The Wilson Center’s Kennan Institute presented the Woodrow Wilson Award to Petr Aven and Susan Carmel Lehrman in recognition of their contributions to corporate and public service related to U.S.-Russia relations at the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Awards Dinner on November 3, 2015 in Washington, DC.

Petr Aven was given the Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship for his role in expanding understanding between Russians and Americans during his career as a Russian government official in the early 1990s, his tenure at Russia’s largest private bank (Alfa Bank), and for his role as co-founder of the Alfa Fellowship Program. The Alfa Fellowship Program brings early career Americans to work in Russia, and the alumni of this program represent a rising generation of American experts on Russia working in the private sector, government, and non-profit community.

Susan Carmel Lehrman was awarded the Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service in recognition of her philanthropy benefiting Russian Studies. In addition to her generous support of U.S.-Russian cultural engagement in general, Ms. Lehrman recently endowed the Carmel Institute of Russian Culture and History within the College of Arts and Sciences at American University. The Carmel Institute, and the Initiative for Russian Culture which preceded it, has attracted over 15,000 students to events on Russian culture, including film screenings, lectures, and musical performances. 

The Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Awards Dinner is an annual event that recognizes individuals demonstrating outstanding and enlightened corporate citizenship and public service in connection with the U.S.-Russian relationship, and is the premier Washington event dedicated to this purpose. The event is a benefit for the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Kennan Institute, a national resource for Russian studies in the United States.