Henrietta Fore Award for Excellence in International Development
The Henrietta Fore Award for Excellence in International Development is an annual award given in recognition of an individual or a group who has made exemplary contributions to the field of international development, either as a US Government official or in support of global development. It is one of the Academy’s highest honors and its purpose is to highlight the important contribution of all aspects of development to the broader enterprise of diplomacy and to the nation’s business more broadly.
This new award is equivalent in prestige to the Academy’s Annenberg award for Excellence in Diplomacy. Ms. Henrietta Fore, who formerly served as the first woman Administrator of USAID and the Executive Director of UNICEF, proposed the idea and the endowed the award in 2023. Subsequently, the Academy members chose to name the award after her.
The award recipient is selected annually by members of the Academy’s serving on the Development Award Committee. The award is presented formally at the Academy’s Annual Awards Luncheon, traditionally held at the Benjamin Franklin Diplomatic Reception Room at the Department of State.
Recipients - 2025
J. Brian Atwood
J. Brian Atwood is the Senior Fellow for International Studies and Public Affairs at the Thomas Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University.
Atwood served for six years as Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) during the Administration of President William Clinton. In the Clinton Administration, Atwood led the transition team at the State Department and was Under Secretary of State for Management prior to his appointment as head of USAID.
In 2001, Atwood served on UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s Panel on Peace Operations. He joined the Foreign Service in 1966 and served in the American Embassies in Cote d’Ivoire and Spain. He served as legislative advisor for foreign and defense policy to Senator Thomas F. Eagleton (D-Mo) from 1972 to 1977.
During the Carter Administration Atwood served as Assistant Secretary of State for Congressional Relations.
He was Dean of Professional Studies and Academic Affairs at the Foreign Service Institute in 1981-82.
Atwood was the first President of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) from 1986 to 1993.
Atwood received the Secretary of State’s Distinguished Service Award in 1999.
Andrew Natsios
Andrew S. Natsios is an executive professor at the Bush School and director of the Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs. Natsios was most recently a Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and former administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID). As USAID administrator from 2001-2006, Natsios managed reconstruction programs in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Sudan. He also served as US special envoy to Sudan in 2006-2007. Retired from the US Army Reserves at the rank of lieutenant colonel after twenty-three years, Natsios is a veteran of the Gulf War. From 1993 to 1998, he was vice president of World Vision US, the largest faith-based nongovernmental organization in the world, with programs in 103 countries. Earlier in his career, Natsios served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives for twelve years and as the chief financial and administrative officer of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He also served as the CEO of Boston’s Big Dig, the largest construction project in American history, after a cost overrun scandal.
He is the author of three books: U.S. Foreign Policy and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1997); The Great North Korean Famine (2001); and his latest book, Sudan, South Sudan and Darfur: What Everyone Needs to Know, published in 2012 by Oxford University Press. He has contributed to thirteen other books. He has published numerous articles in Foreign Affairs, the New York Times, Washington Post, Washington Quarterly, Foreign Service Journal, and Wall Street Journal.