‘Spirit of the Coast’ winner champions minority business and helps Coast through COVID
The recipient of this year’s Pat Santucci “Spirit of the Coast Award” was in the middle of South Mississippi’s response to the coronavirus crisis.
On Tuesday, Angie Juzang was named the 2021 winner of the award before hundreds of people who attended the ceremony at the Beau Rivage Resort & Casino.
The award by the Mississippi Gulf Coast Chamber of Commerce has been presented every year to a person who has made “outstanding and enduring contributions” to improving South Mississippi.
Juzang’s title is vice president of marketing and community relations at Memorial Hospital in Gulfport.
Over the past year, she’s been responsible for managing all media questions and requests, for implementing advertising for the hospital and coordinating corporate and community relations.
She previously held a similar position at Garden Park Medical Center in Gulfport and for years was an account executive at WLOX in Biloxi.
Juzang, the daughter of daughter of the late Dr. Gilbert R. Mason, a Mississippi civil rights leader, is perhaps is just as well known for her contributions to the community outside of her day job.
In 2013, she founded The Legacy Group, an organization dedicated to enhancing the economic prosperity of African American professionals and business owners and a few years later co-founded the Legacy Business League.
She served on the board of directors for the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Gulf Coast, the Gulfport Civil Service Commission, Goodwill Industries of South Mississippi and Gulfport NAACP.
She also was president of the Coast Chamber.
Adele Lyons, chamber CEO, calls Juzang “a go-getter” and someone to count on.
Lyons said, “She is the ultimate professional and a respected business leader and change agent.”
The 2020 award was presented posthumously to Coast restaurant owner Arturo Barajas, shortly before the coronavirus shutdown.
Past winners are:
- 2020: Arturo Barajas
- 2019: Dick Wilson
- 2018: Wes Fulmer
- 2017: Jerry Levens
- 2016: John Hairston
- 2015: Linda Watts
- 2014: Dorothy Wilson
- 2013: Elizabeth Joachim
- 2012: John McFarland
- 2011: Jon Lucas
- 2010: Gerald Blessey
- 2009: Duncan McKenzie
- 2008: Ricky Mathews
- 2007: Anthony Topazi
- 2006: Chevis Swetman
- 2005: Janice Young
- 2004: Mike Garrett
- 2003: Jim Williams
- 2002: Tim Hinkley
- 2001: Dwight Evans
- 2000: Ron Peresich
- 1999: Gene Warr
- 1998: George Thatcher
- 1997: Lucimarian Roberts
- 1996: George Schloegel
- 1995: Alton Bankston
- 1994: Bill Peden
- 1993: Bruce Stewart
- 1992: Jerry O’Keefe
- 1991: Pat Santucci
- 1990: Roland Weeks Jr.
- 1989: Walter Williams
This story was originally published May 11, 2021 at 1:30 PM.
