Octavia Brown, professor emeritus at Centenary University and internationally-known pioneer in the field of therapeutic riding will receive Centenary’s highest honor on Thursday, June 2 at 6:30 p.m.

Brown will be feted at CU at the Stables, the university’s annual scholarship fundraising event.

She will receive the Gold Dome Award in recognition of her commitment to therapeutic riding for those with special needs and veterans. She is also being recognized for her years of service to the university and its equine program students.

Brown’08 HA, Ed.M., D.H.L., is considered a trailblazer in the field of therapeutic riding for her commitment to providing equine opportunities to children and adults.

The scholarship event will be held at the David and Carol Lackland Center.

Brown is a founder of the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association. Now known as PATH International, the nonprofit has 7,000 members worldwide who help support more than 53,000 special needs individuals, including nearly 6,000 veterans, through a variety of equine-assisted services. At Centenary. She is the former director of TRAC (Therapeutic Riding at Centenary), an accredited adaptive riding program that fosters beneficial interactions between horses and humans and provides training for professionals in the field of equine-assisted education and therapy. Through Operation Centaur, the University also provides the benefits of therapeutic riding to military veterans and their family members.

Born in England, Brown emigrated to the United States in 1964. She earned a Master of Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 1971 and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Centenary in 2008. A past president of the Federation of Riding for the Disabled International, Brown has been recognized with numerous awards, including the James Brady Award for Lifetime Achievement in Therapeutic Riding, PATH International’s highest honor. Centenary University has one of the nation’s leading collegiate equine studies programs, offering several specialty fields of study and competitive riding teams.

Purchase event tickets on the university website or email Elizabeth.Freeman@centenaryuniversity.

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In other Centenary news, the medical Laboratory Science program has received initial accreditation from the National Accrediting Agency for Clinical Laboratory Sciences. NAACLS is recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.

Centenary launched its bachelor of science in medical laboratory sciences in 2019 and has clinical affiliations throughout the Skylands Region and Pennsylvania. The MLS program incorporates chemistry, immunology, microbiology, hematology, immunohematology, and molecular biology into the course of study. These disciplines prepare students for clinical testing to help clinicians with disease diagnosis, treatment, and health maintenance. The majority of medical laboratory professionals work in hospitals and reference labs.

At the height of the initial wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, they made headlines as the professionals responsible for COVID-19 testing. Demand for certified medical laboratory professionals is expected to grow 11 % through 2030, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Craig Fuller, Ph.D., director of the University’s health sciences and medical laboratory science programs, and a faculty member in health sciences, noted the medical laboratory science degree is part of a broader initiative to expand Centenary’s career-focused educational offerings in the health sciences to meet increasing demand for well-trained professionals in northwestern New Jersey and beyond.