Benitez has been called “one of the most visible farmworker leaders in the US” by the “Los Angeles Times,” and his work reflects the ongoing need for frontline advocates for vulnerable people in our society. Lucas Benitez, a co-founder of the Florida-based labor and human rights organization the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) and a key organizational…
Author: Wallenberg Committee
2023, Lucas Benitez
Lucas Benitez, farmworker leader, to receive the Wallenberg Medal and deliver the Wallenberg Lecture Lucas Benitez, a co-founder of the Florida-based labor and human rights organization the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) and a key organizational leader and member of the CIW’s Fair Food Program worker education team, will receive the 2023 Wallenberg Medal from…
2019, Safa Al Ahmad
ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN – Safa Al Ahmad, a Saudi Arabian journalist and documentary filmmaker, received the 2019 Wallenberg Medal from the University of Michigan. She has produced documentaries for the BBC and PBS about uprisings in the Middle East, particularly in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Her 2014 BBC documentary, Saudi’s Secret Uprising, brought attention to…
2018, March For Our Lives and The B.R.A.V.E. Youth Leaders
ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN – Two youth advocacy groups that are focused on ending gun violence in their communities will be awarded the 2018 Wallenberg Medal from the University of Michigan. The winners of this year’s medal will be The B.R.A.V.E. (Bold Resistance Against Violence Everywhere) Youth Leaders of the Faith Community of St. Sabina from…
Honoring Those Fighting to End Gun Violence
On November 14 at 7:30 p.m. the 2018 Wallenberg Medal was presented to youth activists from March For Our Lives (Parkland, FL) and The B.R.A.V.E. Youth Leaders (Chicago, IL) for their fight against gun violence.
Ruth Gruber, Photojournalist Art Exhibition
The exhibition will be on display from Feb. 7 through March 12, 2018, in the Duderstadt Center Gallery on U-M’s north campus. Ann Arbor, MI | January 15, 2018 Ruth Gruber, Photojournalist celebrates the remarkable life, vision, and heroic tenacity of a 20th-century pioneer and trailblazer. The exhibition will be on display beginning Feb. 7 and…
2017, Bryan Stevenson
On the evening of March 7th, 2017, the 25th Wallenberg Medal, the most distinguished award given by the University of Michigan, was presented to civil rights lawyer and social rights activist Bryan Stevenson, who founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a non-profit organization working to guarantee a legal defense to every inmate on death row in Alabama, in 1989.
Bryan Stevenson to Receive Wallenberg Medal
The 2016-2017 Wallenberg Medal will be awarded to civil rights lawyer and social justice activist Bryan Stevenson on Tuesday, March 7, 2017 at 7:30 p.m. in the Rackham Auditorium on the University of Michigan campus. After the medal presentation, Stevenson will give the 25th Wallenberg Lecture. Stevenson is committed to serving the legal needs of…
2015, Masha Gessen
On Tuesday President Mark Schlissel awarded the Wallenberg Medal to Masha Gessen, Russian American author, journalist and activist. The University’s most distinguished award, the medal commemorates Raoul Wallenberg, Michigan Class of 1935, whose actions in Budapest, Hungary during World War II saved the lives of tens of thousands of Jews. In presenting the Medal, President…
Exposing the Real Russia under Putin: “Don’t walk the streets. Don’t eat the food. Don’t talk.”
The 2015 Wallenberg Medalist, Masha Gessen, will give the Wallenberg Lecture on November 3 at 7:30 pm in the Rackham Auditorium. Gessen is a highly acclaimed journalist, author, and vocal critic of Vladimir Putin and his government’s corruption, repression of human rights, and intervention in former nations of the Eastern Soviet Bloc, Ukraine, and Syria.…