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Business Wire
26-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Business Wire
Twenty Distinguished Naturalized Citizens Honored by Carnegie Corporation of New York as Foundation Celebrates 20 Years of Great Immigrants, Great Americans Tribute
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Carnegie Corporation of New York announces the 2025 Class of Great Immigrants, Great Americans, recognizing 20 distinguished naturalized American citizens whose contributions have enriched our society and helped to strengthen our democracy. For 20 years, the philanthropic foundation has sponsored the public awareness initiative, honoring a total of more than 750 naturalized American citizens from almost 120 countries who represent a remarkable range of immigration journeys. To mark the tribute's 20th anniversary, Carnegie has commissioned a free comic book featuring more than a dozen inspiring stories as told by naturalized U.S. citizens and created by an award-winning production team and illustrator. The 13 comics include Peabody Award–winning comedian Mo Amer; seminal musician and filmmaker David Byrne; pediatrician Mona Hanna, who exposed the water crisis in Flint, Michigan; Nobel Prize–winning biochemist Katalin Karikó, whose work led to the COVID-19 vaccine; and Jim Lee, the legendary illustrator and chief creative officer of DC. The comic book, which is freely available to the public, may be downloaded at Carnegie has also commissioned the National Council of Teachers of English to develop free educational resources and lesson plans based on the comics, which will be available in fall 2025. The 2025 Class of Great Immigrants is comprised of naturalized citizens from 16 countries who are leaders across academia, the arts, business, journalism, medicine, philanthropy, and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math). They include: - Tope Awotona (Nigeria) Founder and CEO of Calendly, a scheduling software company that employs more than 650 people and provides services to over 20 million users at 100,000 organizations. - Moungi Bawendi (France) Winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for work that revolutionized the chemical production of quantum dots used in biomedical imaging and computer and television displays. - Simon Johnson (England) Winner of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for studies of how institutions are formed and affect prosperity and for developing theoretical tools to explain how institutions can change. - Michele Kang (South Korea) Founder and CEO of Kynisca, the world's first multi-team global organization focused on professionalizing women's football and proving its commercial potential and cultural impact. - Shahid Khan (Pakistan) President and CEO of Flex-N-Gate, an automobile components manufacturer with 76 plants worldwide and 27,000 employees. - María Teresa Kumar (Colombia) President and CEO of Voto Latino, a national nonprofit organization that encourages civic engagement among younger generations of Latinx voters - Tania León (Cuba) A Pulitzer Prize–winning composer, conductor, and educator who has held positions with Carnegie Hall, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic, and is a founding member of the Dance Theatre of Harlem. 'For 20 years, our Great Immigrants public awareness initiative has been a reminder that many of the most influential figures in our country have been distinguished naturalized citizens, like our founder Andrew Carnegie, born in Scotland,' said Dame Louise Richardson, president of Carnegie, who is a naturalized American citizen born in Ireland. 'The U.S. is a nation of immigrants and our ongoing support of nonpartisan organizations that help establish legal pathways for citizenship continues to enrich the very fabric of American life. We applaud this year's 20th class and the hundreds of 'Great Immigrants, Great Americans' before them.' The initiative aims to increase public awareness of the economic and societal benefits of immigration. It is a tribute to the legacy of Andrew Carnegie, a Scottish immigrant who, like the initiative's honorees, found success as an American and contributed enormously to his adopted country. During the past 20 years, the Carnegie database of Great Immigrants has grown into one of the largest online resources for examples of accomplished naturalized American citizens. Past honorees include Isabel Allende, Elizabeth Blackburn, Sergey Brin, Michael J. Fox, Min Jin Lee, Yo-Yo Ma, Rupert Murdoch, Martina Navratilova, and Pedro Pascal. Naturalization and the legal integration of immigrants are part of the foundation's overarching goal of reducing political polarization for a strong democracy. According to the American Immigration Council, a Carnegie grantee whose research is cited in the new comic book, there are 48 million immigrants in America, about half are naturalized U.S. citizens, and more than seven million are eligible to apply for citizenship. Among Fortune 500 companies, 230 were founded by immigrants or children of immigrants, and among business owners, one in four is an immigrant. The 20 honorees in the Class of 2025 will be recognized with a full-page public service announcement in The New York Times on the Fourth of July and through tributes on social media. Please join the celebration by sharing via Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and X (Twitter) using the hashtag #GreatImmigrants. To learn more about the foundation's new comic book featuring Great Immigrants, visit The 2025 Class of Great Immigrants: Tope Awotona (Nigeria) Founder and CEO, Calendly Moungi Bawendi (France) Professor of Chemistry, MIT Helen M. Blau (England) Director, Baxter Laboratory for Stem Cell Biology, and Professor, Stanford University Roger Cohen (England) Journalist and Paris Bureau Chief, The New York Times Akiko Iwasaki (Japan) Professor of Immunobiology, Dermatology, and Epidemiology, Yale School of Medicine Maz Jobrani (Iran) Comedian, Actor, and Author Simon Johnson (England) Professor of Entrepreneurship, MIT Sloan School of Management Michele Kang (South Korea) Businesswoman, Sports Team Owner, and Philanthropist Shahid Khan (Pakistan) President and CEO, Flex-N-Gate Manjusha (Manju) P. Kulkarni (India) Executive Director, AAPI Equity Alliance María Teresa Kumar (Colombia) President and CEO, Voto Latino Tania León (Cuba) Composer, Conductor, and Educator Sandra Leisa Lindsay (Jamaica) Vice President, Public Health Advocacy, Northwell Health Luciano Marraffini (Argentina) Professor, The Rockefeller University, and Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Priyamvada Natarajan (India) Professor of Astronomy and Physics, Yale University Kareem Rahma (Egypt) Comedian, Artist, and Musician Raúl Ruiz (Mexico) U.S. Congressman, California, District 25 Manoochehr Sadeghi (Iran) Grand Master Musician and Educator Yuan Yuan Tan (China) Former Prima Ballerina, San Francisco Ballet Avi Wigderson (Israel) Professor of Mathematics, Institute for Advanced Study About Carnegie Corporation of New York Carnegie Corporation of New York was established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding. Today the foundation works to reduce political polarization through philanthropic support for the issues that Carnegie considered most important: education, democracy, and peace.
San Francisco Chronicle
26-06-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Carnegie honors 20 'Great Immigrants,' including composer Tania León, for 20th anniversary
Tania León, the noted composer and conductor who also co-founded Dance Theatre of Harlem, never planned on emigrating to the United States. She wanted to move to Paris. When León received the opportunity to leave Cuba on a resettlement flight to Miami in 1967, she took it, thinking she would eventually end up settling in France where she would join the Conservatoire de Paris and become a concert pianist. Instead, she moved to New York and within months met Arthur Mitchell, the New York City Ballet dancer who achieved international acclaim and integrated the art form as its first Black star. 'You cannot predict the future,' León told The Associated Press in an interview. 'By a chance moment, I bumped into the man that in a way changed my life… and then he spoke to me about the creation of something that he had in mind that later on became the Dance Theatre of Harlem and then I was involved in all of this.' 'All of this' – her composing, her conducting of the New York Philharmonic, her work on Broadway – led to León being honored Thursday by the Carnegie Corp. of New York as part of its 20th class of Great Immigrants, Great Americans. 'I am just overwhelmed with this latest recognition about what I have been able to contribute because I didn't do it with the purpose of gaining awards and things like that,' Leon said. 'I think that one has to convey the gratitude for the opportunities that I have received since I arrived." The 20 members of this year's class of Great Immigrants, Great Americans represent a wide range of immigration journeys, but they share a desire to give back to the country that has become their home. What the Carnegie initiative celebrates is also how American immigrants have improved their country. 'For 20 years, our Great Immigrants public awareness initiative has been a reminder that many of the most influential figures in our country have been distinguished naturalized citizens, like our founder Andrew Carnegie, born in Scotland,' Carnegie President Dame Louise Richardson -- also a naturalized American citizen, born in Ireland -- said in a statement. 'The U.S. is a nation of immigrants and our ongoing support of nonpartisan organizations that help establish legal pathways for citizenship continues to enrich the very fabric of American life.' Nobel prize winner Simon Johnson honored British-born Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management professor Simon Johnson, another honoree from this year's Great Immigrants class, said immigrants have also enriched the American economy. 'If people come to the United States, with very few exceptions, they come because they want to work,' said Johnson, who won the 2024 Nobel memorial prize in economics with two other American immigrants, Turkish-born Daron Acemoglu and fellow Brit, James Robinson. 'They want to work hard. They want to be productive. They want to improve their lives and have better futures for their kids… That dynamism we have is a big part of what's going well in many parts of the U.S.' Johnson said the immigrant perspective helped the team on its prize-winning study, which studied countries and found that freer, open societies are more likely to prosper. And the support that academia in the United States provides is also helpful. 'American universities have incredible opportunities -- lots of time for research, really interesting teaching, great students -- it's an amazing combination,' he said. 'I've been incredibly lucky because it's a space that allows you to work hard and get lucky.' This year's honorees are named as immigration becomes an increasingly contentious issue. President Donald Trump's administration is looking to add $150 billion to support his mass deportation agenda, which has drawn protests, as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement looks to arrest 3,000 people in the country illegally each day. Voto Latino CEO Maria Teresa Kumar selected Maria Teresa Kumar, president and CEO of the civic engagement nonprofit Voto Latino and another of Carnegie's 2024 honorees, said the anti-immigration sentiment is painful on so many levels. 'A multicultural America is our secret superpower,' said Kumar, who emigrated from Colombia with her family when she was four years old. 'There are plenty of people in foreign interference that try to divide our country around race and status because they know that multiculturally, when human capital is what's going to determine the 21st Century, we are truly unstoppable… It's that diversity and value of thought that makes us really strong. And what's happening right now seems like we are impeding our progress because we're not seeing the bigger picture.' Kumar and Voto Latino have been outspoken with their criticism of the Trump administration and have directed some of their resources toward keeping immigrants informed of their rights and offering advice to deal with ICE raids. Geri Mannion, managing director of Carnegie's Strengthening U.S. Democracy Program, which oversees the Great Immigrants, Great American awards and other civic participation initiatives, said they will continue handing out the awards because immigrants help the United States on multiple levels. Carnegie is also marking the 20th anniversary with a free comic book that celebrates the lives of previous honorees, including Rock and Roll Hall of Famer David Byrne, Peabody Award-winning comedian Mo Amer, and Jim Lee, the chief creative officer of the DC comics universe. The comic will also be used by the National Council of Teachers of English to develop lesson plans and other educational resources. 'In other countries, you could be there three generations, but you might be seen still seen as the other,' she said. 'In the U.S., you're considered American the moment you take that oath. And nobody thinks twice about it.' Full list of 2025 class of Great Immigrants, Great Americans Carnegie Corp. of New York's 2025 Class of Great Immigrants, Great Americans is: Calendly founder and CEO, Tope Awotona, originally from Nigeria; Moungi Bawendi, Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor of chemistry (France); Helen M. Blau, Director of the Baxter Laboratory for Stem Cell Biology and Stanford University professor (England); Roger Cohen, New York Times journalist and Paris Bureau Chief (England); Akiko Iwasaki, Yale University School of Medicine professor of Immunobiology, Dermatology, and Epidemiology (Japan); comedian/actor Maz Jobrani (Iran); MIT Sloan School of Management entrepreneurship professor Simon Johnson (England); Kynisca CEO Michele Kang, owner of the Washington Spirit (South Korea); Flex-N-Gate CEO Shahid Khan (Pakistan); AAPI Equity Alliance executive director Manjusha P. Kulkarni (India); Voto Latino CEO María Teresa Kumar (Colombia); composer/conductor Tania León (Cuba); Northwell Health vice president Sandra Leisa Lindsay (Jamaica); Howard Hughes Medical Institute professor and microbiologist Luciano Marraffini (Argentina); Yale professor of astronomy and physics Priyamvada Natarajan (India); comedian/artist Kareem Rahma (Egypt); California U.S. Rep. Raúl Ruiz (Mexico); Manoochehr Sadeghi, grand master of the santur, the Persian dulcimer (Iran); former prima ballerina Yuan Yuan Tan, of the San Francisco Ballet (China); and Avi Wigderson, mathematics professor at the Institute for Advanced Study (Israel).
26-06-2025
- Entertainment
Carnegie honors 20 'Great Immigrants,' including composer Tania León, for 20th anniversary
Tania León, the noted composer and conductor who also co-founded Dance Theatre of Harlem, never planned on emigrating to the United States. She wanted to move to Paris. When León received the opportunity to leave Cuba on a resettlement flight to Miami in 1967, she took it, thinking she would eventually end up settling in France where she would join the Conservatoire de Paris and become a concert pianist. Instead, she moved to New York and within months met Arthur Mitchell, the New York City Ballet dancer who achieved international acclaim and integrated the art form as its first Black star. 'You cannot predict the future,' León told The Associated Press in an interview. 'By a chance moment, I bumped into the man that in a way changed my life… and then he spoke to me about the creation of something that he had in mind that later on became the Dance Theatre of Harlem and then I was involved in all of this.' 'All of this' – her composing, her conducting of the New York Philharmonic, her work on Broadway – led to León being honored Thursday by the Carnegie Corp. of New York as part of its 20th class of Great Immigrants, Great Americans. 'I am just overwhelmed with this latest recognition about what I have been able to contribute because I didn't do it with the purpose of gaining awards and things like that,' Leon said. 'I think that one has to convey the gratitude for the opportunities that I have received since I arrived." The 20 members of this year's class of Great Immigrants, Great Americans represent a wide range of immigration journeys, but they share a desire to give back to the country that has become their home. What the Carnegie initiative celebrates is also how American immigrants have improved their country. 'For 20 years, our Great Immigrants public awareness initiative has been a reminder that many of the most influential figures in our country have been distinguished naturalized citizens, like our founder Andrew Carnegie, born in Scotland,' Carnegie President Dame Louise Richardson -- also a naturalized American citizen, born in Ireland -- said in a statement. 'The U.S. is a nation of immigrants and our ongoing support of nonpartisan organizations that help establish legal pathways for citizenship continues to enrich the very fabric of American life.' British-born Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management professor Simon Johnson, another honoree from this year's Great Immigrants class, said immigrants have also enriched the American economy. 'If people come to the United States, with very few exceptions, they come because they want to work,' said Johnson, who won the 2024 Nobel memorial prize in economics with two other American immigrants, Turkish-born Daron Acemoglu and fellow Brit, James Robinson. 'They want to work hard. They want to be productive. They want to improve their lives and have better futures for their kids… That dynamism we have is a big part of what's going well in many parts of the U.S.' Johnson said the immigrant perspective helped the team on its prize-winning study, which studied countries and found that freer, open societies are more likely to prosper. And the support that academia in the United States provides is also helpful. 'American universities have incredible opportunities -- lots of time for research, really interesting teaching, great students -- it's an amazing combination,' he said. 'I've been incredibly lucky because it's a space that allows you to work hard and get lucky.' This year's honorees are named as immigration becomes an increasingly contentious issue. President Donald Trump's administration is looking to add $150 billion to support his mass deportation agenda, which has drawn protests, as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement looks to arrest 3,000 people in the country illegally each day. Maria Teresa Kumar, president and CEO of the civic engagement nonprofit Voto Latino and another of Carnegie's 2024 honorees, said the anti-immigration sentiment is painful on so many levels. 'A multicultural America is our secret superpower,' said Kumar, who emigrated from Colombia with her family when she was four years old. 'There are plenty of people in foreign interference that try to divide our country around race and status because they know that multiculturally, when human capital is what's going to determine the 21st Century, we are truly unstoppable… It's that diversity and value of thought that makes us really strong. And what's happening right now seems like we are impeding our progress because we're not seeing the bigger picture.' Kumar and Voto Latino have been outspoken with their criticism of the Trump administration and have directed some of their resources toward keeping immigrants informed of their rights and offering advice to deal with ICE raids. Geri Mannion, managing director of Carnegie's Strengthening U.S. Democracy Program, which oversees the Great Immigrants, Great American awards and other civic participation initiatives, said they will continue handing out the awards because immigrants help the United States on multiple levels. Carnegie is also marking the 20th anniversary with a free comic book that celebrates the lives of previous honorees, including Rock and Roll Hall of Famer David Byrne, Peabody Award-winning comedian Mo Amer, and Jim Lee, the chief creative officer of the DC comics universe. The comic will also be used by the National Council of Teachers of English to develop lesson plans and other educational resources. 'In other countries, you could be there three generations, but you might be seen still seen as the other,' she said. 'In the U.S., you're considered American the moment you take that oath. And nobody thinks twice about it.' ——- Carnegie Corp. of New York's 2025 Class of Great Immigrants, Great Americans is: Calendly founder and CEO, Tope Awotona, originally from Nigeria; Moungi Bawendi, Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor of chemistry (France); Helen M. Blau, Director of the Baxter Laboratory for Stem Cell Biology and Stanford University professor (England); Roger Cohen, New York Times journalist and Paris Bureau Chief (England); Akiko Iwasaki, Yale University School of Medicine professor of Immunobiology, Dermatology, and Epidemiology (Japan); comedian/actor Maz Jobrani (Iran); MIT Sloan School of Management entrepreneurship professor Simon Johnson (England); Kynisca CEO Michele Kang, owner of the Washington Spirit (South Korea); Flex-N-Gate CEO Shahid Khan (Pakistan); AAPI Equity Alliance executive director Manjusha P. Kulkarni (India); Voto Latino CEO María Teresa Kumar (Colombia); composer/conductor Tania León (Cuba); Northwell Health vice president Sandra Leisa Lindsay (Jamaica); Howard Hughes Medical Institute professor and microbiologist Luciano Marraffini (Argentina); Yale professor of astronomy and physics Priyamvada Natarajan (India); comedian/artist Kareem Rahma (Egypt); California U.S. Rep. Raúl Ruiz (Mexico); Manoochehr Sadeghi, grand master of the santur, the Persian dulcimer (Iran); former prima ballerina Yuan Yuan Tan, of the San Francisco Ballet (China); and Avi Wigderson, mathematics professor at the Institute for Advanced Study (Israel). _____
Winnipeg Free Press
26-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Carnegie honors 20 ‘Great Immigrants,' including composer Tania León, for 20th anniversary
Tania León, the noted composer and conductor who also co-founded Dance Theatre of Harlem, never planned on emigrating to the United States. She wanted to move to Paris. When León received the opportunity to leave Cuba on a resettlement flight to Miami in 1967, she took it, thinking she would eventually end up settling in France where she would join the Conservatoire de Paris and become a concert pianist. Instead, she moved to New York and within months met Arthur Mitchell, the New York City Ballet dancer who achieved international acclaim and integrated the art form as its first Black star. 'You cannot predict the future,' León told The Associated Press in an interview. 'By a chance moment, I bumped into the man that in a way changed my life… and then he spoke to me about the creation of something that he had in mind that later on became the Dance Theatre of Harlem and then I was involved in all of this.' 'All of this' – her composing, her conducting of the New York Philharmonic, her work on Broadway – led to León being honored Thursday by the Carnegie Corp. of New York as part of its 20th class of Great Immigrants, Great Americans. 'I am just overwhelmed with this latest recognition about what I have been able to contribute because I didn't do it with the purpose of gaining awards and things like that,' Leon said. 'I think that one has to convey the gratitude for the opportunities that I have received since I arrived.' The 20 members of this year's class of Great Immigrants, Great Americans represent a wide range of immigration journeys, but they share a desire to give back to the country that has become their home. What the Carnegie initiative celebrates is also how American immigrants have improved their country. 'For 20 years, our Great Immigrants public awareness initiative has been a reminder that many of the most influential figures in our country have been distinguished naturalized citizens, like our founder Andrew Carnegie, born in Scotland,' Carnegie President Dame Louise Richardson — also a naturalized American citizen, born in Ireland — said in a statement. 'The U.S. is a nation of immigrants and our ongoing support of nonpartisan organizations that help establish legal pathways for citizenship continues to enrich the very fabric of American life.' Nobel prize winner Simon Johnson honored British-born Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management professor Simon Johnson, another honoree from this year's Great Immigrants class, said immigrants have also enriched the American economy. 'If people come to the United States, with very few exceptions, they come because they want to work,' said Johnson, who won the 2024 Nobel memorial prize in economics with two other American immigrants, Turkish-born Daron Acemoglu and fellow Brit, James Robinson. 'They want to work hard. They want to be productive. They want to improve their lives and have better futures for their kids… That dynamism we have is a big part of what's going well in many parts of the U.S.' Johnson said the immigrant perspective helped the team on its prize-winning study, which studied countries and found that freer, open societies are more likely to prosper. And the support that academia in the United States provides is also helpful. 'American universities have incredible opportunities — lots of time for research, really interesting teaching, great students — it's an amazing combination,' he said. 'I've been incredibly lucky because it's a space that allows you to work hard and get lucky.' This year's honorees are named as immigration becomes an increasingly contentious issue. President Donald Trump's administration is looking to add $150 billion to support his mass deportation agenda, which has drawn protests, as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement looks to arrest 3,000 people in the country illegally each day. Voto Latino CEO Maria Teresa Kumar selected Maria Teresa Kumar, president and CEO of the civic engagement nonprofit Voto Latino and another of Carnegie's 2024 honorees, said the anti-immigration sentiment is painful on so many levels. 'A multicultural America is our secret superpower,' said Kumar, who emigrated from Colombia with her family when she was four years old. 'There are plenty of people in foreign interference that try to divide our country around race and status because they know that multiculturally, when human capital is what's going to determine the 21st Century, we are truly unstoppable… It's that diversity and value of thought that makes us really strong. And what's happening right now seems like we are impeding our progress because we're not seeing the bigger picture.' Kumar and Voto Latino have been outspoken with their criticism of the Trump administration and have directed some of their resources toward keeping immigrants informed of their rights and offering advice to deal with ICE raids. Geri Mannion, managing director of Carnegie's Strengthening U.S. Democracy Program, which oversees the Great Immigrants, Great American awards and other civic participation initiatives, said they will continue handing out the awards because immigrants help the United States on multiple levels. Carnegie is also marking the 20th anniversary with a free comic book that celebrates the lives of previous honorees, including Rock and Roll Hall of Famer David Byrne, Peabody Award-winning comedian Mo Amer, and Jim Lee, the chief creative officer of the DC comics universe. The comic will also be used by the National Council of Teachers of English to develop lesson plans and other educational resources. 'In other countries, you could be there three generations, but you might be seen still seen as the other,' she said. 'In the U.S., you're considered American the moment you take that oath. And nobody thinks twice about it.' Weekly A weekly look at what's happening in Winnipeg's arts and entertainment scene. ——- Full list of 2025 class of Great Immigrants, Great Americans Carnegie Corp. of New York's 2025 Class of Great Immigrants, Great Americans is: Calendly founder and CEO, Tope Awotona, originally from Nigeria; Moungi Bawendi, Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor of chemistry (France); Helen M. Blau, Director of the Baxter Laboratory for Stem Cell Biology and Stanford University professor (England); Roger Cohen, New York Times journalist and Paris Bureau Chief (England); Akiko Iwasaki, Yale University School of Medicine professor of Immunobiology, Dermatology, and Epidemiology (Japan); comedian/actor Maz Jobrani (Iran); MIT Sloan School of Management entrepreneurship professor Simon Johnson (England); Kynisca CEO Michele Kang, owner of the Washington Spirit (South Korea); Flex-N-Gate CEO Shahid Khan (Pakistan); AAPI Equity Alliance executive director Manjusha P. Kulkarni (India); Voto Latino CEO María Teresa Kumar (Colombia); composer/conductor Tania León (Cuba); Northwell Health vice president Sandra Leisa Lindsay (Jamaica); Howard Hughes Medical Institute professor and microbiologist Luciano Marraffini (Argentina); Yale professor of astronomy and physics Priyamvada Natarajan (India); comedian/artist Kareem Rahma (Egypt); California U.S. Rep. Raúl Ruiz (Mexico); Manoochehr Sadeghi, grand master of the santur, the Persian dulcimer (Iran); former prima ballerina Yuan Yuan Tan, of the San Francisco Ballet (China); and Avi Wigderson, mathematics professor at the Institute for Advanced Study (Israel). _____ Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP's philanthropy coverage, visit
The Hill
26-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hill
Carnegie honors 20 ‘Great Immigrants,' including composer Tania León, for 20th anniversary
Tania León, the noted composer and conductor who also co-founded Dance Theatre of Harlem, never planned on emigrating to the United States. She wanted to move to Paris. When León received the opportunity to leave Cuba on a resettlement flight to Miami in 1967, she took it, thinking she would eventually end up settling in France where she would join the Conservatoire de Paris and become a concert pianist. Instead, she moved to New York and within months met Arthur Mitchell, the New York City Ballet dancer who achieved international acclaim and integrated the art form as its first Black star. 'You cannot predict the future,' León told The Associated Press in an interview. 'By a chance moment, I bumped into the man that in a way changed my life… and then he spoke to me about the creation of something that he had in mind that later on became the Dance Theatre of Harlem and then I was involved in all of this.' 'All of this' – her composing, her conducting of the New York Philharmonic, her work on Broadway – led to León being honored Thursday by the Carnegie Corp. of New York as part of its 20th class of Great Immigrants, Great Americans. 'I am just overwhelmed with this latest recognition about what I have been able to contribute because I didn't do it with the purpose of gaining awards and things like that,' Leon said. 'I think that one has to convey the gratitude for the opportunities that I have received since I arrived.' The 20 members of this year's class of Great Immigrants, Great Americans represent a wide range of immigration journeys, but they share a desire to give back to the country that has become their home. What the Carnegie initiative celebrates is also how American immigrants have improved their country. 'For 20 years, our Great Immigrants public awareness initiative has been a reminder that many of the most influential figures in our country have been distinguished naturalized citizens, like our founder Andrew Carnegie, born in Scotland,' Carnegie President Dame Louise Richardson — also a naturalized American citizen, born in Ireland — said in a statement. 'The U.S. is a nation of immigrants and our ongoing support of nonpartisan organizations that help establish legal pathways for citizenship continues to enrich the very fabric of American life.' British-born Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management professor Simon Johnson, another honoree from this year's Great Immigrants class, said immigrants have also enriched the American economy. 'If people come to the United States, with very few exceptions, they come because they want to work,' said Johnson, who won the 2024 Nobel memorial prize in economics with two other American immigrants, Turkish-born Daron Acemoglu and fellow Brit, James Robinson. 'They want to work hard. They want to be productive. They want to improve their lives and have better futures for their kids… That dynamism we have is a big part of what's going well in many parts of the U.S.' Johnson said the immigrant perspective helped the team on its prize-winning study, which studied countries and found that freer, open societies are more likely to prosper. And the support that academia in the United States provides is also helpful. 'American universities have incredible opportunities — lots of time for research, really interesting teaching, great students — it's an amazing combination,' he said. 'I've been incredibly lucky because it's a space that allows you to work hard and get lucky.' This year's honorees are named as immigration becomes an increasingly contentious issue. President Donald Trump's administration is looking to add $150 billion to support his mass deportation agenda, which has drawn protests, as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement looks to arrest 3,000 people in the country illegally each day. Maria Teresa Kumar, president and CEO of the civic engagement nonprofit Voto Latino and another of Carnegie's 2024 honorees, said the anti-immigration sentiment is painful on so many levels. 'A multicultural America is our secret superpower,' said Kumar, who emigrated from Colombia with her family when she was four years old. 'There are plenty of people in foreign interference that try to divide our country around race and status because they know that multiculturally, when human capital is what's going to determine the 21st Century, we are truly unstoppable… It's that diversity and value of thought that makes us really strong. And what's happening right now seems like we are impeding our progress because we're not seeing the bigger picture.' Kumar and Voto Latino have been outspoken with their criticism of the Trump administration and have directed some of their resources toward keeping immigrants informed of their rights and offering advice to deal with ICE raids. Geri Mannion, managing director of Carnegie's Strengthening U.S. Democracy Program, which oversees the Great Immigrants, Great American awards and other civic participation initiatives, said they will continue handing out the awards because immigrants help the United States on multiple levels. Carnegie is also marking the 20th anniversary with a free comic book that celebrates the lives of previous honorees, including Rock and Roll Hall of Famer David Byrne, Peabody Award-winning comedian Mo Amer, and Jim Lee, the chief creative officer of the DC comics universe. The comic will also be used by the National Council of Teachers of English to develop lesson plans and other educational resources. 'In other countries, you could be there three generations, but you might be seen still seen as the other,' she said. 'In the U.S., you're considered American the moment you take that oath. And nobody thinks twice about it.' ——- Carnegie Corp. of New York's 2025 Class of Great Immigrants, Great Americans is: Calendly founder and CEO, Tope Awotona, originally from Nigeria; Moungi Bawendi, Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor of chemistry (France); Helen M. Blau, Director of the Baxter Laboratory for Stem Cell Biology and Stanford University professor (England); Roger Cohen, New York Times journalist and Paris Bureau Chief (England); Akiko Iwasaki, Yale University School of Medicine professor of Immunobiology, Dermatology, and Epidemiology (Japan); comedian/actor Maz Jobrani (Iran); MIT Sloan School of Management entrepreneurship professor Simon Johnson (England); Kynisca CEO Michele Kang, owner of the Washington Spirit (South Korea); Flex-N-Gate CEO Shahid Khan (Pakistan); AAPI Equity Alliance executive director Manjusha P. Kulkarni (India); Voto Latino CEO María Teresa Kumar (Colombia); composer/conductor Tania León (Cuba); Northwell Health vice president Sandra Leisa Lindsay (Jamaica); Howard Hughes Medical Institute professor and microbiologist Luciano Marraffini (Argentina); Yale professor of astronomy and physics Priyamvada Natarajan (India); comedian/artist Kareem Rahma (Egypt); California U.S. Rep. Raúl Ruiz (Mexico); Manoochehr Sadeghi, grand master of the santur, the Persian dulcimer (Iran); former prima ballerina Yuan Yuan Tan, of the San Francisco Ballet (China); and Avi Wigderson, mathematics professor at the Institute for Advanced Study (Israel). _____ Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP's philanthropy coverage, visit
