Five extraordinary Maxwell School alumni will be recognized, and the school’s commitment to engaged citizenship will be celebrated, at a March 27 event at Syracuse University’s new home in Washington, D.C.
Members of the Maxwell School community are invited to an upcoming event in Washington, D.C., that will honor five accomplished alumni whose careers and civic contributions exemplify a commitment to giving back and improving the lives of others.
The annual Awards of Excellence, to be held on Thursday, March 27, will also serve as an opportunity to reunite, celebrate the school’s enduring commitment to engaged citizenship and visit Syracuse University’s newest DC home.
It will be held at Syracuse University’s recently opened center in the heart of Dupont Circle. It houses the Institute for Democracy, Journalism and Citizenship and serves as a home base for study away programs offered by the Maxwell School, the Newhouse School of Public Communications and the College of Law.
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 Compass Award, 1924 Award, Bridge Award, Charles V. Willie Advocate Award and Spirit of Public Service Award. In the spring of 2024 the event was expanded to celebrate Maxwell’s centennial year.
“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. “Now in its fourth year, I look forward to this event each spring as it fills me with a sense of pride and hope. This year’s awardees work in and across the public and private sectors in a range of professions. Through their work and additional pursuits, they have demonstrated engaged citizenship, and a sustained commitment to leaving what they find greater, better and more beautiful. This public service ethos is central to our mission since the school’s founding in 1924.”
The five 2025 honorees are Margaret Abraham ’89 Ph.D. (Soc); Tom Bozzuto ’71 M.P.A.; Sahil Jain ’13 B.A. (IR); Ana Maria Menezes ’06 M.A. (PA); and Tiesha Peal ’99 B.A. (PSc).
Margaret Abraham
Abraham is the recipient of the 1924 Award, honoring graduates for their distinguished and sustained professional or civic leadership and achievement in the spirit of the Maxwell School mission. She is a professor of sociology and the Harry H. Wachtel Distinguished Teaching Professor for the Study of Nonviolent Social Change at Hofstra University, where she has served on the faculty for 35 years. Her leadership roles include serving as past president of the International Sociological Association and, at Hofstra, as senior vice provost for academic affairs, special advisor to the provost for diversity initiatives and director of the Women’s Studies Program.
An author, lecturer and advisor, Abraham bridges scholarship and social justice advocacy in the areas of ethnicity, gender, migration and domestic violence. She is the author of four books and two special volumes, including “Speaking the Unspeakable: Marital Violence Among South Asian Immigrants in the United States.” She has been quoted in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Newsday and India Today.
Tom Bozzuto
Bozzuto, chairman and co-founder of The Bozzuto Group, is the recipient of the Bridge Award which honors exemplary leadership across sectors while upholding the Maxwell School’s mission of making the world a better place. He has led an extraordinary career in real estate development and management, creating more than 62,000 homes and apartments and nurturing vibrant multifamily communities. A Baltimore community leader, he is a driving force-for-good in civic and charitable circles.
Before attending the Maxwell School, Bozzuto served as a combat correspondent for the 25th Infantry Division of the U.S. Army in Vietnam. Early in his career, he worked for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and spent 13 years as mid-Atlantic regional partner at Oxford Development Corp. His leadership roles have included serving as board chair of the Baltimore Community Foundation, the National Multifamily Housing Council, the Maryland Science Center, and Hobart and William Smith Colleges, where he received undergraduate and honorary degrees. He also served as a congressional appointee to the Millennial Housing Commission and twice as a gubernatorial appointee to the Maryland Housing Commission.
Sahil Jain
Jain is the recipient of this year’s Compass Award for his exceptional accomplishments as an early-career alumnus. A foreign service officer with the U.S. Department of State, Jain has led an exemplary career in diverse roles across the U.S. government helping to advance peace and security around the world. From 2024-25, he was special assistant to the deputy secretary of state, focused on U.S. policy related to South and Central Asia. He served in the White House as a senior advisor at the National Security Council and as policy advisor in the Vice President’s Office of National Security Affairs.
A career diplomat, Jain was a political officer at U.S. Embassies in China from 2021-23 and India from 2018-20. He has contributed to key policy initiatives in the Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs and at USAID. He also managed the foreign affairs portfolio for California Congressman Ami Bera as a legislative assistant.
Ana Maria Menezes
Menezes is the recipient of this year’s Spirit of Public Service Award, which recognizes contributions that have had a widespread global impact. For more than 35 years she has applied her vast knowledge in aquaculture and natural resource management to help eradicate food insecurity, improve nutrition and reduce poverty in some of the poorest regions of the world.
As senior fisheries officer with the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, Menezes works with member nations to increase aquaculture production using best practices that are both sustainable and profitable. She leaves a legacy of capacity development and good governance frameworks for government officers, financial institutions and farmers. Previously, Menezes was national officer for the UN Environment Programme and she served as national director of planning and research for the Ministry of Environmental Affairs and aquaculture researcher at the Instituto Nacional de Investigação Pesqueira in her native country of Mozambique.
Tiesha Peal
Peal, an attorney with 20 years of experience helping to ensure equal treatment for all under the law, is the recipient of the Charles V. Willie Advocate Award.
Peal previously worked as the assistant district attorney in the Bronx County District Attorney Office, handling litigation and conducting investigations into criminal activity ranging from contraband to gang assaults. She also represented New York City employees in housing court as an attorney for District Council 37 Union and was a staff attorney with Essex-Newark Legal Services, which provides free legal assistance to very low-income residents. She is a founding member of the Maxwell School’s Alumni Affinity Group and a frequent mentor to current students and alumni.
