Past LSA Humanitarian Service Award Winners
2009 Winners
Dr. Sheri Lee Fink ’90, is a LSA psychology graduate, a writer, and a physician. Known for her work on health care and human rights, many have heard Sheri on public radio’s news magazine ”The World”, read her articles in the NY Times, the Washington Post, Discover, or Scientific American, or read her book War Hospital: A True Story of Surgery and Survival which won the American Medical Writer’s Association special book award. In addition to her coverage of health and human rights issues, Sheri is interested in ethical medical care and has served in humanitarian agencies responding to emergencies in the United States, the Balkans, north Caucasus, Central and Southeast Asia, southern Africa, and the Middle East. Of particular importance is her work as a member of the International Medical Corps which provides care in conflict and disaster zones around the world, and with whom she brought aid to war victims in Bosnia and most recently Iraq. Sheri also aids the bystanders in war ravaged regions. For example, during the Iraq war, when UNICEF was blocked by the United Nations from taking medicine to children with black fever, Sheri crossed the border from Kuwait into Iraq to save their lives. Sheri upholds the Hippocratic Oath to preserve life and do no harm, no matter the personal consequences, and no matter the political views. Every life matters for Sheri.
David Michael Green ’78 (General Studies), MPH ’82, is a MacArthur Fellow and is recognized internationally as a leading social entrepreneur. David has dedicated his business acumen to the eradication of blindness and deafness. Founder of Project Impact of Berkeley, CA, a non-profit organization dedicated to making medical technology and health care service accessible, affordable and financially self-sustaining, David’s company focuses primarily on avoidable disabilities like sight and hearing loss. Project Impact is a model for financially sustainable healthcare -- products and services are sold at a globally affordable price, and what profits are earned are then rolled back into production and service for those in need. The hope is that Project Impact will help put the disabled back on their feet and on their way back to economic independence.
To support Project Impact, David established Aurolab in India, the first non-profit manufacturing facility in a developing country to produce intraocular lenses to ameliorate vision loss from cataracts. Aurolab is now one of the largest manufacturers of intraocular lenses in the world, selling to nearly 100 countries. Aurolab also produces wound suture equipment, hearing aids, pharmaceuticals, and glasses. David’s company has also developed high volume, quality eye care programs at Aravind Eye Hospital in India, the largest eye care program in the world. Project Impact also has a presence in Egypt, Malawi, Guatemala, EL Salvador, Tibet, Tanzania, and Kenya.
Aaron Hurst ‘ 96 (General Studies) is the founder of Taproot Foundation which engages young professionals from the for profit world in volunteer projects for nonprofit organizations who need their expertise and talent. Taproot focuses on the expertise of volunteers, education, accountability, and the delivery of timely help to give immediate value. It builds the capacity of community based nonprofits by providing high quality help in many areas like marketing, branding, information technology and management, and web development. Aaron’s vision is to harness human capital to improve the human condition, and his mission is to engage business in service, breaking down the barriers between the for profit and nonprofit sectors to better society. Taproot, which has spread from coast to coast in a relatively short period of time, is believed to be redefining volunteerism, especially with Generation X. It should be noted that Aaron’s ability to involve younger people in service started during his time as an LSA student. Aaron not only taught writing skills to the inmates in Jackson prison, and educated people about why it made a difference, he also worked to incorporate more service into our curriculum.
Laura Jean Lederer ’75 (Comparative Religions) is known to many as an activist and editor of Take Back the Night and The Price We Pay: The Case Against Racial Speech, Hate Propaganda, and Pornography. She has long worked to fight the injustice of sexual violence and hate speech. More recently, however, Laura has devoted her life work to stop human trafficking. She is the Founder of the Protection Project, a research institute dedicated to tracking and combating human trafficking. There, she has created a database of foreign national law on involuntary servitude, slavery, and trends in human trafficking; she tracked global routes and patterns, and published the first human rights report on human trafficking. During the drafting of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, Laura served as a witness in Senate Foreign Relations Committee and House International Relations Committee hearings, testifying on the global nature and scope of the problem. She has been instrumental in bringing trafficking victims from many countries to testify in Congress. Laura has served in a number of positions advising our country’s leadership on trafficking issues, most recently in the Bush administration as the Senior Advisor on Human Trafficking , US Department of State, where she was responsible for designing specialized anti-trafficking programs and creating policies. Laura is now serving as a legal scholar at Georgetown University, Senior Advisor to Stop Child Trafficking Now, and Vice President of Global Centurion, a non-profit organization dedicated to eliminating child sex slavery by focusing on investigation, arrest, prosecution, and conviction of the predators and perpetrators.
2007 Winners
Lori Wood Knapp '82, of Rockford, Michigan, is the founder and president of Warm Hearts Foundation, an organization dedicated to, “providing a loving hand to lift those less fortunate out of poverty and into self-sufficiency by providing clean water sources, safe shelter, nourishment, and educational opportunities.” Lori’s work with her husband Mike and in partnership with dedicated local volunteers in Kenya and Malawi has brought safe, reliable water to hundreds of thousands of people in Africa. She also built a primary and a secondary school and opened an orphanage and safe house.
Lori’s foundation drills wells in Malawi so villagers won’t have problems with water borne diseases, and women and children do not spend all day walking to find water. In addition to improved health, villagers are now able to grow crops to feed their families.
Lori also helped build a primary and a secondary school in one of the poorest areas of Nairobi, Kenya. The schools have an enrollment of over 1,300 students, none of whom would be able to attend school in the city because they are either orphaned or destitute, and cannot afford the fees, uniforms, books, or supplies. Each classroom has over 90 students but there are no disciplinary problems because the children understand that education is the key to a better life. Lori’s latest goal is to build more classrooms to reduce class size. On the outskirts of Nairobi, construction was completed in December 2006 for a new Warm Hearts House orphanage. The orphanage is now full and its first child has just started college to pursue a career in aeronautical engineering.
Lori’s sister, Lisa Wood Vreede '81, says, “Lori believes the path to change lies in providing education and opportunity to the children of the world. Through providing safe water, she has brought the opportunity for health and nourishment. Through safety and education she has brought the hope of a better future. The actions of Lori and her partners in Africa are making a difference for hundreds of thousands of people today. These people will make a difference for others tomorrow.”
Joan H. Tisch ’48, of New York, New York, is a philanthropist and active volunteer who has helped educational, civic, arts, and health organizations in her home town of New York City as well as across the country. LSA graduates are most familiar with her generosity when they reflect on their studies that took place in Tisch Hall, built with the gift she and her late husband, NY Giants co-owner and Loews Corporation Chairman, Bob Tisch, gave to LSA in 1996. In addition to the generosity she has shown to the University of Michigan, she has also supported other educational institutions including NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and Tisch Hospital, and Duke University’s Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Research Center.
LSA alumni in New York likely will have walked the Tisch Galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art or benefited from her work as a trustee at the Museum of Modern Art. Residents in the city will have also experienced her support at the 92nd Street YMCA or through Citymeals-on-Wheels, where she volunteers.
Howard Bragman '78, of Los Angeles, California nominated Tisch for this award because of all the aforementioned contributions to society as well as her work to support AIDS related charities. Bragman wrote that Tisch’s volunteer work and support of the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, were pivotal to the organization’s growth as one of the world’s most comprehensive providers of information for men, women, and children affected by AIDS.
Joan’s volunteerism and generosity are far reaching and have helped feed the hungry, preserve and enhance our exposure to the arts, educate those thirsty for knowledge, and heal the sick.
Jack Hood Vaughn '43, AM '47 of Tucson, Arizona, has spent his entire life in service to humanity. Jack served in every overseas agency of the U.S. government: the US Information Service, USAID, the State Department, and the Peace Corps. As the second director of the Peace Corps, Jack oversaw the largest contingent of volunteers serving in the most countries in the agency’s history, a fact that should make every alum proud since the Peace Corps was established on the front steps of the Union by President Kennedy, and Michigan continues to lead the nation in the number of graduates who go on to join the Peace Corps. Jack worked in Bolivia, Costa Rica, Panama, Guatemala, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea, Haiti, Iran, and Colombia, and he went on to serve as U.S. ambassador to Colombia and Panama.
In the private sector, Jack was the first international director of Sesame Street, dean of international studies at Florida International University and served on boards at several Central American universities. Jack also worked to promote women’s reproductive rights as the president of the Planned Parenthood, and now works to save the environment as founder of Conservation International and of ECOTRUST. Each accomplishment is impressive in itself but collectively are awe-inspiring and become particularly fascinating for a man who began his career as the head boxing coach at Michigan.
Jack’s wife Margaret Vaughn says, “Jack has always been extremely proud of his Michigan ties…It was at Michigan that his interest in foreign languages was developed and thrived. Jack has often described his years as a Michigan Fiji, especially the day all the brothers descended on the recruiting station in Ann Arbor together to join the Marines. Upon graduation from Michigan, Jack became a rifle commander and an intelligence officer, interrogating prisoners in Japanese during the invasion of Okinawa. After the armistice, he was sent to China, where he taught English when his Marine Corps duties allowed. After the war he returned to Michigan to get his MA. His Michigan education and proficiency in foreign languages were crucial to his career in international affairs.”