Iona University has once again received an award for its excellence in the business world. The university received the 2023 Business Council of Westchester (BCW) Hall of Fame Award of Corporate Citizenship. Iona will be inducted on April 25 during a ceremony at Glen Island Harbour Club in New Rochelle.  

Every year, the BCW acknowledges leaders across different areas of business success including corporate citizenship, entrepreneurial business success, family business success, minority business success, small business success, women in business success and the chairman’s recognition award. Iona joins more than 100 past winners that represent the most prestigious business leaders and organizations in Westchester County.  

Iona was selected due to its commitment to bold leadership, service and partnership on behalf of Westchester, according to Marsha Gordon, president and CEO of the BCW.  

Iona has become an innovator not only in Westchester County but throughout the country. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic’s toll on higher education, Iona has seen the growth of new student enrollment of more than 30 percent over the past three years. With the completion of the NewYork-Presbyterian Iona School of Health Sciences and opening its Kelly Center for Health Sciences this month, the university has nearly doubled its footprint. Additionally, Iona has begun several new initiatives in partnership with the BCW in 2022. The first was through the Hynes Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation with Iona students partnering with the BCW and the City of Mount Vernon to help minority and women-owned businesses bid on government contracts and grow their business. Eventually, the partnership extended to the City of Yonkers, with students working with the Yonkers Housing Authority and Groundwork Hudson Valley to address the dangers of “heat islands,” which is when urbanized areas experience higher temperatures than outlying areas. Lately, Iona and the BCW announced a partnership to develop the Westchester Innovation Network (WIN) Implementation Guide, a roadmap for transforming Westchester into an attractive location that appeals and nurtures innovative companies.