Barbara and Amos Hostetter are cofounders and trustees of the Barr Foundation of Boston, Massachusetts, among the largest private foundations in the New England region, with assets of $2.8 billion. Since its inception in 1997, Barr has granted over $1.5 billion, principally in its priority areas of the arts, climate, and education. Barbara Hostetter has served as chair of the board of trustees since Barr’s founding.

A pioneer of the cable television industry, Amos Hostetter cofounded Continental Cablevision and served as its chair and CEO from 1980–1996. During this period, Continental grew to become the third largest company in the cable television business. He was also a founding director and chairman of C-SPAN and, for his contributions to the cable industry, he was inducted into the Cable Television Hall of Fame. Among his civic leadership roles, Hostetter is chair emeritus of the boards of Amherst College and WGBH, and he has served on the boards of AT&T, Colonial Williamsburg Society, Nantucket Conservation Foundation, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, among others.

Barbara Hostetter is actively engaged in Boston’s cultural life through a variety of civic leadership roles. She is currently a trustee and chair of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and she serves as a trustee of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She is also a life trustee of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, where she served as president of the board for ten years. During her leadership tenure, she led the museum through a major expansion, with the new Renzo Piano-designed wing which opened in 2012. Her prior board service includes the New England Aquarium, Friends of the Public Garden, and Milton Academy.

Carol Colburn Grigor CBE lives in Dublin, Ireland, and travels extensively for both philanthropic and business purposes. Grigor is president of Dunard Fund USA, chair emeritus and board member of the Colburn School, and chair of the Colburn Foundation, which supports classical music through performances, presentations, education, and musician training in Southern California.

Her contributions to classical music and the visual arts have been recognized with numerous honors including Commander of the British Empire (CBE). She is an inaugural recipient of the Prince of Wales Medal for Philanthropy and has been admitted as a Chevalier into France’s Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Grigor received her Bachelor of Music from Indiana University School of Music and her Master of Musical Arts from Yale University School of Music. She also has received an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Edinburgh Napier University.

As a pianist, she performed extensively in the United States and Europe, before turning to family business activities and philanthropic initiatives in the United Kingdom, the United States, Europe, Australia, and now specifically in Ireland.

Grigor is a director of the Colburn Collection, the Colburn Music Fund, and Dunard Fund UK and a member of the board of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, the Marlboro Music Festival, and the Yale School of Music board of visitors. In August 2013, she was named honorary vice-president of the Edinburgh International Festival Society.

She is the founder and member of the Royal High School Preservation Trust in Edinburgh.

Comic Relief is a charity cofounded by Richard Curtis CBE and Sir Lenny Henry in reaction to devastation in Ethiopia and Sudan. Since its launch, the United Kingdom-based charity has raised over £1.6 billion to support projects in the U.K. and across the world. Comic Relief envisions a just world free from poverty, using the power of entertainment and popular culture to drive positive change.

The charity raises money to support organizations that are closest to the communities who can make change happen. Donations to the charity support work that will tackle the impact of poverty, injustice, conflict and climate change in the UK and around the world.

Their most well-known initiative is Red Nose Day, an annual fundraising event that raises money to support people in the UK and across the world who are facing the toughest times of their lives. On Red Nose Day, participants are encouraged to engage in light-hearted fundraising activities, such as charity challenges, bake sales, and tune into a spectacular night of TV — all while wearing the charity’s iconic Red Nose.

Richard Curtis CBE is a television and film writer, director, and philanthropist. A founding member of the Make Poverty History campaign, he also played a key role in Live 8, a series of benefit concerts held across the G8 states and South Africa. In 2015, he helped found Project Everyone, a nonprofit organization that supports the reach and implementation of the Global Goals. Curtis later helped launch Make My Money Matter, a campaign that advocated for sustainable investment in pensions and helped redirect £1.3 trillion toward ethical opportunities. Curtis’ entertainment career spans television shows, such as Blackadder, The Vicar of Dibley, and Mr. Bean, as well as films, including Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Love Actually, About Time, and Yesterday. His accolades include two Emmy Awards, two BAFTAs, and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Sir Lenny Henry began his career as a cult star on children’s television before rising to become one of Great Britain’s best-known television performers, as well as a writer, philanthropist, and stage actor. A passionate advocate for diversity in the arts, he established a media diversity center at Birmingham City University and cohosted the Black British Lives Matter podcast. In 2015, he was knighted for his contributions to drama and charity, and from 2016 to 2023, he served as a National Theatre trustee. He has authored two memoirs with Faber and a series of children’s books with Pan Macmillan. His acting career spans television (The Witcher: Blood Origin, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Broadchurch) and theatre (Fences, The Comedy of Errors, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui). In 2023, his ITV1 drama series Three Little Birds received critical acclaim, as did August in England, a one-man play he wrote and performed. Henry also runs Esmeralda, a drama production company, in partnership with Banijay Entertainment.

Joe Neubauer and Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer practice a distinctive style of entrepreneurial philanthropy that evolved from individual careers as agents of change. Together, the Neubauers collaborate to effect transformational change in education, public safety, and the arts.

Joe Neubauer is the former CEO and chairman of Aramark Corporation. By crafting a culture of customer service, he grew Aramark from $2.5 to $13 billion, operating in 16 countries. A trustee of the University of Chicago since 1992, he served as chair of the board from 2015 to 2022. During his tenure, the university rose in national rankings from 30th to third, through his emphasis on excellence in faculty recruitment and enabling the most talented students to attend regardless of family income.

Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer, a corporate communications specialist, has always been interested in the nexus of art, technology, and commerce. She created the first private television network in the financial services industry (before the Internet) for Merrill Lynch, managed global merger communications for Unisys, and helped Time Warner introduce the DVD, when it was a new technology. A trustee of the Metropolitan Opera House, she championed the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD simulcasts, which reach over 250,000 enthusiasts in more than 72 countries, reviving a global taste for opera in much younger audiences.

The Neubauer Family Foundation focuses on finding innovative solutions to systemic problems that can be tested, replicated, and scaled in ways that ensure progress continues without the foundation’s sole support. Initiatives include the Philadelphia Academy of School Leaders, which trains school principals in leadership and management to accelerate student achievement. A focus on ninth grade performance has raised graduation rates and broadened student career aspirations and attainment.

The foundation has similarly improved public safety by training precinct captains to use data to allocate scarce resources and build community trust and support. Gun violence has decreased, youth employment has increased, vacant lots have been greened, and community collaboration has solidified. Their arts leadership has revitalized the remarkable Barnes Foundation and will soon inaugurate Calder Gardens, exploring the work of artist Alexander Calder and his family. Their interests in Jewish continuity have resulted in three major Pew Research studies investigating trends in Jewish life, enabling a broad array of Jewish organizations to gauge the efficacy of their local efforts.

The opportunity to address challenges facing contemporary society using skills developed over a lifetime is a special privilege. Joe Neubauer and Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer are honored to join fellow Carnegie Medalists in this crucial, immensely satisfying work.

In response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake, award-winning Spanish-born American chef and restaurateur José Andrés founded World Central Kitchen (WCK). Cooking with others at a camp for displaced persons, Andrés, with the support of his wife, Patricia, along with business partner Rob Wilder and his wife, Robin, set out to use his gastronomic experience to provide hungry people with more than just relief during a disaster. The idea? To help spur urgent economic recovery through food.

Andrew Carnegie once said, “Wealth is not to feed our egos, but to feed the hungry and to help people help themselves.” He believed that philanthropy ought to challenge the causes of social ills rather than their expressions. WCK’s vision, centering the humanity of cooking and eating together, embodies this philosophy — to tackle causes, not symptoms — in the food economy. WCK’s work is made possible by volunteers, most of whom are local to the communities they serve. The WCK team mobilizes individuals with professional cooking experience, as well as anyone willing to work the lines, help with food purchases and deliveries, or simply serve a meal with a smile.

WCK is often first to the front lines. They have served more than 150 million fresh meals around the world, helping to feed the island of Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria and millions during the COVID-19 pandemic. They worked with the victims of the ruinous blast in Beirut and the bushfires in Australia. And WCK continues to build the largest food relief operation in Ukraine, sending trucks, trains, passenger cars, and vans across hundreds of cities and towns. WCK’s Resilience Programs strengthen sustenance security by creating systems that train chefs and school cooks, by advancing clean cooking practices, and by focusing grantmaking on farms, fisheries, and small businesses along with promoting educational and professional opportunities.

World Central Kitchen has expanded traditional notions of philanthropy, putting into practice a philosophy that views food as an agent for change. Through community-based mobilizations and the expansion of opportunities and resources, WCK fights hunger while enabling economic
stability, spreading knowledge, and mitigating the damage of future disasters. Their practice of gathering for meals, fostering community through the camaraderie of breaking bread together, is a graceful expression of “giving” that resonates for all.

WCK’s extraordinary operating model sets a powerful and inspirational example of empathy in action. The Selection Committee of the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy believes that the spirit of their life-enhancing work — meeting people in need where they are, building community through shared connections — is a match for the bountiful spirit of our founder, who said, “The happiness of giving happiness is far sweeter than the pleasure direct.” We are honored to present the inaugural Carnegie Catalyst Award to World Central Kitchen.

Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies represents a living tradition of giving that began at the family kitchen table. In 1967, Lynn and her late husband, Charles, pledged $500 to the United Jewish Appeal to support Israel during a moment of crisis. This was a significant financial sacrifice for the couple at the time, but giving back, even when they had little to spare, was a value they shared.

Today, Lynn Schusterman, chair emerita of Schusterman Family Philanthropies, and her daughter, Stacy, chair of the organization, remain committed to the values and lessons of Jewish ethics that have inspired the family’s philanthropic work from the very beginning: to pursue justice (tzedek), to repair the world (tikkun olam), and to treat all people with dignity and civility (derekh eretz).

Lynn Schusterman began the family foundation with her husband in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1987. Through her philanthropy, she has been recognized as a proud supporter of Israel, the Jewish people, and her family’s hometown of Tulsa; as an advocate for addressing child abuse and neglect; as a champion of educational opportunities for all young people; and as a pioneering funder of inclusion and equality. In 2011, Lynn Schusterman signed the Giving Pledge, a promise by the world’s wealthiest individuals and families to dedicate the majority of their wealth to charitable causes.

Stacy Schusterman, who became more involved with the family’s philanthropy in 2011 after serving as CEO at Samson Resources for over a decade, oversees approximately $400 million in annual grantmaking that is invested in shaping more just and inclusive societies in the U.S. and Israel. She continues the work her parents began to shape joyful and inclusive Jewish communities and to strengthen Israel as a secure homeland for the Jewish people and a thriving democracy. Under her leadership, Schusterman Family Philanthropies has prioritized the advancement of racial, gender, and economic equity in the U.S. through investments in K–12 education, gender and reproductive equity, democracy and voting rights, and criminal justice reform.

Over more than three decades, the Schusterman family has given more than $2 billion through their philanthropy. Among their many investments, they founded the Haruv Institute in Israel to provide training for professionals to address child abuse and neglect. They helped launch Repair the World to mobilize young Jewish adults and their communities through service and volunteerism. They have supported teacher development and the recruitment of teachers of color as part of their broader commitment to strengthening the U.S. education system. They are also major investors in Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and criminal justice reform, including through their partnership with the Blue Meridian donor collaborative. The Schustermans also invest deeply in the leadership and equality of women and girls, including through their involvement in the Collaborative for Gender + Reproductive Equity, and they have worked to help preserve safe, free, and fair access to voting.

In The Gospel of Wealth, Andrew Carnegie describes the thoughtful, positive administration of giving as yielding the “most beneficial results” for the community. The Selection Committee of the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy admires the generous optimism of the Schusterman family’s investments in building inclusive and thriving communities: they see possibility rather than impossibility in their work. Furthermore, we believe that the family’s commitment to principle is a meaningful example for faith-based communities and foundations that are seeking to empower and improve the lives of others. We applaud the Schustermans’ visionary legacy of giving; they — as did our founder with his farsighted philosophy of philanthropy — continue to make a deep and lasting impact on the communities they serve.

The Carnegie family of institutions is honored to welcome Lynn Schusterman and Stacy Schusterman as recipients of the 2022 Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy.

Lyda Hill believes that science is the solution to many of our most daunting challenges — and her philanthropy has been informed by that conviction as well as by her unique life journey. As a successful businesswoman and philanthropist, she invests in catalytic, solution-oriented initiatives that have the potential to impact global issues, reflecting her vision of mixing entrepreneurial vigor with a commitment to balancing profit with purpose. And yet, while taking on issues of national import, such as food security and safety, water conservation, urban green spaces, medical research, and public health, Hill remains dedicated to empowering nonprofit organizations that are improving the places closest to her heart: local communities in Colorado and Texas.

Hill began her career in 1967 when she founded Hill World Travel, a market-leading travel consultancy. She spent the early part of her career building that business, moving on to prioritize venture capital investments and volunteering after selling the company in 1982. Today, philanthropy is her passion and central focus.

Hill enjoyed tremendous success as an entrepreneur and businessperson, but her life was not without struggle. Because cancer claimed the lives of many in her own family, and as a breast cancer survivor herself, she began financing the type of scientific research that could — one day — lead to a cure. She recently funded the establishment of the Lyda Hill Department of Bioinformatics, the Lyda Hill Deanship of the School of Public Health, and the newly formed Department of Biomedical Engineering at the UT Southwestern Medical Center. The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Moon Shots Program, which works to combat and eliminate cancer, was also made possible by her generosity. These transformative gifts place both of these universities at the center of today’s innovations in biotechnology and medicine. Hill marvels at today’s preventive care options, most of which were nonexistent when she was first diagnosed — and she invests heavily in promising advances in medical research and care, launching a venture capital fund that brings breakthrough ideas to the marketplace quickly.

Hill was one of the few women named to the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s list of most generous donors in 2013, and the next year Forbes magazine singled her out as one of the top 15 entrepreneurs who give back to the community. She supports many nonprofits, including the Visiting Nurse Association, Texas 2036, Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute, the National Geographic Society, and many more. In the 1980s, Hill launched the Volunteer Connection, which promotes volunteerism in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. This enormously effective program brought her to the attention of President Ronald Reagan, who appointed her to the Advisory Council on Private Sector Initiatives, and has since been replicated across the country.

Hill has funded numerous conservation and community revitalization projects in Colorado and Texas, including the Nature Conservancy’s Mapping Ocean Wealth project, the Perot Museum of Nature and Science, the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge in Dallas, and the Garden of the Gods Visitor and Nature Center in Colorado Springs. Hill also works to cultivate a diverse generation of scientists and conservationists through the IF/THEN Initiative, which supports young girls and women who are pursuing STEM careers. In 2010, Hill signed the Giving Pledge, vowing to donate the entirety of her wealth to charity and to do so largely during her lifetime.

In The Gospel of Wealth, Andrew Carnegie wrote that the wealthy should erect “ladders upon which the aspiring can rise.” The Selection Committee of the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy celebrates the many “ladders” built by Lyda Hill as she carries out her philanthropic mission with visionary generosity. We believe that her unstinting service to society, year by year, is a splendid, scientific continuation of our founder’s commitment to using wealth for the good — for the “lasting good,” as Carnegie put it — of the greater community.

The Carnegie family of institutions is honored to welcome Lyda Hill as a recipient of the 2022 Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy.

Dolly Parton’s life story reads like a fairy tale. She was born in Sevier County, Tennessee, where people struggled to make ends meet and earning a living often took priority over getting an education. From this impoverished but culturally rich region came the woman who would go on to achieve global success as a singer-songwriter, actress, and businesswoman — and as one of the entertainment world’s most generous philanthropists.

Parton was the fourth in a family of 12 children, and her musical talents first emerged in the family’s one-room cabin. Her mother, the daughter of a preacher who played the fiddle, created an inspirational musical grounding for the family, entertaining her children with songs, storytelling, and Smoky Mountain folklore. Parton’s father, a sharecropper, farmer, and construction worker, was also a Pentecostal preacher, and the family was in church every Sunday. Parton made her public singing debut — in church — at the age of six. She continued to perform locally — to rising acclaim — on radio and television. The day after graduating from high school, Parton left home to pursue a musical career.

There were bumps along the road, but eventually, Parton’s hard work and musical genius would lead her to success beyond her wildest dreams. Parton has 47 career Top 10 country albums, a record for any artist, and 110 career-charted singles over the past five decades. With 26 songs reaching number one on the Billboard Country charts, Parton is the winner of 11 Grammys. The first country artist honored as Grammy MusiCares Person of the Year, in 2022 she received her 51st Grammy nomination. In addition to four People’s Choice Awards, three American Music Awards, the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and her induction as a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, Parton’s accomplishments include an Emmy Award, the authorship of a range of best-selling books, co-ownership of the Dollywood Company, and her role as founder of the Dollywood Foundation. In November, Parton will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Class of 2022.

Named to Forbes magazine’s 2022 list of America’s Richest Self-Made Women, Parton credits her savvy investment decisions to her father, who passed along his business acumen to his daughter. Providing career opportunities for the citizens of Sevier County, Dollywood Theme Park has become Parton’s most valuable asset — and is now the state’s most popular theme park, attracting three million visitors annually.

Parton founded the Dollywood Foundation in 1988 to inspire the children of her home county. The goal: to achieve educational success and decrease high school dropout rates. The foundation’s initial success launched what is now its flagship program, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. This children’s book-gifting program began by sending every child in Sevier County a free, age-appropriate book each month in the mail until they reached the age of five. Parton created the Imagination Library in honor of her father, who was illiterate, to make sure that all children had books in their home from the very start. She wanted the program to be stigma free, so Parton made sure that any child, regardless of background or income status, could receive books through the Imagination Library. To date, the program has gifted close to 200 million books across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Republic of Ireland, and the foundation has plans for further expansion.

Parton’s philanthropic work also includes donations to Vanderbilt University to fund pediatric infectious disease research and support for the development of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine. The Dollywood Foundation, through its My People Fund, supported hundreds of families who lost their homes during the 2016 wildfires in Sevier County, and also provides scholarship funds to local high school students to help further their education at any accredited university. Looking forward, the Dollywood Foundation continues to find ways to share the life and
legacy of Dolly Parton as an inspiration for children to dream more, learn more, care more,
and be more.

In The Gospel of Wealth, Andrew Carnegie urges us to ponder this question: Because of the life you are living, has “one small part of the great world … been bettered just a little”? The Selection Committee of the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy salutes Dolly Parton, who has done more than “a little.” With her philanthropy and her artistry, she has empowered and lifted up the citizens of her Tennessee home county as well as millions more around the world. We believe that her many philanthropic achievements embody the values of our founder, who, with us, would surely greet Parton with “affection, gratitude, and admiration.”

The Carnegie family of institutions is honored to welcome Dolly Parton as a recipient of the 2022 Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy.

For nearly 70 years, renowned businessman and philanthropist Manu Chandaria has dedicated himself to providing essential human services to long-overlooked communities in Africa.

Chandaria was born in Nairobi, Kenya, to Indian immigrants of modest means. His merchant father ensured that his children understood the pivotal role that education could play in their lives. Taking this guidance to heart, Chandaria embarked on a quest for knowledge that would take him from primary school in Kenya to secondary and undergraduate studies in India — and then on to the U.S., where he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering from the University of Oklahoma.

When Chandaria returned to Kenya in 1951, the family’s small business was expanding into the aluminum and steel industries. This positioning — bolstered by hard work and fierce dedication — became the platform from which the Comcraft Group would grow into a multibillion-dollar conglomerate with a presence today in over 40 countries. Chandaria applied his engineering skills and scholarly acumen to the company’s leadership, while going on to become founding chairman of the East African Business Council and the Kenya Private Sector Alliance.

Chandaria is a devoted follower of Jainism, and once the business was set on course, he turned to an important principle of his faith: service to others. Established in 1955, the Chandaria Foundation supports educational, health care, and life enrichment programs that continue to benefit thousands of Kenyans — and his family would eventually set up charitable trusts in many of the African countries in which Comcraft operates. Chandaria also chaired the Street Families Rehabilitation Trust Fund, which develops rehabilitative and preventive programs for homeless children and families. The recipient of six honorary degrees, Chandaria has also served in leadership roles at various Kenyan universities.

In addition to funding academic scholarships, Chandaria was instrumental in endowing the Chandaria School of Business at United States International University–Africa and the Chandaria Centre for Performing Arts at the University of Nairobi, among numerous other educational initiatives. The Chandaria Foundation also invests in the strengthening of health care infrastructures in Kenya, including support for the Chandaria Accident and Emergency Centre at Nairobi Hospital, the Chandaria Cancer and Chronic Disease Centre in Eldoret, and the Chandaria Medical Centre at Gertrude’s Children’s Hospital in Nairobi.

In an interview with African Philanthropy Forum, this celebrated advocate for service to society said, “The wealth that you have is not yours. You are only the trustee of the wealth you have.” Asked what he would change if he could live his life over, Chandaria responded with characteristic humility and compassion: he would have started serving others sooner.

In The Gospel of Wealth, Andrew Carnegie observed that the rich have it in their power to create “benefactions from which the masses of their fellows will derive lasting advantage.” The Selection Committee of the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy believes that Manu Chandaria’s farsighted generosity will continue to inspire and empower people in Kenya and across the African continent for generations to come. Indeed, the Chandaria Foundation’s projects have created a legacy of healthier and better-educated Africans while helping to mobilize the continent’s next generation of business leaders. We applaud Manu Chandaria’s many philanthropic achievements; they align beautifully with our founder’s philosophy of philanthropy.

The Carnegie family of institutions is honored to welcome Manu Chandaria as a recipient of the 2022 Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy.

Andrew Carnegie believed that the greatest gift of his philanthropy was the ability “to provide part of the means by which those who desire to improve may do so.” Through his philanthropy, Leonard Tow advocates for society’s most vulnerable, funding vital programs that strengthen communities and provide individuals with the opportunity for self-advancement.

As a young man, Dr. Tow set his sights beyond his working-class neighborhood during his studies at Brooklyn College. While there he met his wife, Claire, and earned a bachelor’s degree. He went on to obtain a PhD in economic geography from Columbia University.

After teaching for several years, Dr. Tow left academia for the private sector. His business ventures took him to far-flung locales in Africa, South Asia, and Europe. In the mid-1960s, he began working in the then-nascent cable industry, where he demonstrated his business acumen by helping to expand one early cable TV company’s customer base from 50,000 to 1 million subscribers over the course of several years.

Eventually, Dr. Tow decided to strike out on his own, starting Century Communications in the early 1970s with $22,000 and a line of credit. By 1999, it had grown to become the nation’s fifth-largest cable television company. After selling Century Communications, Dr. Tow decided to focus on growing the foundation he and his wife had earlier established.

Today, The Tow Foundation strives to help those in greatest need. It pursues that goal by supporting four grant-making domains: criminal and juvenile justice reform, medical research, higher education, and culture.

Through this multifaceted philanthropic approach, the foundation aims to promote racial equity, helping others to “achieve success in their own lives, to alleviate pain and suffering, and to offer opportunities for joy.” That commitment is exemplified at New York City’s renowned Public Theater, where the foundation supports multiple projects, including a dynamic partnership with Brooklyn College and a Mobile Unit that brings the Public’s programs into prisons, shelters, and community centers across the city’s five boroughs.

One of The Tow Foundation’s overarching goals is to reform the criminal justice system as well as to help former prisoners reintegrate into society through education, leadership development, employment, health care, housing, and arts programs.

Under the visionary leadership of Dr. Tow and the late Claire Tow, the foundation became and remains a champion for the dignity of the incarcerated. Today, the foundation continues to be a powerful expression of Dr. Tow’s determination to help build “a society where all people have the opportunity to enjoy a high quality of life and have a voice in their community.”

The Selection Committee believes that Andrew Carnegie would commend Dr. Tow’s support for self-empowerment and his vision of a more just world.

The Carnegie family of institutions is privileged to welcome Dr. Leonard Tow as a recipient of the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy.