HARRISBURG (June 2000) -- Tanya Williams-Bell, co-founder, president and CEO of REJOICE! Inc. Foster Care & Adoption Agency in Harrisburg, was honored recently with the Pennsylvania Bar Association Young Lawyers Division Liberty Bell Award during the PBA Annual Meeting held last month in Hershey. This award is presented annually to a non-lawyer for outstanding community service.

�I can think of no person who is more deserving of the Liberty Bell Award than Tanya Williams-Bell,� said Kathryn Meloni, outgoing chair of the PBA Young Lawyers Division. �For all her selfless work with homeless and needy children, she truly �embodies the individualism, courage, enterprise and altruistic characteristics of leaders in a free society� that is the model for our Liberty Bell Award winners.�

Throughout her professional and personal life, Williams-Bell has been an advocate for children, helping them find adoptive and foster care homes. She has taken an active role in the community by training prospective parents about the needs of African-American children. She has raised community awareness of the plight of these children in the foster care and adoption systems as an independent speaker for many years.

For three years, she served as the regional adoption coordinator for the One Church, One Child program in Harrisburg. She then went on to found her own agency, REJOICE! Inc. Williams-Bell also has 15 children of her own: two biological and 13 adopted.

Williams-Bell is a member of the Statewide Adoption Network (SWAN) Advisory Committee and serves on the Redeemed Ministries Christian Magazine and Design Company Board of Directors. She has served on several other committees, including Almech Blacks in Government for Loyalty and Dedication to People in the Community, State Museum Exhibit Honoree in A �Maze� and Beyond, Governor�s Task Force for Expediting Finalizations and the SWAN Planning Committee.