Dr. and Mrs. John Makdisi established The Josephine Yalch Zekan Award for Best Publication Promoting Faith in Law in honor of Mrs. Makdisi’s mother in 1996. The award was given annually to a faculty member, student or alumnus/a of The University of Tulsa College of Law who, during the previous year, published the best article promoting faith in law.

In 2017, Dr. and Mrs. Makdisi changed the name and focus of the endowed award, renaming it The Josephine Yalch Zekan Award for Best Publication Promoting Faith and opening it to candidates who are faculty members, students or alumni in any academic discipline at The University of Tulsa who, during the previous year, published outstanding scholarly articles or books promoting faith in any academic or career field.

John Makdisi is a former dean of the TU College of Law and June Mary Makdisi is a proud TU Law alumna (JD ’95). Announcing the award upon his retirement in 1996, Dr. Makdisi said “her [Mrs. Zekan’s] faith in action was an inspiration to both of us in putting our own faith into action in the legal and teaching fields.”