Education Alumna Receives City of Coral Springs MLK Monument Award

Bessie Cristwell, Th.D., graduate of NSU’s Fischler College of Education and School of Criminal Justice, received the Coral Springs Martin Luther King Jr. Monument Award earlier this year.

She was honored for many achievements, among them, her decades of work in assisting underprivileged children, helping raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for scholarships for youth struggling to pay for college and trade school, and helping create a day of learning about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Cristwell has served on Coral Springs’ Martin Luther King Jr. Committee and Multi-Cultural Advisory Committee for the past 25 years.

She is a retired school administrator and teacher and worked for four schools before being employed with the Broward School district office, specializing in multi-cultural education. She made sure children took learning about cultures and diversity seriously.

She earned her Educational Specialist Degree with the Fischler College of Education and School of Criminal justice in 1979 and a Theology/Psychology Th.D. from Brewer Christian College and Graduate School in 2005.