Twenty Distinguished Naturalized Citizens Honored by Carnegie Corporation of New York as Foundation Celebrates 20 Years of Great Immigrants, Great Americans Tribute
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Carnegie Corporation of New York announces the 2025 Class of Great Immigrants, Great Americans, recognizing 20 distinguished naturalized American citizens whose contributions have enriched our society and helped to strengthen our democracy. For 20 years, the philanthropic foundation has sponsored the public awareness initiative, honoring a total of more than 750 naturalized American citizens from almost 120 countries who represent a remarkable range of immigration journeys.
To mark the tribute's 20th anniversary, Carnegie has commissioned a free comic book featuring more than a dozen inspiring stories as told by naturalized U.S. citizens and created by an award-winning production team and illustrator. The 13 comics include Peabody Award–winning comedian Mo Amer; seminal musician and filmmaker David Byrne; pediatrician Mona Hanna, who exposed the water crisis in Flint, Michigan; Nobel Prize–winning biochemist Katalin Karikó, whose work led to the COVID-19 vaccine; and Jim Lee, the legendary illustrator and chief creative officer of DC. The comic book, which is freely available to the public, may be downloaded at carnegie.org/immigrantstories. Carnegie has also commissioned the National Council of Teachers of English to develop free educational resources and lesson plans based on the comics, which will be available in fall 2025.
The 2025 Class of Great Immigrants is comprised of naturalized citizens from 16 countries who are leaders across academia, the arts, business, journalism, medicine, philanthropy, and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math).
They include:
- Tope Awotona (Nigeria) Founder and CEO of Calendly, a scheduling software company that employs more than 650 people and provides services to over 20 million users at 100,000 organizations.
- Moungi Bawendi (France) Winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for work that revolutionized the chemical production of quantum dots used in biomedical imaging and computer and television displays.
- Simon Johnson (England) Winner of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for studies of how institutions are formed and affect prosperity and for developing theoretical tools to explain how institutions can change.
- Michele Kang (South Korea) Founder and CEO of Kynisca, the world's first multi-team global organization focused on professionalizing women's football and proving its commercial potential and cultural impact.
- Shahid Khan (Pakistan) President and CEO of Flex-N-Gate, an automobile components manufacturer with 76 plants worldwide and 27,000 employees.
- María Teresa Kumar (Colombia) President and CEO of Voto Latino, a national nonprofit organization that encourages civic engagement among younger generations of Latinx voters
- Tania León (Cuba) A Pulitzer Prize–winning composer, conductor, and educator who has held positions with Carnegie Hall, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic, and is a founding member of the Dance Theatre of Harlem.
'For 20 years, our Great Immigrants public awareness initiative has been a reminder that many of the most influential figures in our country have been distinguished naturalized citizens, like our founder Andrew Carnegie, born in Scotland,' said Dame Louise Richardson, president of Carnegie, who is a naturalized American citizen born in Ireland. 'The U.S. is a nation of immigrants and our ongoing support of nonpartisan organizations that help establish legal pathways for citizenship continues to enrich the very fabric of American life. We applaud this year's 20th class and the hundreds of 'Great Immigrants, Great Americans' before them.'
The initiative aims to increase public awareness of the economic and societal benefits of immigration. It is a tribute to the legacy of Andrew Carnegie, a Scottish immigrant who, like the initiative's honorees, found success as an American and contributed enormously to his adopted country. During the past 20 years, the Carnegie database of Great Immigrants has grown into one of the largest online resources for examples of accomplished naturalized American citizens. Past honorees include Isabel Allende, Elizabeth Blackburn, Sergey Brin, Michael J. Fox, Min Jin Lee, Yo-Yo Ma, Rupert Murdoch, Martina Navratilova, and Pedro Pascal.
Naturalization and the legal integration of immigrants are part of the foundation's overarching goal of reducing political polarization for a strong democracy. According to the American Immigration Council, a Carnegie grantee whose research is cited in the new comic book, there are 48 million immigrants in America, about half are naturalized U.S. citizens, and more than seven million are eligible to apply for citizenship. Among Fortune 500 companies, 230 were founded by immigrants or children of immigrants, and among business owners, one in four is an immigrant.
The 20 honorees in the Class of 2025 will be recognized with a full-page public service announcement in The New York Times on the Fourth of July and through tributes on social media. Please join the celebration by sharing via Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and X (Twitter) using the hashtag #GreatImmigrants.
To learn more about the foundation's new comic book featuring Great Immigrants, visit carnegie.org/immigrantstories.
The 2025 Class of Great Immigrants:
Tope Awotona (Nigeria) Founder and CEO, Calendly
Moungi Bawendi (France) Professor of Chemistry, MIT
Helen M. Blau (England) Director, Baxter Laboratory for Stem Cell Biology, and Professor, Stanford University
Roger Cohen (England) Journalist and Paris Bureau Chief, The New York Times
Akiko Iwasaki (Japan) Professor of Immunobiology, Dermatology, and Epidemiology, Yale School of Medicine
Maz Jobrani (Iran) Comedian, Actor, and Author
Simon Johnson (England) Professor of Entrepreneurship, MIT Sloan School of Management
Michele Kang (South Korea) Businesswoman, Sports Team Owner, and Philanthropist
Shahid Khan (Pakistan) President and CEO, Flex-N-Gate
Manjusha (Manju) P. Kulkarni (India) Executive Director, AAPI Equity Alliance
María Teresa Kumar (Colombia) President and CEO, Voto Latino
Tania León (Cuba) Composer, Conductor, and Educator
Sandra Leisa Lindsay (Jamaica) Vice President, Public Health Advocacy, Northwell Health
Luciano Marraffini (Argentina) Professor, The Rockefeller University, and Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Priyamvada Natarajan (India) Professor of Astronomy and Physics, Yale University
Kareem Rahma (Egypt) Comedian, Artist, and Musician
Raúl Ruiz (Mexico) U.S. Congressman, California, District 25
Manoochehr Sadeghi (Iran) Grand Master Musician and Educator
Yuan Yuan Tan (China) Former Prima Ballerina, San Francisco Ballet
Avi Wigderson (Israel) Professor of Mathematics, Institute for Advanced Study
About Carnegie Corporation of New York
Carnegie Corporation of New York was established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding. Today the foundation works to reduce political polarization through philanthropic support for the issues that Carnegie considered most important: education, democracy, and peace.
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