Past Recipients

2025: Alyssa Vine, University Director of Credit for Prior Learning, CUNY

2020: Fabrice Jaumont, International Educator, Researcher, Author

2019: Eduardo Vilaro, CEO and Artistic Director, Ballet Hispánico

2018: The Trout Gallery, Dickinson College

2017: The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh

2015: Diane Rehm, The Diane Rehm Show, WAMU

2014: Clay Pell, 2013 Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Office of International and Foreign Language Education, USDOE

2013: Hon. Jack Markell, Governor of Delaware

2012: J. David Edwards, JNCL-NCLIS

2010: J.W. “Bill” Marriott, Marriott International

2009: Luma Mufleh, Fugees Family

2007: Hon. Paul S. Sarbanes, Senator from Maryland

2006: Taj Mahal and Carole Fredericks, (posthumous award)

2005: Hon. Rush Holt, Congressional Representative from New Jersey

2004: Brenda Lilienthal Welburn, Executive Director, National Association of State Boards of Education

2003: Ann M. Copland, Senior Executive and Legislative Assistant, Senator Thad Cochran (R-MS)

2002: Barbara Turlington, American Council on Education

2001: L. Jay Oliva, President, New York University

2000: Hon. Richard Riley, former Governor of South Carolina, Secretary of Education, U. S. Dept. of Ed.

1999: Sesame Street, Children’s Television Workshop

1998: Ken O’Keefe, Allegheny College

1997: Robert Orrill, The College Board

1996: Hon. David L. Boren, former Senator from Oklahoma; President, University of Oklahoma

1995: Hon. Madeleine May Kunin, former Governor of Vermont, Deputy Secretary of Education

1994: James Crawford, author and editor

1993: James Herbert, National Endowment for the Humanities

1992: Hon. Lois G. Pines, State Senator for Middlesex and Norfolk District, Massachusetts

1991: Scott McVay, Executive Director, Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation

1990: Leonard A. Lauder, President and CEO, Estae Lauder, Inc.

1989: The Southern Governors Conference

1988: Hon. Claiborne Pell, Senator from Rhode Island

1987: Hon. J. William Fulbright, former Senator from Arkansas

1986: Hon. Christopher J. Dodd, Senator from Connecticut

1985: Sylvia Porter, nationally syndicated columnist

1983: Hon. Leon E. Panetta, Congressional Representative from California

1980: Fred M. Hechinger, The New York Times Foundation

1979: President Jimmy Carter

1978: Hon. Paul Simon, Congressional Representative from Illinois