A climate finance pioneer. A diplomat who helped evacuate thousands from a war zone. A champion of global school nutrition. A trailblazing scholar of equity in public administration. A leader in the federal inspector general oversight community.These are the five Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs alumni who will be celebrated at the annual Awards of Excellence on Thursday, April 30, in Washington, D.C.

The event, to be held at the Syracuse University Washington, D.C., Center in the heart of Dupont Circle, will also serve as an opportunity for the Maxwell community to reunite and celebrate the school’s enduring commitment to engaged citizenship.

Established in 2022, the Awards of Excellence program celebrates the contributions of the school’s alumni and friends to their fields, communities and society through work that reflects the Maxwell School mission and values. Recognition categories include the 1924 Award, Bridge Award, Charles V. Willie Advocate Award, Compass Award and Spirit of Public Service Award.

“We are honored to welcome members of the Maxwell community to join us for an evening of celebration and reflection,” says Dean David M. Van Slyke. “Each year, this event reminds me of why our mission endures. This year’s honorees have built careers spanning climate finance, diplomacy, food security, public administration and the law—and in every case, they have used their Maxwell education as a foundation for making the world more sustainable, more humane and more just. I look forward to celebrating them and to welcoming our community back to Washington, D.C.”

The five 2026 honorees are Jeff Eckel G’82,  George Farag G’02, G’07, Emily Fredenberg G’16, Susan Gooden G’95, G’96 and Roslyn A. Mazer ’71.

Jeff Eckel—Bridge Award

For his commitment to improving our climate future, Eckel is the recipient of the 2026 Bridge Award, which honors exemplary leadership across sectors while advancing the Maxwell School’s mission of making the world a better place.

Eckel, who earned an M.P.A. from Maxwell, has spent four decades advancing climate-positive investing with the view that climate change is among the greatest challenges of our time. As chair of HASI and its CEO for the previous two decades, he pioneered the use of finance to accelerate the adoption of low-carbon climate solutions in the United States and the developing world.

He developed the HannieMae Trust, a first-of-its-kind investment vehicle for funding energy-conservation projects, oversaw HASI’s 2013 public offering as the first dedicated climate solutions investor, and created CarbonCount, a tool that measures how efficiently capital investments reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

George Farag—Spirit of Public Service Award

Farag is the recipient of the Spirit of Public Service Award, which honors individuals whose work has had widespread global impact and reflects the ideals of the Maxwell School. For more than 25 years, he has worked at the intersection of diplomacy, immigration and national security to advance U.S. interests and protect American lives. Farag earned master’s degrees in public administration and international relations and Ph.D. in anthropology from the Maxwell School.

Inspired by the Sept. 11 attacks, Farag joined the U.S. Department of State as a diplomat and consular officer in 2002. During five years of service in some of the world’s most volatile environments, he helped lead the evacuation of 15,000 Americans during the 2006 Lebanon War and was among the first U.S. diplomats to enter Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom. In 2013, he founded Silverline Strategies, a consulting firm whose operations now affect more than 3 million visa applicants each year across 15 countries. Farag received the Department of State’s Superior Honor Award and Meritorious Honor Award.

Emily Fredenberg—Compass Award

Fredenberg, who holds an M.P.A. degree and a master’s degree in international relations, is the recipient of this year’s Compass Award, given in recognition of her exceptional accomplishments and impact as an early-career alumna. In the 10 years since earning her Maxwell degrees, she has built a career dedicated to strengthening food security among some of the world’s most vulnerable populations.

Fredenberg is currently senior officer of programs and advocacy at the Global Child Nutrition Foundation, where she cultivates global partnerships to advance sustainable school meal programs worldwide. She previously served as a project manager at The Rockefeller Foundation, overseeing grants focused on combating the global food crisis. Before that, she spent six years with the World Food Programme, serving in Lebanon—helping the response to the Syrian refugee crisis—and in Rwanda, where she led communications strategy for the nation’s home-grown school meal initiative.

Susan Gooden—Charles V. Willie Advocate Award

Gooden is the recipient of the Charles V. Willie Advocate Award, which recognizes alumni whose contributions reflect Maxwell’s commitment to creating an environment that is welcoming to all and oriented toward engaged citizenship. The honor recognizes her excellence in leadership, teaching and scholarship advancing inclusive governance and equity in public administration.

Gooden, who earned both a master’s degree and Ph.D. in political science at Maxwell, is dean and professor of the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University, where she co-founded the Research Institute for Social Equity.

She has authored six books and more than 100 academic journal articles and reports and is a founding editor of the Journal of Social Equity and Public Administration. An elected fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, she is a past president of the American Society for Public Administration, which honored her with the 2025 Dwight Waldo Award recognizing more than 25 years of preeminent contributions to the field.

Roslyn A. Mazer—1924 Award

Mazer is the recipient of this year’s Maxwell 1924 Award, which honors graduates for distinguished and sustained professional or civic leadership in the spirit of the school’s mission.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in political science from Maxwell, Mazer went on to provide vigorous oversight of government programs as inspector general of the Federal Trade Commission, inspector general of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and special investigative counsel in the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General. Earlier, she served in the Department of Justice, including as deputy assistant attorney general, guiding federal judicial nominees through the confirmation process.

Before entering public service, Mazer was in private law practice specializing in media and First Amendment law. Notably, she represented the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists as friend of the court in Hustler Magazine Inc. v. Falwell, the landmark Supreme Court ruling affirming First Amendment protection of satire. Today, she continues to advocate for cartoonists’ rights and free expression.