Please visit the Wilson Center Awards website for more information

Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff will receive the Wilson Center’s Award for Public Service in New York on September 20, 2011.

“President Rousseff´s story has inspired millions of women throughout the world to reach for leadership roles in many fields,” said Jane Harman, director, president, and CEO of the Woodrow Wilson Center. “The Wilson Center is delighted to be able to honor her dedication to public service and leadership, so true to Woodrow Wilson’s vision.”

The Brazilian leader will receive the Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service at a dinner at the Pierre Hotel on the eve of becoming the first female head of state to open the United Nations General Assembly in its 66-year history.

Josué Gomes da Silva, Chief Executive Officer of Coteminas, a global Brazilian textile company, and co-chairman of the Brazil-U.S. CEO Forum, and John Melo, Chief Executive Officer of Amyris, a California-based biotechnology company with growing investments in Brazil, will co-chair the New York event in honor of President Rousseff. In addition to these two Presenting Sponsors are Global Sponsors Alcoa, Gerdau, The Coca-Cola Company and Merck. International Sponsors include Bunge, Cummins and Embraer.

The Woodrow Wilson Awards are presented to outstanding leaders of business, government, the arts and sciences, and beyond who have devoted their careers and lives to improve the quality of life in their countries and around the world.  Their legacies reflect the values of the United States' 28th President, Woodrow Wilson, a leader who believed that, "There is no higher religion than human service. To work for the common good is the greatest creed."

Since their inception in 1998, Awards for Public Service and Corporate Citizenship have been bestowed on citizens of the United States and 18 other countries covering six continents. 

Past Brazilian recipients of the Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service include President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2009), and Dr. Zilda Arns (2007), founder of the “Pastoral da Criança,” who died during the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, just one of 14 countries in which she worked charitably on behalf of children´s health.

All proceeds from the Awards Dinner will benefit the Wilson Center’s Brazil Institute, the premier Washington forum for the study and debate of Brazilian issues. The Institute conducts prescient research, lectures, and conferences that bring together experts on public policy relevant to Brazil and its relationship with the United States. Recently, the Institute has focused on global themes, including innovation, climate change, and democratic governance, as well as Brazil’s rise as a regional power and global actor. Detailed information about the Brazil Institute is available at www.wilsoncenter.org/brazil or in the most recent Annual Report.

Contact: Michael Darden, tel 202 691-4087, Michael.darden@wilsoncenter.org

The Wilson Center provides a safe political space where the worlds of policymaking and scholarship interact.  By conducting relevant and timely research and promoting dialogue from all perspectives, the Wilson Center works to address critical current and emerging challenges confronting the United States and the world.  Created by an Act of Congress in 1968, the Center is a nonpartisan institution headquartered in Washington, D.C., and supported by both public and private funds. 

(Portuguese)