadership across many activities such as alumni clubs, class programs and/or participation in other school activities.

Joy is a practicing attorney at Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP where she counsels clients in restructuring and insolvency matters. After graduating from the College in 1991, Joy worked as a program analyst for the Office of Inspector General at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She returned to Georgetown to earn her master’s degree at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute while working on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

A native of Louisiana, Joy returned to Baton Rouge in 1994 and earned a J.D. at LSU. Before entering private practice, Joy moved to New Orleans and worked as a law clerk for the Honorable Charles Grisbaum, State of Louisiana, Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal and the Honorable Lance M. Africk, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana.

While in New Orleans, Joy revived the Georgetown Club of New Orleans and served as president of the club for almost 10 years. Joy also volunteered to be an alumni interviewer as part of the Alumni Admissions Program.

Joy currently serves as senator on the Board of Governors after recently completing two terms on the board. Joy continues to serve as an alumni interviewer and is on the advisory committee for the Georgetown Club of Chicago, where she and her family currently live. Joy served as a member of the planning committee for her 20th Reunion and is a member of the planning committee for the John Carroll Weekend 2012.

John P. Keyser (C’59), Alan Brett Leahey, M.D. (C’82, M’87), Caragh Moynihan Lengle (C’02) and Thomas A. Wong, O.D. (C’82) were also recognized. A maximum of five Gaston awards are presented each year.

The William Gaston Alumni Award is named for the first student to enroll in Georgetown College. As a member of the United States Congress, William Gaston obtained Georgetown’s charter as an educational institution. He later served as Justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina. He is famous for delivering a classic oration during a Constitutional Convention in that state which resulted in the removal of religious discrimination against members of his faith. He is admired for his personal integrity and his advocacy for religious freedom in the United States.