His career as a Harvard student and administrator spans four decades. He became Dean of Students in 1971, and since that time he has played a fundamental role in Harvard's race relations efforts, the reorganization of student government, and the growth in student organizations. A graduate of Talladega College in Alabama, he is also the editor of the Speeches of Malcolm X at Harvard. The award citation recognized him as a "wise counselor, thoughtful colleague, and valued friend to thousands of students, faculty, staff, and other members of the Harvard community. Steadfast in scholarship while never forsaking the spiritual dimension of life, he ministered to generations of college students."

The Katzenstein Award was established 20 years ago to recognize a Harvard Divinity School graduate who exhibits "a passionate and helpful interest in the lives of other people, an informed and realistic faithfulness, an embodiment of the idea that love is not so much a way of feeling as a way of acting, and a reliable sense of humor." The award honors the memory of Rabbi Martin Katzenstein, ThM '58, who died in 1970 while he was the Divinity School's acting dean of students.

Annie M. Bovian, MDiv '90, executive director of Women's Advocate Ministry Inc. in New York City, received the First Decade Award. She is a minister in the United Church of Christ and works primarily at the Riker's Island jail with single mothers who are being held for drug-related crimes.

Her interest in advocacy work in courts and prisons on behalf of women and their children began during her field education training at the Divinity School, when she was a chaplain at Boston City Hospital and first worked with incarcerated women. She has served on the ministerial staff at Marble Collegiate Church in New York City, and she also sits on the boards of the Sister Fund and Women in Need, a program for homeless women and their children.

The First Decade Award was established in 1989 to recognize Divinity School graduates from the past 10 years "whose vocation confirms our hope that God is present as justice, peace, and beauty, and whose achievement inspires our striving for truth, compassion, and service."