Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor receives a prestigious public service award from Ohio State University.

Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor receives a prestigious public service award from Ohio State University.

When Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor accepted the John Glenn College of Public Affairs Outstanding Public Service Award from Ohio State University, she cited the late senator and astronaut’s lifelong commitment to tackling big problems.

“The name John Glenn and the term public service were inseparable during his amazing life,” Chief Justice O’Connor said. “Now his name and public service are forever linked at a school whose impressive programs and faculty set a standard for our nation.”

The chief justice’s acceptance of the 2021 award was delivered in a taped video shown during pre-commencement exercises. She called the award a “great honor” and referred to Glenn as “one of the great heroes of Ohio and America.”

Dean Trevor Brown told graduates that Chief Justice O’Connor was chosen because of her “exemplary contributions at the intersection of law and public policy.”

“Maureen O’Connor’s actions as Supreme Court Chief Justice embody this interconnected and collaborative approach, most notably her efforts to bring together multiple actors to combat the opioid epidemic in Ohio,” Brown said.

Five years ago, Chief Justice O’Connor started the Regional Judicial Opioid Initiative (RJOI) which brought eight states together to start tackling the opioid epidemic.

“We had no road map,” she told the graduates. “For three solid days, scores of representatives from our neighboring states were locked in a hotel, drawing an inter-agency, inter-state, and inter-disciplinary road map.”

One outcome of that meeting in Cincinnati was “changes in state and local laws by making a persuasive case to legislators,” she said. “Our approach is working and it has been copied in other regions and nationally.”

“Always remember” she told the grads, “that while you may begin without a map, you do have a compass. The elements of your social policy compass include honesty, integrity and commitment.”

Past winners of the award include former Ohio Director of Health Amy Acton, former Ohio Attorney General Betty Montgomery and former Gov. Ted Strickland.