Named for our beloved “Mom,” The Rosalie Wynn Hearst Distinguished Public Service Award recognizes individuals who have made a positive, substantive impact on public discourse in the United States. Each year, the USSYAA Board of Directors invites distinguished Americans to accept this award at our annual reception in Washington, DC.
2024: NIAID Director Dr. Anthony S. Fauci
Anthony S. Fauci, MD is an American physician-scientist and a Distinguished University Professor in the Georgetown University School of Medicine’s Department of Medicine. He holds an additional appointment in the university’s McCourt School of Public Policy. Previously, Dr. Fauci served as Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, from 1984 to 2022. Dr. Fauci was a key advisor to seven Presidents on global HIV/AIDS issues, and on preparedness against emerging infectious disease threats. He also served as the Chief Medical Advisor to President Joe Biden. Dr. Fauci was one of the principal architects of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which has helped save more than 25 million lives throughout the developing world.
Dr. Fauci is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and many other professional societies. He has received numerous awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the National Medal of Science, and the Mary Woodard Lasker Award for Public Service. He has been awarded 62 honorary doctoral degrees from universities in the United States and throughout the world, and is the author, coauthor, or editor of more than 1,400 scientific publications.
2023: Secretary Robert Gates
Robert Gates served as the 22nd secretary of defense (2006-2011). He is the only secretary of defense in U.S. history to be asked to remain in office by a newly elected president. Dr. Gates served eight U.S. presidents across both parties. On Gates’s last day in office, President Barack Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honor.
Before becoming secretary of defense in 2006, Gates was the president of Texas A&M University, one of the nation’s largest universities.
Gates served in the CIA for nearly 27 years, culminating in his service as director of Central Intelligence from 1991 to 1993. He is the only career officer in the CIA’s history to rise from entry-level employee to director. He spent nearly nine years on the National Security Council at the White House, serving four administrations across both parties.
Gates has been awarded the National Security Medal, the Presidential Citizens Medal, has three times received the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal, and has three times received the CIA’s highest award, the Distinguished Intelligence Medal.
Gates currently is a principal at the consulting firm Rice, Hadley, Gates & Manuel, LLC, with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley. Additionally, he is Chancellor of William & Mary, his alma mater. He has served on various public boards, including Starbucks, the NCAA, the American Council on Education, and the Boy Scouts of America. Gates has authored four books, covering his experiences at the CIA and at the Pentagon, leadership, and US nonmilitary instruments of power.
2022: Senator Blanche Lincoln
On November 3, 1998, Senator Blanche L. Lincoln made history when she became the youngest woman ever elected to the United States Senate at the age of 38—a milestone that still exists today. She made history again on September 9, 2009 when she became the first female ever to serve as Chair of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry Committee.
During her 16-year career in the U.S. Congress—first as a two-term member of the House of Representatives and then as a two-term member of the U.S. Senate—Lincoln built a reputation as a results-oriented, bipartisan legislator. She served on several Committees in Congress, including the House Agriculture Committee, the House Energy & Commerce Committee, the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, & Forestry Committee, the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee, the Senate Special Committee on Aging, and the Senate Finance Committee. She continues to be recognized as a national leader in the areas of agriculture, anti-hunger, aging, health care, international trade, taxes, and energy policy.
As one of the Finance Committee’s top-ranking Democrats, Lincoln was named the first woman Democratic Senator to lead a Finance Committee Subcommittee. During her time on the Finance Committee, she went on to Chair two Subcommittees and helped develop and pass legislation reducing taxes, improving health care, and expanding trade.
As a senior member of the Energy & Natural Resources Committee, Senator Lincoln worked to produce bipartisan legislation, improving energy efficiency and enhancing domestic energy supplies—including nuclear and renewable sources.
In her fight against hunger, she founded the Senate Hunger Caucus and used her Chairmanship of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee to author and enact the largest investment in child nutrition programs in history. The new law was deficit neutral, established nutritional standards for school lunches for the first time, received strong bipartisan support, and was signed into law by President Barack Obama.
As a farmer’s daughter, she became known as a champion of production agriculture who fought to ensure that producers were able to continue to provide the safest, most abundant, and affordable supply of food to meet the global needs of the 21st century.
Today, she is the Founder and a Principal of Lincoln Policy Group, a consulting firm that assist its clients in successfully navigating the legislative and regulatory bureaucracies of the federal government.
Senator Lincoln is a native of Helena, Arkansas. She received a bachelor’s degree from Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in Lynchburg, Virginia.
2021: Secretary Leon E. Panetta
A Monterey native and Santa Clara University School of Law graduate, Secretary Leon E. Panetta began his long and distinguished public service career in 1964 as a First Lieutenant in the United States Army, and upon discharge went to work in Washington as a legislative assistant to United States Senate Minority Whip Tom Kuchel of California. In 1969, he was appointed director of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare’s Office for Civil Rights, where he was responsible for enforcing equal education laws. Later, he served as executive assistant to the mayor of New York City. He then returned to Monterey, where he practiced law until his election to the United States House of Representatives in 1976.
Serving in Congress for sixteen years, Secretary Panetta was a key participant in agriculture, healthcare, ocean and federal budget issues. From 1989 to 1993, he chaired the House Budget Committee. He authored a wide range of legislation, including the Hunger Prevention Act of 1988, Medicare and Medicaid coverage for hospice care for the terminally ill, and numerous measures to protect the California coast, including creation of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.
In 1993, Secretary Panetta left Congress to serve as director of the Office of Management and Budget for the Clinton administration. There, he was instrumental in developing the policies that led to a balanced federal budget and eventual surpluses. In 1994, he accepted appointment as the president’s chief of staff, and immediately brought order and focus to White House operations.
Upon leaving the Clinton administration in 1997, Secretary Panetta joined with his wife Sylvia to establish and co-direct The Panetta Institute for Public Policy, based at California State University, Monterey Bay. Reflecting Secretary Panetta’s own ideals and personal example, the nonpartisan, not-for-profit study center seeks to attract thoughtful men and women to lives of public service and prepare them for the policy challenges of the future.
Returning to public service in the Obama administration as director of the CIA, he ran the operation that brought Osama bin Laden to justice, and, as Secretary of Defense, led the effort to develop a new defense strategy, helped bring two wars to an end, and opened up opportunities for everyone to serve in the military.
Secretary Panetta returned to the Panetta Institute as chairman on February 27, 2013, and resumed his role as moderator of the renowned Leon Panetta Lecture Series. He chronicles his life in public service in his best-selling memoir Worthy Fights, which was published in 2014.
2020: Secretary Chuck Hagel
Chuck Hagel was the 24th Secretary of Defense, serving from February 2013 to February 2015. He is the only Vietnam veteran and the first enlisted combat veteran to serve as Secretary of Defense.
Hagel served two terms in the United States Senate (1997-2009) representing the state of Nebraska. Hagel was a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations; Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs; and Intelligence Committees. He Chaired the Foreign Relations International Economic Policy, Export and Trade Promotion Subcommittee; and the Banking Committee’s International Trade and Finance, and Securities Subcommittees. Hagel also served as the Chairman of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China and the Senate Climate Change Observer Group.
Previously, Secretary Hagel was a Distinguished Professor at Georgetown University, Co-Chairman of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, and Chairman of the Atlantic Council. He served as a member of the Secretary of Defense’s Policy Board, Secretary of Energy’s Blue Ribbon Commission on the Future of Nuclear Power, Systemic Risk Council Board of Directors; and as a member of the Board of Directors of Chevron.
Prior to his election to the U.S. Senate, Hagel was president of McCarthy & Company, an investment banking firm in Omaha, Nebraska. In the mid-1980’s, Hagel co-founded VANGUARD Cellular Systems, Inc., a publicly traded corporation. He was President and CEO of the World USO, Private Sector Council (PSC), and Chief Operating Officer of the 1990 Economic Summit of Industrialized Nations (G-7 Summit). Hagel also served as Deputy Administrator of the Veterans Administration under President Ronald Reagan and Deputy Commissioner General of the 1982 World’s Fair.
Some of Hagel’s current commitments include service on the Board of Trustees of RAND; Advisory Board of Corsair Capital; Senior Advisor to GALLUP and to the McCarthy Group; Centennial Scholar, Georgetown Walsh School of Foreign Service; Distinguished Scholar, University of Nebraska at Omaha; Distinguished Statesman at the Atlantic Council; Board of Directors of Public Broadcasting Service (PBS); Director and Founding Member of the American Security Project; and Advisory Board Chairman of the HillVets Veterans Organization.
He is the author of the book, America: Our Next Chapter and was the subject of a 2018 book by General Daniel Bolger entitled, Our Year of War, and a 2006 book by Charlyne Berens entitled, Chuck Hagel: Moving Forward. He is a graduate of the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Hagel and his wife, Lilibet, have a daughter (Allyn) and son (Ziller).
2019: Senator Tom Daschle
Born in Aberdeen, South Dakota, Thomas Andrew Daschle attended South Dakota State University, graduating in 1969. He then served for three years as an intelligence officer in the US Air Force Strategic Command. Following his military service, he spent five years as an aide to South Dakota Senator James Abourezk. After leaving the Senate in 2005, Senator Daschle joined Alston & Bird LLP as a special policy advisor and then went on to work in the same role at DLA Piper before establishing The Daschle Group in 2014. The Daschle Group, a Public Policy Advisory of Baker Donelson, is a full-service strategic advisory firm that advises clients on a broad array of economic, policy and political issues.
Senator Daschle has participated in the development and debate of almost every major public policy issue of the last three decades. In 1978, he was elected to the US House of Representatives, where he served for eight years. In 1986, he was elected to the US Senate and was chosen as Senate Democratic Leader in 1994. Senator Daschle is one of the longest serving Senate Democratic leaders in history and one of only two to serve twice as both Majority and Minority Leader.
During his tenure, Senator Daschle navigated the Senate through some of its most historic economic and national security challenges. In 2003, he chronicled some of these experiences in his book, Like No Other Time: The 107th Congress and the Two Years That Changed America Forever. In the 2013 release of The US Senate: Fundamentals of American Government, Senator Daschle explores the inner workings of this important part of the legislative branch. In his latest book, Crisis Point, Senator Daschle and former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott explore the political gridlock in Washington and offer their vision for moving the country forward.
Since leaving the Senate, Senator Daschle has remained an active and learned voice among policy-makers. As a well-known expert on health policy reform, he has written two books: Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis and Getting It Done: How Obama and Congress Finally Broke the Stalemate to Make Way for Health Care Reform.
Senator Daschle has also emerged as a leading thinker on climate change, food security and renewable energy policy. He serves on both advisory and governing boards of a number of corporate and non-profit organizations and a Panel Member on the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense.
In 2007, Senator Daschle joined with former Majority Leaders George Mitchell, Bob Dole and Howard Baker to create the Bipartisan Policy Center, an organization dedicated to finding common ground on some of the pressing public policy challenges of our time. Senator Daschle is Chair of the Board of Directors at the Center for American Progress and Vice-Chair for the National Democratic Institute. He serves on the board of Edward M. Kennedy Institute and the LBJ Foundation. He also is a member of the Health Policy and Management Executive Council at the Harvard School of Public Health and the Council of Foreign Relations.
He is married to Linda Hall Daschle and has three children and six grandchildren.
2018: Max Stier, Partnership for Public Service
Max Stier is the founding president and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service. Under his leadership, the Partnership has been widely praised as a first-class nonprofit organization and thought leader on federal government management issues.
Max has worked previously in all three branches of the federal government. In 1982, he served on the personal staff of Congressman Jim Leach. Max clerked for Chief Judge James Oakes of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 1992 and clerked for Justice David Souter of the United States Supreme Court in 1994. Between these two positions, Max served as Special Litigation Counsel to Assistant Attorney General Anne Bingaman at the Department of Justice.
In 1995, Max joined the law firm of Williams & Connolly where he practiced primarily in the area of white collar defense.
Max comes most recently from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, having served as the Deputy General Counsel for Litigation.
A graduate of Yale University and Stanford Law School, Max is a member of the National Academy of Public Administration, the Administrative Conference of the United States and the National Advisory Board for Public Service at Harvard College.
2017: Brian P. Lamb, C-SPAN
Brian Lamb is the Executive Chairman and founder of the C-SPAN Networks. He’s been an integral part of C-SPAN since he helped the cable industry launch it 38 years ago on March 19, 1979, serving as the network’s CEO until March of 2012.
Today, C-SPAN employs approximately 270 people and delivers public affairs programming via three HD television channels nationally to cable and satellite customers; globally to Internet users via C-SPAN.org and 15 other internet sites; and to radio listeners through C-SPAN radio—a Washington, D.C FM station also available through a C-SPAN app and numerous digital audio services.
Brian has been a regular on-air presence at C-SPAN since the network’s earliest days. Over the years, he has interviewed Presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama and many world leaders such as Margaret Thatcher and Mikhail Gorbachev. Over 15 years beginning in 1989, he interviewed 800 non-fiction authors for a weekly program called Booknotes. Five books of collected interviews have been published based on the Booknotes series. Currently, Brian hosts Q & A, an hour-long interview program airing on Sunday evenings with people who are making things happen in the public sphere.
Brian Lamb is a Hoosier, born and raised in Lafayette, Indiana. Interested in broadcasting as a child, he built crystal radio sets to pick up local signals. During high school and college, he sought out jobs at Lafayette radio and television stations, spinning records, selling ads, and eventually hosting his own television program. After graduating from Purdue with a degree in speech, Brian joined the Navy. His tour included the USS Thuban, White House duty during the Johnson Administration and a stint in the Pentagon public affairs office during the Vietnam War.
In 1967, his Navy service complete, Brian went home to Lafayette. It wasn’t long before he returned to the nation’s capital where he worked as freelance reporter for UPI radio, a Senate press secretary and in the White House Office of Telecommunications Policy as national strategy was being developed for communications satellites.
In 1974, Brian returned to journalism, publishing a biweekly newsletter called The Media Report. He also covered telecommunications issues as Washington bureau chief for Cablevision magazine. It was from this vantage point that C-SPAN began to take shape. Congress was about to televise its proceedings; the cable industry was looking for programming to deliver to its customers by satellite. Brian brought these two ideas together with C-SPAN, which launched with the first televised House of Representatives debate on March 19, 1979. In 1986, C-SPAN2 was launched to carry Senate debates live. Later C-SPAN nonfiction editorial products include BookTV and American History TV.
Brian’s work with C-SPAN has been recognized with the Presidential Medal of Honor and the National Humanities Medal. In 2011, Purdue University recognized its alumnus with the formation of the Brian Lamb School of Communication.
Brian and his wife Victoria are longtime residents of Arlington, Virginia. When he’s not reading newspapers or non-fiction books, Brian is often in hot pursuit of the latest country music release.
2016: Jo Ann Jenkins, AARP
Jo Ann Jenkins is a nationally recognized leader and dynamic change agent with a 25-year track record of growth and innovation at some of the nation’s largest public and nonprofit organizations. As CEO of AARP, she is at the helm of the world’s largest nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization, where she leads a nationwide network of staff, volunteers and partners helping the more than 100 million Americans 50 and older achieve health security, financial resilience and personal fulfillment. Her signature rallying cry to Disrupt Aging! is designed to revolutionize society’s views on aging by driving a new social consciousness and sparking innovative solutions for all generations.
Jenkins, a proven innovator, joined AARP in 2010 as president of AARP Foundation, AARP’s affiliated charity. She led that organization’s far-reaching development and social impact initiatives, including Drive to End Hunger, a national effort by AARP and AARP Foundation to help the millions of older Americans who struggle with hunger every day. Under her leadership, the foundation’s overall donor base increased by 90 percent over two years. Prior to joining AARP Foundation, she served on the board of directors of AARP Services Inc., beginning in 2004 and becoming its chair in 2008.
She came to AARP Foundation from the Library of Congress, where she served as chief operating officer, responsible for managing the library’s day-to-day operations, its 4,000-person staff and its budget in excess of $1 billion. During her 15-year tenure, she developed and directed the library’s most high-profile projects, including the renowned National Book Festival and the Library of Congress Experience.
Her federal career began at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and she was rapidly promoted to progressively more responsible leadership positions in the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Department of Agriculture’s Office of Advocacy and Enterprise. Jenkins was a delegate and founding fellow to the U.S.-Japan Leadership Program, a 1999 graduate of Leadership America and a Malcolm Baldrige fellow (2013). She serves as a member of the National Advisory Board of Caring for Military Families. She received the Black Women’s Agenda Economic Development Award in 2013 for spearheading investments undergirding innovative social impact programs and is the recipient of the 2014 Peace Corps Director’s Award. Jo Ann is one of the NonProfit Times’ Power and Influence Top 50 for 2013, 2014 and 2015, as well as winner of SmartCEO’s 2015 BRAVA award honoring top female chief executives. Washington Life Magazine named her one of its Power 100 in 2015.
A native of Mobile, Alabama, she earned her B.S. from Spring Hill College. She is a 1998 graduate of the Stanford Executive Program, offered by the university’s Graduate School of Business, and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters by Washington College in May 2014.
2015: Senator Richard Lugar
Senator Richard G. Lugar is a fifth generation Hoosier who served 36 years in the United States Senate. He retired in January 2013 as the longest serving member of Congress in Indiana history and the 17th longest serving Senator in U.S. history. He is one of only two members to serve 32 years on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. From 1985 until 2013, he served continuously as either chairman or ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relation Committee or the Senate Agriculture Committee.
During his tenure in the United States Senate, he exercised leadership on critical issues such as nuclear non-proliferation, global food security, energy independence, foreign assistance reform, NATO expansion, and immigration reform. He played an instrumental role in enacting U.S. sanctions on the Apartheid government of South Africa, and he was a key figure in establishing U.S. opposition to the Marcos regime’s attempt to steal the 1986 election in the Philippines. He led numerous efforts to ratify arms control treaties including the INF Treaty, the Chemical Weapons Convention, and the New START Treaty.
In 1991, Senator Lugar forged a bipartisan partnership with Senator Sam Nunn (D-GA) to pass and implement the Nunn-Lugar Program, which was devoted to securing and destroying weapons of mass destruction in the former Soviet Union. This effort grew into a cornerstone of U.S. non-proliferation efforts worldwide and earned Lugar and Nunn multiple Nobel Peace Prize nominations.
As chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Lugar built bipartisan support for 1996 federal farm program reforms, ending 1930s era federal production controls. He also led initiatives to streamline the U.S. Department of Agriculture, reform the food stamp program and preserve the federal school lunch program.
Lugar graduated first in his class at both Shortridge High School in Indianapolis and Denison University in Granville, Ohio. He attended Pembroke College at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, studying politics, philosophy and economics. Lugar volunteered for the U.S. Navy in 1957, ultimately serving as an intelligence briefer for Admiral Arleigh Burke, chief of Naval Operations.
As the two-term mayor of Indianapolis (1968-75), he envisioned the unification of the city and surrounding Marion County into one government. Unigov, as Lugar’s plan was called, set the city on a path of uninterrupted economic growth.
Senator Lugar holds 46 honorary degrees from colleges and universities in 15 states and the District of Columbia. He is one of the few individuals in history to be honored with both the Presidential Medal of Freedom and an Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Lugar and his wife, Charlene, were married Sept. 8, 1956, and have four sons and 13 grandchildren.
2014: Governor Bill Richardson
William Blaine “Bill” Richardson III has enjoyed a very successful and fulfilling career in public service, academia, and the private sector, and has been nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize. He sought the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in 2008.
Richardson was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1982, representing northern New Mexico’s newly-created 3rd Congressional District. During his 15 years in Congress, Richardson served as a special envoy on many sensitive international missions, and successfully won the release of hostages, American servicemen, and prisoners in North Korea, Iraq, Cuba, and Sudan.
In 1997, Richardson was appointed U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, and in 1998, he was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy. In 2001, after the conclusion of the Clinton administration, Richardson assumed the chairmanship of Freedom House, a private, non-partisan organization that promotes democracy worldwide. He also worked as a business consultant in Santa Fe and served on several boards including the Natural Resource Defense Council and United Way International.
In 2002, Richardson was elected governor of New Mexico and re-elected in 2006 with the support of 69 percent of voters, representing the largest margin of victory for any governor in state history. As governor, Richardson’s bold governing style moved New Mexico forward in several important areas, including clean energy, education, public safety, environment, transportation, healthcare, and $1 billion in tax cuts for New Mexicans. Richardson’s second term was completed in January 2011.
Since entering life as a private citizen in 2011, Richardson was named chairman of APCO Worldwide’s executive advisory service Global Political Strategies (GPS) and Special Envoy for the Organization of American States (OAS), adding another platform for initiatives within peace and reconciliation in the Western hemisphere. In addition, Richardson serves as Senior Fellow for Latin America at Rice University’s James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy and has joined several nonprofit and for-profit boards, including Abengoa’s International Advisory Board, the fifth largest biofuels producer in the United States, WRI World Resources Institute, Refugees International, and the National Council for Science and the Environment.
Bill Richardson has authored two books, Between Worlds and Leading by Example. Richardson has been married to his high school sweetheart, Barbara, for 38 years. Richardson received a BA from Tufts in 1970 and an MA from Tuft’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in 1971.
2013: Mary E. Walsh
A graduate of the University of Texas where she was editor of the Daily Texan, Mary E. Walsh began her career as a journalist at the Rome Daily American in Italy in 1977. Ms. Walsh moved to CBS News in 1979 as assistant to the Political Director in Washington, D.C. She covered Geraldine Ferraro’s vice presidential campaign in 1984 and Vice President George H.W. Bush’s presidential campaign in 1988.
As CBS News producer in Tokyo from 1989 to 1993, Ms. Walsh was responsible for news coverage in all parts of Asia, with focus on China, Korea, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Japan. She was based in New York in 1987-89 and Atlanta in 1985-87. Highlights from those years include covering the explosion of space shuttle Challenger, the bombing of Pan Am 103, and countless hurricanes.
Ms. Walsh is currently the national security producer for CBS News. Her work includes producing stories for the CBS Evening News, CBS Sunday Morning, and 60 Minutes. She has been assigned to the Pentagon since 1993 and has covered the American military throughout the United States and in many parts of the world, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Turkey, Somalia, Bosnia, Haiti, Germany, the Philippines, and Korea.
She has received two Alfred I. DuPont awards from Columbia University, three Emmy awards, an Overseas Press Club Award, the Joan Shorenstein Barone Award for Excellence in Journalism, a Wilber Award from the Religious Communicators Council, and the University of Texas School of Communication 2010 Distinguished Alumnus Award.
2012: Marian Wright Edelman
Founder and President of the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF), Mrs. Edelman has been an advocate for disadvantaged Americans for her entire professional life. Under her leadership, CDF has become one of the nation’s strongest voices for children and families.
Mrs. Edelman began her career in the mid-60s when, as the first black woman admitted to the Mississippi Bar, she directed the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund office in Jackson, Mississippi. In 1968, she moved to Washington, D.C., as counsel for the Poor People’s Campaign that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. began organizing before his death.
She founded the Washington Research Project, a public interest law firm and the parent body of the CDF. In 2000, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award. Mrs. Edleman is married to Peter Edelman, a Professor at Georgetown Law School, who accepted the award on her behalf. They have three sons, Joshua, Jonah, and Ezra; two granddaughters, Ellika and Zoe; and two grandsons, Elijah and Levi.
2011: Senator Bob Dole
Bob Dole was born in Russell, Kansas, on July 22, 1923. He has a daughter, Robin, and is married to former cabinet member and former U.S. Senator Elizabeth Hanford Dole of North Carolina. Senator Dole attended the University of Kansas, where he played basketball for the legendary coach Phog Allen. WWII interrupted his education and Dole sustained critical injuries from enemy fire while leading his platoon from the famed 10th Mountain Division of the U.S. Army. After making a remarkable but prolonged recovery, Dole eventually earned his Juris Doctorate from Washburn University School of Law, and represented the State of Kansas as a member of Congress for over 35 years. He is the longest-serving Senate Majority Leader for the Republican Party, and was the Republican vice presidential nominee in 1976 and presidential nominee in 1996.
As an ardent supporter and former co-chair of the United States Senate Youth Program, Senator Dole enjoyed meeting numerous classes of program delegates. He was honored for his life-long commitment to public service and his continued promotion of civic engagement and education in establishing the Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas and for serving as National Chairman for the National WWII memorial. The United States Senate Youth Alumni Association is proud to honor an American legend who believes in offering public opportunities so that all individuals may discover how they might best serve their community, their state, and their nation. The award was accepted on his behalf by his wife, Senator Elizabeth Dole.
2010: Justice Sandra Day O’Connor
Sandra Day O’Connor, Associate Justice (Retired), was born in El Paso, Texas, on March 26, 1930. She married John Jay O’Connor III in 1952 and has three sons, Scott, Brian, and Jay. She received her B.A. and LL.B. from Stanford University. She served as Deputy County Attorney of San Mateo County, California, from 1952-1953 and as a civilian attorney for Quartermaster Market Center, Frankfurt, Germany, from 1954-1957. From 1958-1960, she practiced law in Maryvale, Arizona, and served as Assistant Attorney General of Arizona from 1965-1969. She was appointed to the Arizona State Senate in 1969 and was subsequently reelected to two two-year terms. In 1975 she was elected Judge of the Maricopa County Superior Court and served until 1979, when she was appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals. President Reagan nominated her as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and she took her seat September 25, 1981. Justice O’Connor retired from the Supreme Court on January 31, 2006.
Following her retirement, Justice O’Connor has spearheaded the Our Courts project for middle school students, which seeks to improve civics education through the use of online games and simulations. Her most recent book is 2009’s Finding Susie, a semi-autobiographical children’s narrative. In 2009, Justice O’Connor received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama.