Walter and Leonore Annenberg Excellence in Diplomacy Award
The Walter and Leonore Annenberg Award for Excellence in Diplomacy is an annual award given by the American Academy of Diplomacy in recognition of an individual or group who has made exemplary contributions to the field of American diplomacy. It is the Academy’s highest honor and its purpose is to highlight the important contribution of all aspects of diplomacy to the nation’s business.
The Award is presented at the Academy’s Annual Awards Luncheon at the State Department in the fall, during which the recipient acts as keynote speaker. Recipients of the Annenberg Award are recommended by the Academy’s Executive Committee and are approved by the Board of Directors.
Recipients of the Annenberg Award:
2023: Marie “Masha” Yovanovitch
U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Kyrgyz Republic, and Armenia
2022: Thomas R. Pickering
U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, U.S. Ambassador and Representative to the United Nations, U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation, India, Israel, El Salvador, Nigeria, and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
2021: All U.S. Government Personnel Engaged in the Evacuation of Afghanistan
2020: Jimmy Carter
39th President, 76th Governor of Georgia, former Georgia Senator, and Carter Center co-founder
2019: John Negroponte
Deputy Secretary of State, Director of National Intelligence, Ambassador to Honduras, Mexico, the Philippines, the United Nations, and Iraq
2018: James A. Baker, III
13th and 19th White House Chief of Staff and 61st United States Secretary of State
2017: William J. Perry
The 19th United States Secretary of Defense
2016: Robert B. Zoellick
Former World Bank Group President & U.S. Trade Representative
2015: William J. Burns
Under Secretary of State
2014: Carla A. Hills
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
2013: George P. Shultz
Secretary of State
2012: Richard G. Lugar
Senator
2011: Robert Gates
Secretary of Defense
2010: Harold Saunders
Director of international affairs, the Kettering Foundation
2009: William Lacy Swing
Director General, International Organization for Migration (IOM)
2008: Ryan C. Crocker
Ambassador to Iraq
2007: Christopher Hill
Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs
2006: Max M. Kampelman
Head of the United States Delegation to the Negotiations with the Soviet Union on Nuclear and Space Arms
2005: Men and Women of the Foreign and Civil Service
Accepted by Under Secretary R. Nicholas Burns
2004: Joseph J. Sisco
Former Undersecretary of State
2003: John Danforth
Former Senator
2002: Colin L. Powell
Secretary of State
2001: Kofi Annan
UN Secretary-General
2000: Richard Lugar & Sam Nunn
Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program
1999: Stuart Eizenstat
Deputy Secretary of the Treasury
1998: George Mitchell
Peace Negotiations on Northern Ireland
1997: George F. Kennan
Lifetime Contributions to Diplomacy
1996: Dennis Ross
Special Middle East Coordinator
1996: Richard Holbrooke
Dayton Peace Accords on Bosnia
1995: Robert Gallucci
Ambassador-at-Large; North Korean Negotiations
1994: General John Vessey (USA, ret.)
President Emissary to Hanoi for missing American servicemen
1993: Robert Oakley
Special Envoy to Somalia
1991: Vernon Walters
Ambassador to Germany
1990: Thomas Pickering
Ambassador to the United Nations
1989: Rozanne Ridgway
Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs
1988: Stephen W. Bosworth
Ambassador to the Philippines
Walter and Leonore Annenberg, founders of the Annenberg Foundation
Recipient
Marie "Masha" Yovanovitch
U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Kyrgyz Republic, and Armenia
Winner of the
2023 Walter and Leonore Annenberg Award
for Excellence in Diplomacy
Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch was, most recently, the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine. She previously served as Ambassador to the Republic of Armenia (2008-2011) and the Kyrgyz Republic (2005-2008). She most recently served as the Dean of the School of Language Studies at the Foreign Service Institute, U.S. Department of State. Previously she was the International Advisor and Deputy Commandant at the Dwight D. Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy, National Defense University. Earlier she served as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs and before that as the bureau’s Deputy Assistant Secretary responsible for issues related to the Nordic, Baltic, and Central European countries.
In 2003-2004, Ambassador Yovanovitch was the Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. Prior to that, she was the Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine. Within the Department of State, Ambassador Yovanovitch has worked on the Russia desk, the Office of European Security Affairs, and the Operations Center. She has also worked overseas at the U.S. Embassies in Moscow, London, Ottawa, and Mogadishu.
A Career Member of the Senior Foreign Service, Ambassador Yovanovitch has been granted the Senior Foreign Service Performance Award six times and the State Department’s Superior Honor Award on five occasions. She is also the recipient of the Presidential Distinguished Service Award and the Secretary’s Diplomacy in Human Rights Award.
Ambassador Yovanovitch is a graduate of Princeton University where she earned a BA in History and Russian Studies. She studied at the Pushkin Institute and received an MS from the National Defense University.