April 15, 2019
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jamey Dunn-Thomason
jdunn3@uillinois.edu
(217) 300-8409
IGPA to present Former U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch
with the Paul H. Douglas Award for Ethics in Government
URBANA — The University of Illinois System's Institute of Government and Public Affairs will present The Honorable Marie Yovanovitch, Retired United States Ambassador, with the Paul H. Douglas Award for Ethics in Government on Monday, April 18 in a virtual ceremony.
Ambassador Yovanovitch is a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a non-Resident Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, Georgetown University. Previously, she served as U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine from 2016 to 2019, the Republic of Armenia from 2008 to 2011, and the Kyrgyz Republic from 2005 to 2008.
“I am honored to receive the Paul H. Douglas Award for Ethics in Government,” said Ambassador Yovanovitch. “This award highlights the life of a reformer, a crusader for civil rights, and an anti-corruption champion. It also highlights the importance of each one of us in public service following the senator's example and doing the right thing. That's essential to keeping our democracy strong and vibrant.”
The virtual award ceremony will take place at 4:30 p.m. Central Daylight Time (5:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time) on Monday, April 18, 2022. The event is open to the public. Registration is available here.
The national selection committee chose Ambassador Yovanovitch for her devotion to a high standard of ethics during her long tenure at the U.S. Department of State, which has left a lasting imprint on American diplomacy.
Ambassador Yovanovitch also served as the Dean of the School of Language Studies at the Foreign Service Institute, U.S. Department of State, and as the Deputy Commandant and International Advisor at the Dwight D. Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy, National Defense University. Earlier, she served as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, where she coordinated policy on European and global security issues. Before that, Ambassador Yovanovitch was the bureau’s Deputy Assistant Secretary responsible for issues related to the Nordic, Baltic, and Central European countries.
Prior to serving as ambassador, she was the Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. Before that, she was the Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine. Within the Department of State, Ambassador Yovanovitch has worked on the Russia desk, the Office of European Security Affairs, and the Operations Center. She has also worked overseas at the U.S. Embassies in Moscow, London, Ottawa, and Mogadishu.
A Career Member of the Senior Foreign Service, Ambassador Yovanovitch has earned the Senior Foreign Service Performance Award eight times and the State Department’s Superior Honor Award on nine occasions. She is also the recipient of two Presidential Distinguished Service Awards and the Secretary’s Diplomacy in Human Rights Award. In 2020, Georgetown University granted Ambassador Yovanovitch the Trainor Award for Excellence in the Conduct of Diplomacy, the University of Indiana granted her the inaugural Richard G. Lugar Award, and Pen America honored her with the 2020 PEN/Benenson Courage Award. In 2021, she received the Morgenthau Award from the Armenian Assembly of America.
To commemorate the 100th anniversary of his birth in 1992, the University of Illinois established the Paul H. Douglas Award for Ethics in Government to extend this legacy for generations to come and to encourage future leaders to follow a similar path.
Ethics, integrity, and an understanding of opposing viewpoints defined the career of Paul H. Douglas, who served as U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1949 to 1967. Douglas’ career provides a model for public service, and IGPA is proud to be the home of this award since its inception.
The 2019 award was presented to Walter M. Shaub Jr., former director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, no awards were presented in 2020 and 2021. Among other award recipients are former President Barack Obama, U.S. Senators Mike Mansfield, Paul Simon, Barbara Mikulski, Richard Lugar, Carl Levin, Alan Simpson, Olympia Snowe and Richard Cohen, former congressman, and federal judge Abner Mikva, and retired U.S. Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and John Paul Stevens.
Every year, the selection committee for the Paul H. Douglas Award for Ethics in Government makes a wide call to the nation’s leaders, scholars, and public servants to nominate individuals for the award. Nominations are now being accepted here. |
