2022 Wilson Award Honorees
PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Ryan McKenna
Phone: (202) 691-4217
ryan.mckenna@wilsoncenter.org
WASHINGTON – On Wednesday, June 15, 2022, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, chaired by Governor Bill Haslam, will present The Wilson Awards to five distinguished honorees. H.E. Iván Duque Márquez, President of the Republic of Colombia; H.E. Múte B. Egede, Prime Minister of Greenland; Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors; the Honorable Lisa Murkowski, United States Senator (R-AK); and the Honorable Gregory W. Meeks, United States Representative (D-NY) will be recognized at a ceremony and reception at The Willard International Hotel in Washington, D.C.
Jorge Woldenberg, CEO of the Corpac Group and member of the Global Advisory Council, is co-chair of the 2022 Wilson Awards Dinner.
“The Wilson Center Awards are intended to honor those who are showing leadership on key challenges,” said Ambassador Mark Green, Wilson Center President and CEO. “This year’s honorees have made exceptional contributions at a key moment in modern history.”
Born in Bogotá on August 1, 1976, Iván Duque Márquez was elected President of Colombia for the 2018-2022 constitutional term on June 17, 2018. The President will receive The Wilson Award for Global Public Service.
Múte B. Egede serves as the 17th Prime Minister of Greenland. He took office on April 23, 2021. He will receive The Wilson Award for Leadership Through Alliances.
Mary Barra will receive The Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship. She is Chair and Chief Executive Officer of General Motors. Prior to becoming CEO, Barra served as GM executive vice president, Global Product Development, Purchasing and Supply Chain, since August 2013, and as senior vice president, Global Product Development since February 2011.
Senator Lisa Murkowski will receive The Daniel Patrick Moynihan Award for Congressional Service. Murkowski is Alaska’s senior U.S. Senator, serving in that role since 2002. She is a third generation Alaskan, proudly serving as the first Alaskan-born senator. Murkowski serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee, the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and as Vice Chair of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.
Congressman Gregory W. Meeks (D-NY), now in his 13th term, is the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the first Black member of Congress to serve in that position. He will receive the second William Monroe Trotter Leadership Award.
The Wilson Awards are given to those individuals whose actions and accomplishments, either in their careers or through service, reflect President Woodrow Wilson’s belief that “there is no higher religion than human service. To work for the common good is the greatest creed.” Such individuals have been recognized worldwide by The Wilson Center since 1998. Previous recipients of The Wilson Award include former Vice President Dick Cheney, former Secretaries of State Dr. Henry Kissinger, General Colin Powell, Hillary Clinton, and Condoleezza Rice, and former Secretaries of Defense Ash Carter and Chuck Hagel, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Ambassador Nikki Haley.
The William Monroe Trotter Leadership Award was established by the Wilson Center in 2021 to recognize the vital role that African Americans have played in the formulation, implementation, and analysis of the foreign policy and national security of the United States. It is named after William Monroe Trotter (1872 – 1934), a graduate of Harvard University, civil rights leader, editor of the Boston-based Guardian newspaper, and co-founder of the Niagara Movement, a precursor to the NAACP. In 1914, Trotter confronted President Woodrow Wilson over his administration’s policies expanding the segregation of the federal civil service. Until his death in 1934, Trotter campaigned against the film Birth of a Nation, fought for the equal treatment of African American soldiers, presented demands for civil rights in France after World War One, and fought for Federal anti-lynching legislation. The inaugural recipient was Congresswoman Karen Bass (D-CA).
