Brooklyn Native and Harlem Resident Wins YMCA Black Achiever Award
Con Edison Employee Honored for Professional Achievements, Humanitarianism
A Con Edison employee and international humanitarian has earned a Black Achiever in Industry Award from the YMCA.
Tohma Gadson-Shaw, a department manager in Human Resources Labor & Wage, earned the recognition from the Harlem YMCA for her professional accomplishments, leadership and humanitarian service.
Gadson-Shaw grew up in the Brownsville and Bedford-Stuyvesant sections of Brooklyn, attending Martin Luther King Jr. High School in Manhattan. She now lives in Harlem.
Gadson-Shaw began her Con Edison career in 2007 as a specialist in Employee and Labor Relations. She now works on initiatives such as handling inquiries from the Department of Labor, ensuring adherence to Con Edison’s standards of conduct, and generating statistical data.
“I feel fortunate to work on behalf of Con Edison customers alongside such incredibly dedicated and talented women and men,” Gadson-Shaw said. “Once I leave work, I get gratification out of helping others strengthen their spirituality, stay safe and well, and keep their communities vibrant.”
She has shown compassion for people in her own community and for those in need in far-away places. She has volunteered with food banks, local police precincts, and her church. She has served as a volunteer in annual community prayers, Adopt-a-Block Day events in Harlem and other charitable causes.
In 2008, she travelled with a group to Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa to donate school supplies and clothes to two orphanages and help rebuild a library. In 2016, she went to Hyderabad and Rajahmundry, India to deliver toiletries and clothing and to minister to the needs of people in quarantine due to illness.
Gadson-Shaw earned a bachelor's degree in criminal justice and sociology from Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, N.C. and a master's degree in criminal justice: urban studies from Michigan State University.