Eisenhower Fellowships to honor its late Trustee Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright on May 19

Eisenhower Fellowships will award its highest honor, the Dwight D. Eisenhower Medal for Distinguished Leadership and Service, to its longtime Trustee, late Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, in recognition of her service as the nation's top diplomat and her role as a vocal champion of America's moral leadership in the world.

PHILADELPHIA, May 3, 2022 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Eisenhower Fellowships will award its highest honor, the Dwight D. Eisenhower Medal for Distinguished Leadership and Service, to its longtime Trustee, late Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, in recognition of her service as the nation's top diplomat and her role as a vocal champion of America's moral leadership in the world.

Albright, the first woman U.S. secretary of state, served as a Trustee of Eisenhower Fellowships (EF) for two decades before her death from cancer on March 21. The organization's Chairman, former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, will award Albright the medal posthumously at EF's Annual Awards Dinner at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia on May 19, 2022.

"Madeleine Albright was a great patriot and extraordinary public servant," said Gates. "A friend and colleague for more than forty years, Madeleine brought a special personal history and panache to her role as Secretary of State that made her a remarkable spokeswoman for the United States. Her voice in defense of democracy and America and its aspirations make her a worthy recipient of the prestigious Eisenhower Medal."

As U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and then as secretary of state in the administration of President Bill Clinton in the 1990s, Albright was known for her emphasis on American exceptionalism, describing the United States as the world's indispensable nation. That view remains relevant today, Gates noted, as the Western world confronts Russia's dangerously destabilizing war in Ukraine, the largest ground conflict in Europe since World War II.

Born in Czechoslovakia to a diplomat father who twice had to escape his country to avoid execution, fleeing the first time from Nazi troops in 1939 after the German invasion, then again in 1948 when Czech communists backed by the Soviet Union toppled the postwar government, Albright did not know until late in life that her family was Jewish and that she was raised Catholic to escape persecution.

She eventually learned that more than two dozen of her relatives were murdered at the hands of the Nazis during World War II. Ironically, her father, Josef Korbel, later became the professor and foreign policy mentor of former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice when she was a student at the University of Denver and the two women from opposing political parties remained lifelong friends.

The selection of Albright is only the third time in the organization's 69-year history that the Eisenhower Medal has been awarded posthumously. Katherine Graham, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and chairman of the Washington Post, was the recipient in 2002 after her death and Sen. John McCain was honored in 2019 after his passing.

"Secretary Albright's leadership and her example as a champion of a principled American engagement with the world inspire us as we face an uncertain new global landscape," said George de Lama, president of Eisenhower Fellowships. "Her plain-speaking, unpretentious, personal approach to our nation's foreign policy is in the best traditions of our organization of diverse, dynamic doers."

The Dwight D. Eisenhower Medal for Leadership and Service is awarded annually to a distinguished states person, business leader or other public figure who has achieved, through direct personal contacts across borders, widely-recognized advances toward President Eisenhower's vision of a world more peaceful, prosperous and just.

On the same evening, Gates also will present the Distinguished Fellow Award to two Eisenhower Fellows from India, Rajshree Pathy and Raman Madhok, for their work in reaching across borders to advance peaceful engagement with Pakistan and for helping combat the devastating effects of the Covid-19 pandemic in India.

Previous Eisenhower Medal winners include General Colin L. Powell; Sens. George Mitchell and Sam Nunn; former Secretaries of State James A. Baker III and Henry Kissinger; President George H.W. Bush; Mohammed Yunus; Doctors Without Borders; former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman; former U.S. Rep. Lee Hamilton; and former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, among others.

###

Now in its 69th year and named for America's 34th president, Eisenhower Fellowships brings together diverse, innovative leaders from all fields from around the globe who tackle the most pressing challenges of our time to better the world around them. Since its founding in 1953, more than 2,400 mid-career leaders from 115 countries have benefited from the unique, customized experience of an Eisenhower Fellowship.

Eisenhower Fellowships identifies, empowers and connects diverse, innovative leaders through a transformative fellowship experience and lifelong engagement in a global network of dynamic change agents committed to creating a world more peaceful, prosperous and just.

Media Contact

Erin Hillman, Eisenhower Fellowships, 215-546-1738, [email protected]

SOURCE Eisenhower Fellowships