Several local Catholic educators and schools will be honored during the 106th annual convention of the National Catholic Educational Association, to be held April 14-16 at the Anaheim Convention Center.

Shane Martin, Ph.D., dean of the School of Education at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, will receive the Catherine T. McNamee, CSJ, Award, which honors leadership "in promoting a vision of Catholic education that welcomes and serves cultural and economic diversity and enhances service for students with diverse needs."

Martin taught in Catholic middle and high schools for six years before joining Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. He has taught for 13 years in the graduate division of the School of Education and was named dean of the school in 2005. He oversees the largest enrollment of any graduate program and the largest enrollment of Catholic school personnel of any university in the country.

Martin heads the Catholic Schools Research Project, an initiative funded and supported by the Catholic Education Foundation of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. The project researches and analyzes the long-term results of Catholic schools, especially in educating poor and marginalized students.

He is the author of two NCEA-published books and has contributed to many peer-reviewed publications on cultural diversity in Catholic schools, technology and learning, social justice in education and multicultural education.

Martin also has become a leader in the larger community surrounding Loyola Marymount, including service to the Los Angeles Unified School District and the charter school movement in the city. Recently he was appointed to the commission of Teacher Credentialing, representing all of the independent schools in California.

Also being honored at the convention is Nancy Coonis, president of Notre Dame Academy in West Los Angeles, as one of seven recipients of the Catholic Secondary Education Award. Coonis is a former archdiocesan superintendent of Secondary Schools.

The NCEA's Religious Community Leadership and Service Award will be presented to the Order of Friar Servants of Mary (The Servites) and the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange.

NCEA's Department of Boards and Councils is honoring nine school boards nationally with its Outstanding Board Award, including three from Southern California: Chaminade College Preparatory, Chatsworth; American Martyrs School; Manhattan Beach; and Holy Family Cathedral School, Orange.

Moving west for the first time in 11 years, the 2009 NCEA convention will be held concurrently with the 17th annual convocation of the National Association of Parish Catechetical Directors. This will be the NCEA's third convention in Anaheim, following meetings there in 1986 and 1994. Four conventions were held in San Francisco (1918, 1948, 1968 and 1977) and one in Los Angeles (1998).

Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, Bishop Gerald Kicanas of Tuscon, and Immaculee Ilibagiza, survivor of the genocide in Rwanda, will be keynote speakers. NCEA departments are scheduling more than 400 breakout sessions, on topics of interest to teachers and administrators in elementary and secondary schools, seminaries, and parish religious education programs.

NCEA also announced that "Dividends for Life" is the theme for Catholic Schools Week 2010 (Jan. 31 to Feb. 6). Catholic Schools Week, the annual celebration that focuses attention on the good work done by the nation's Catholic schools, is a joint project of the NCEA and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

According to Karen Ristau, NCEA president, "Catholic schools provide good things for students and families - high expectations and daily experience of faith. In these challenging times, the theme also reminds parents that the dividends of a Catholic school education - students prepared in faith, knowledge, morals and discipline - last a lifetime."

Established in 1904, the NCEA is the largest private professional education organization in the world, representing 200,000 Catholic educators serving 7.6 million students in Catholic elementary and secondary schools, in religious education programs, in seminaries and in colleges and universities.