The board of directors for Traverse Connect has selected Jan Warren to receive the 2020 Distinguished Service Award.

Warren, the former program director for Northwest Michigan Works!, has five decades of volunteer service to nonprofit organizations and government boards and planning commissions, including 19 years on the Traverse City Planning Commission and six years on the Joint Planning Commission for the Grand Traverse Commons. She is a past president of the National Cherry Festival, Women’s Resource Center, Grand Traverse Community Collaborative, and the League of Women Voters of the Grand Traverse Area. She currently serves on the boards of the Traverse City Opera House, Grand Traverse Pavilions Foundation, and the United Way Citizens’ Advisory Committee. Jan is the 2004 Athena Award recipient and the Grand Traverse County Planning Commission’s 2016 Frank Purvis Stewardship Award winner.

“Jan has positively impacted and inspired countless residents of the Grand Traverse region. She is one of this community’s unsung heroes; her service has been quiet, humble, generous, and widespread,” says friend and colleague Elaine Wood. “She has served tirelessly in her official roles as a Traverse City Planning Commissioner and a board member of Traverse Bay Intermediate School District, among others. Jan’s impact on this community is incalculable. She has touched countless individuals and organizations in ways that could never be measured.”

The Distinguished Service Award is among the region’s oldest civic awards, presented annually since 1929. Warren will be honored with a virtual tribute in January 2021 and at a postponed Distinguished Service Award Luncheon set for the late spring. The honor will be presented by 2019 DSA Recipient Steve Perdue, president and CEO of Grand Traverse Industries.