The founder of the official Anglican Communion network Colleges & Universities of the Anglican Communion, Dr Linda Chisholm, has been awarded the organisation’s third Distinguished Fellowship. The network brings together further and higher education institutions from across the Anglican Communion. It was launched in Canterbury Cathedral in 1993, with Dr Chisholm as its first General Secretary. The honorary Distinguished Fellowship of the Colleges & Universities of the Anglican Communion is awarded to “individuals who model exceptional and active service to Anglican higher education globally”.

Dr Chisholm received her fellowship last month during a ceremony in her parish church, Grace Church in Nyack, New York.

“Without her vision, energy, hard work and consummate skill it was doubtful that CUAC would have ever existed”, the retired Bishop of Newcastle, Martin Wharton, a long-standing CUAC director, said.

The Fellowship’s citation said that “building on her pioneering work, co-founding with Howard Barry the International Partnership for Service Learning, she fashioned a network for Anglican colleges and universities optimising their global community.”

The current CUAC General Secretary, Canon James Callaway, presented Dr Chisholm with a certificate signed by the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, CUAC’s patron. She was joined at the ceremony by her husband, Alan Chisholm, two of their three daughters and a grand-daughter.

She is the third recipient of CUAC’s Distinguished Fellowship, following in the footsteps of Dr Maher Spurgeon, then chaplain at Madras Christian College in Chennai, India; and Dr Jeremy Law, Dean of Chapel at Canterbury Christ Church University in Canterbury, England.

“All three have travelled far and wide to strengthen and support Anglican colleges”, James Callaway said.

• This article was corrected on 12 March, the original incorrectly identified Bishop Martin Wharton.