Nominations open for Gleitsman Citizen Activist Award

The Center for Public Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School is calling for nominations for the 2023 Gleitsman Citizen Activist Award.

The Gleitsman Citizen Activist Award recognizes accomplished public leaders and activists who work to confront and correct social injustice in the United States. Winners of the award receive a $150,000 prize; a sculpture designed by Maya Lin, the creator of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., and the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama; and public recognition at the Harvard Kennedy School for sparking positive social change and inspiring others to do the same.

Members of the Harvard community as well as the general public may nominate changemakers whose activism has made a mark in the United States through March 31. Click here to read selection criteria and to submit a nomination.

Previous winners of the Gleitsman Citizen Activist Award include “Me Too” movement founder Tarana Burke, civil rights leader and U.S. Rep. John Lewis, and journalist and women’s movement activist Gloria Steinem.

The Gleitsman Program in Leadership for Social Change was launched in 2007 with an endowed gift from the estate of Alan L. Gleitsman. Gleitsman hoped that by spreading awareness of social changemakers, other would be inspired to act, and intended that the Citizen Activist Award “recognize people who make a difference, tell their story, and make other people aware of what one person can do.”