Outstanding American by Choice

Awardees

2006

• Marina Belotserkovsky, Soviet-born; Director of Russian Communications and Community Outreach at the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.
• José Luis Betancourt, Mexico-born and raised in Texas; Rear-Admiral of the United States Navy.
• Guarione M. Diaz, Cuban-born; President and Chief Executive Officer of the Cuban American National Council.
• Carlos M. Gutierrez, Cuban-born; U.S. Secretary of Commerce.
• Zalmay Khalilzad, Afghan-born; United States Ambassador to Iraq.
• Renu Khator, Indian-born; Provost and Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs at the University of South Florida.
• Tom Lantos, Hungarian-born; member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
• Guillermo Linares, Dominican-born; Commissioner of the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs for New York City.
• Caitriona Lyons, Irish-born; Refugee Program Coordinator for the State of Texas.
• Jose E. Martinez, Dominican-born; U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Florida.
• Mel Martínez, Cuban-born; member of the U.S. Senate.
• Gepsie M. Metellus, Haitian-born; Executive Director of the Sant La Haitian Neighborhood Center.
• Clementine M. Msengi, Rwandan-born; Founder and Executive Director of the Bright Move Network.
• Anne M. O'Callaghan, Irish-born; executive director of the Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians.
• Eduardo J. Padrón, Cuban-born; President of Miami Dade College.
• Kiran C. Patel, Zambian-born; Chairman of the Patel Foundation for Global Understanding.
• Marion P. Primomo, German-born; Physician, Hospice and Palliative Medicine.
• Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Cuban-born; member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
• John F. Timoney, Irish-born; Chief of Police of the Miami Police Department.
• Fang A. Wong, Chinese-born; Special Operations Specialist with L3 Communications at ILEX Systems.

  2007

• Eduardo Aguirre, Cuban-born; United States Ambassador to the Kingdom of Spain and the Principality of Andorra.
• Rasul Alsalih, Iraqi-born; United States Air Force.
• Oluwasina Awolusi, Nigerian-born; United States Air Force.
• Cristina V. Beato, Cuban-born; Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
• Katja Bullock, German-born; Special Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel in The White House.
• Josefina Carbonell, Cuban-born; Assistant Secretary for Aging at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
• Franklin Chang Diaz, Costa Rican-born; astronaut.
• Manuel A. Diaz, Cuban-born; Mayor of Miami.
• Manuel Dominguez, Cuban-born; United States Air Force.
• Ricardo Ernst, Venezuelan-born; professor at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business.
• Emilio Estefan, Cuban-born; musician, producer, entrepreneur.
• Gloria Estefan, Mexican-born; singer-songwriter.
• Luis Glaser, Austrian-born; Professor of Biology and Special Assistant to the President at the University of Miami.
• Vartan Gregorian, Iranian-born; President of the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
• Farooq Kathwari, Indian-born; Chairman and CEO of Ethan Allen.
• M.J. Khan, Pakistani-born; Houston City Council Member.
• Alfonso Martinez-Fonts Jr., Cuban-born; Assistant Secretary of the Private Sector Office at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
• Alejandro Gomez Monteverde, Mexican-born; director/screenwriter.
• Indra Nooyi, Indian-born; Chairman and chief executive officer of PepsiCo.
• Tze Ng, Hong Kong-born; entrepreneur.
• Miguel Orozco, Ecuadorian-born; community leader.
• Dina Powell, Egyptian-born; Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.
• Anna Prager, Polish-born; civic leader.
• Mitzie A. Robinson, Jamaican-born; United States Coast Guard.
• Samuel G. Saldívar, Mexican-born; Professor emeritus at the United States Military Academy.
• John Shalikashvili, Polish-born; General in the United States Army.
• Peter W. Schramm, Hungarian-born; Executive Director of the John M. Ashbrook Center for Public Affairs and Professor of Political Science at Ashland University.
• Abida S. Shoyeb, Pakistani-born; Officer for the South Atlantic District Veterinary Command of the United States Army.
• Antonio Taguba, Filipino-born; Major-General in the United States Army.
• Van T. Thai, Vietnamese-born; United States Air Force.

  2008

• Elaine Chao, Taiwanese-born; United States Secretary of Transportation.
• James S. C. Chao, Chinese-born; founder of the Foremost Group.
• Anh Duong, Vietnamese-born; Science Advisor to the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Information, Plans and Strategy at the Pentagon.
• John Fugh, Chinese-born; United States Army.
• Andy García, Cuban-born; actor.
• Abul Hussam, Bangladeshi-born; professor at George Mason University.
• Rosario Marin, Mexican-born; Treasurer of the United States.
• Elsa Murano, Cuban-born; President of Texas A&M University.
• Robert Olton, Barbadian-born; United States Army.
• Charles Simic, Serbian-born; Poet Laureate of the United States.
• Albio Sires, Cuban-born; member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
• Ramel Turic, Bosnian-born; United States Army.
• Duncan Wardle, British-born; Vice President Global Public Relations for Disney Parks.
• Elie Wiesel, Romanian-born; writer.
• Donald Zacherl, Canadian-born; United States Army.

  2009

• Joseph Cao, Vietnamese-born; member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
• Subir Chowdhury, Bangladeshi-born; author of management books.
• Eartha Dengler, German-born; Founder of the Immigrant City Archives.
• Maria Hinojosa, Mexican-born; journalist and author.
• Peter C. Lemon, Canadian-born; United States Army.
• Eva A. Millona, Albanian-born; Executive Director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition.
• Virginia M. C. da Mota, Portuguese-born; educator.
• Eskinder Negash, Ethiopian-born; Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

  2010

• Patrick Corvington, Haitian-born; CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service.
• Kawther Elmi, Ethiopian-born; Park Ranger for the National Park Service.
• Oscar Bautista Hilman, Filipino-born; United States Army.
• Ledum Ndaanee, Nigerian-born; U.S. Marine Corps.
• Stephan Ross, Polish-born; Founder of the New England Holocaust Memorial.
• Tibor Rubin, Hungarian-born; United States Army.
• Rangita de Silva de Alwis, born in ?; Director of the International Human Rights Policy at Wellesley College.
• Samuel So, born in ?; professor at Stanford University.

  2011

• Madeleine K. Albright, Czech-born; former U.S. Secretary of State.
• Joseph A. Banco, Jr., Yugoslavian-born; Associate Chief of U.S. Border Patrol at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
• Omar Cruz, born in ?; Federal Emergency Management Agency.
• Arturo E. Howard, Colombian-born; U.S. Coast Guard.
• Betty Nguyen Phillips, Vietnamese-born; U.S. Secret Service.
• Alma Plancich, Croatian-born; Executive Director of the Ethnic Heritage Council.
• Nawar Shora, Syrian-born; Transportation Security Administration.
• Gerda Weissmann Klein, Polish-born; Founder of Citizenship Counts.
• Aster Zeleke, Ethiopian-born; U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

  2012

• Christopher Che, born in ?; President and CEO of the Che International Group.
• Anni Chung, Hong Kong-born; President and Chief Executive Officer at Self Help for the Elderly.
• Ping Fu, Chinese-born; President and CEO of Geomagic.
• Khaled Hosseini, Afghan-born; diplomat.
• Michael Moritz, British-born; Partner at Sequoia Capital.
• Maria Otero, Bolivian-born; Under Secretary Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights.
• Shervin Pishevar Iranian-born; Managing Director of Menlo Ventures.
• Jan Vilček, Czech-born; academic.
• Vivek Wadhwa, Indian-born; Academic, researcher, writer and entrepreneur.

  2013

• Ferozan Alamshahi Akbari, Afghan-born; U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
• Pearl B. Chang, Chinese-born; U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
• John A. Herrera, Cuban-born; Senior Vice President for Latino Hispanic Affairs at the Self-Help Services Corporation.
• Rahul M. Jindal, Indian-born; surgeon.
• Olga B. Koper, Polish-born; Market Manager for the Battelle Memorial Institute.
• Ramon Melocarela, Dominican-born; U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
• Anna Mongayt, Russian-born; Co-founder and Head of Operations at Upstart.
• Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa, Mexican-born; neurosurgeon.
• Amarpreet S. Sawhney, Indian-born; President and CEO of Ocular Therapeutix.
• Sivalingam Sivananthan, Sri Lankan-born; academic.
• Tsehaye Teferra, Ethiopian-born; Founder and President of the Ethiopian Community Development Council.

  2014

• José Andrés, Spanish-born; chef.
• John Lukacs, Hungarian-born; historian.
• Alejandro Mayorkas, Cuban-born; Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

  2015

• Maria Contreras-Sweet, Mexican-born; Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration.
• Mercy A. Diez, United States Army.
• Daniel Finn, Irish-born; Catholic priest.
• Larry La, Vietnamese-born; Principal of the Meiwah Restaurant Group.
• Mariano Rivera, Panamian-born; former baseball pitcher for the New York Yankees.
• Thalía, Mexican-born; singer-songwriter, actress.
• Alberto Vasallo, Jr., Cuban-born; Founder of El Mundo newspaper.

  2016

• Julian Chun-Chung Chow, Taiwanese-born; professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
• Hesung Chun Koh, South Korean-born; former chair and president of the East Rock Institute.
• Florent Groberg, French-born; United States Army.
• Antonia Hernández, Mexican-born; President and CEO of the California Community Foundation.
• Uri D. Herscher, Israeli-born; President and CEO of the Skirball Cultural Center.
• Sally Jewell, British-born; former U.S. Secretary of the Interior.
• Samantha Power, Irish-born; diplomat.
• Johan E. Uvin, Belgian-born; U.S. Department of Education.

  2017

• Marisol A. Chalas, U.S. Army Reserve.
• Meb Keflezighi, Eritrean-born; long-distance runner.