Past Winners

Prominent Human Rights Activist and Scholar

Chen Guangcheng is perhaps the world’s leading critic of the Chinese Communist Party, its oppression of the Chinese people, and the threat it poses to the United States and to constitutional democracy worldwide. Having escaped from China in 2012, he is now a Distinguished Fellow at the Center for Human Rights at the Catholic University of America.

Guangcheng has visited over a dozen countries to speak about the importance of human rights. Through his work on digital platforms, Guangcheng is able to have limitless reach, including into China where his “bootleg” messages are widely distributed. His new YouTube channel, The Barefoot Lawyer Reports, is produced for English speakers throughout the world. Additionally, the Barefoot Lawyer Podcasts provides periodic and deep analysis of current events concerning human rights.

Since beginning his advocacy work, Chen has been the recipient of numerous awards including Time Magazine 100 Most Influential List (2006), The Ramon Magsaysay Award (2007), The Lantos Human Rights Prize (2012), the UK Parliament’s Westminster Award (2013), the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy Courage Award (2014), and the Leopoldo Lopez Freedom and Democracy Award from Kenyon College (2021). He is also Distinguished Senior Fellow in Human Rights at the Witherspoon Institute and Senior Distinguished Advisor to the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice.

Guangcheng was born in 1971 in a remote village in Shandong, China. The son of a poor farmer, Chen was left permanently blind by illness as an infant, and his family had few resources to support him. But despite his disability, he was determined to educate himself, eventually learning to read and write at age 18 when he began attending a school for the blind. He would be the first person in his family to earn a college degree.

At school, Chen was confronted with numerous instances of injustice occurring around him and began speaking out. He took an interest in the law but, being blind, was not permitted to study for a law degree. Over time, with the help of his close family, he taught himself law and began working on legal cases related to issues of civil rights and disability. His successful lawsuit against the Beijing Metro Corporation resulted in free ridership for the blind across China. The international media took notice, eventually dubbing him “the barefoot lawyer,” referencing the rural “barefoot doctors” of the Cultural Revolution. In 2005, Newsweek selected him for its cover.

Living at home in his village, his legal work eventually lead to his investigation into the violent campaign carried out to enforce the so-called One Child Policy. He came under a period of harassment and detention that would last over seven years, including repeated house arrests, unofficial “black jails,” and a four-year prison sentence. After nearly two years of brutal detention in his own home, he escaped his village, later seeking safety at the American embassy in Beijing. High-level diplomatic negotiations secured his travel to the US, where he became a scholar at New York University Law School in 2012. He left NYU to join the Catholic University of America.

His remarkable escape, despite being totally blind, is recounted in Mr. Chen’s memoir, The Barefoot Lawyer: A Blind Man’s Fight for Justice and Freedom in China (Henry Holt Publishers in 2015).

 
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Distinguished Economist and Scholar

Glenn C. Loury is Merton P. Stoltz Professor of Economics at Brown University. He holds the B.A. in Mathematics (Northwestern) and the Ph.D. in Economics (M.I.T). As an economic theorist he has published widely and lectured throughout the world on his research. He is also among America’s leading critics writing on racial inequality. He has been elected as a Distinguished Fellow of the American Economics Association, as a Member of the American Philosophical Society and of the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations, and as a Fellow of the Econometric Society and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

 
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Acclaimed Scholar, Historian, and Author

Wilfred M. McClay is the Victor Davis Hanson Chair in Classical History and Western Civilization at Hillsdale College. He was formerly the G.T. and Libby Blankenship Chair in the History of Liberty at the University of Oklahoma. His most recent book is Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story (Encounter, 2019). His book The Masterless: Self and Society in Modern America (1994) won the Merle Curti Award of the Organization of American Historians for the best book in American intellectual history. Among his other books are The Student’s Guide to U.S. History, Religion Returns to the Public Square: Faith and Policy in America, Figures in the Carpet: Finding the Human Person in the American Past, and Why Place Matters: Geography, Identity, and Public Life in Modern America. He was educated at St. John’s College (Annapolis) and received his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1987.

 
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Acclaimed Journalist and Author

Mollie Ziegler Hemingway provides unique and thoughtful reporting and analysis of American politics and culture. She helped launch and is a senior editor of the online magazine The Federalist, which has become one of the most influential voices in politics and has millions of readers. She is Senior Journalism Fellow at Hillsdale College where she teaches journalism. A Fox News contributor, she is a regular member of the Fox News All-Stars panel on “Special Report with Bret Baier" and a regular guest on MediaBuzz, hosted by Howard Kurtz. She has been profiled in the New York Times and her work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, the Washington Post, The Atlantic, CNN, Claremont Review of Books, National Review, Christianity Today, Federal Times, Radio & Records, and many other publications. She serves on the board of the News Literacy Project. Mollie was a 2004 recipient of a Phillips Foundation Journalism Fellowship and a 2014 Lincoln Fellow of the Claremont Institute. She is the co-author of the new national best seller "Justice On Trial: The Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Supreme Court."

 
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President, The Fund for American Studies (TFAS)

For more than 40 years, Roger Ream has pursued his passion in the field of economic education, building programs that have preserved and expanded freedom both here in America and around the world. In 1991, he joined The Fund for American Studies (TFAS) as executive vice president and was named president in 1998.

TFAS is an educational organization that is changing the world by developing leaders for a free society. By offering a portfolio of more than 20 different academic programs, fellowships and seminars, TFAS helps cultivate future leaders from high school to their university studies and professional careers. TFAS maintains academic relationships with George Mason University, Charles University in Prague, Universidad de los Andes in Chile, the University of Hong Kong, and the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, and conducts a joint program with the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute.

Under Mr. Ream’s leadership, TFAS has grown in reach and influence, adding international programs in Europe, Asia and South America, as well as expanding to offer year-round academic and internship programs in Washington, DC. In 2013, the Foundation for Teaching Economics (FTE) was merged into TFAS. FTE's programs educate high school students on the economic way of thinking and train teachers to effectively teach economic principles.

TFAS has also added programs for its 42,000 alumni and other young professionals to help develop their leadership skills and deepen their appreciation for the principles of liberty. TFAS sponsors a year-long fellowship for young leaders in public policy and assumed management of the Robert Novak Journalism Fellowship program in 2013. Recipients of Novak Fellowships include Mollie Hemingway, Tim Carney, Steve Hayes, Robbie Soave, and Katherine Mangu-Ward. In 2018, working with The Wall Street Journal and the parents of the late Joseph Rago, TFAS established the Joseph Rago Fellowship for Excellence in Journalism.

Prior to joining TFAS in 1991, Mr. Ream served as vice president for development at Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE), an economic policy organization he helped establish in 1984. Mr. Ream has also served as an assistant to two members of Congress and on the Senior Staff of the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE). He is immediate past chairman of FEE and continues to serve on their board.

Mr. Ream is also a member of the boards of the U.S. Air Force Academy Foundation and Donors Capital Fund. He serves on the advisory boards of the Philanthropic Enterprise and TalentMarket. He is a member of the Mont Pelerin Society, the Frank S. Meyer Society, the Association of Private Enterprise Education (APEE) and the Philadelphia Society. Mr. Ream served as president of the Philadelphia Society from 2009-10.

Mr. Ream has contributed essays and opinion pieces to the Washington Examiner, the Daily Signal, the Federalist, the Washington Times, The Hill, Real Clear Markets, The Freeman, the International Policy Digest and the Morning Consult.

Mr. Ream received his B.A. from Vanderbilt University in 1977. A native of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, he is married and has three adult children and two grandchildren.

 
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Amity Shlaes chairs the board of the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation, a foundation which is based at the birthplace of the thirtieth president in Plymouth Notch, Vermont, with an office in the Georgetown area of Washington, D.C. The Coolidge Foundation is the sponsor of the popular Coolidge Scholarship, a full college scholarship for academic merit, and the Coolidge Senators program, which exposes gifted students the values of President Coolidge.  Her newest book is The Great Society: A New History (November, 2019, Harper Collins).  Miss Shlaes is the author of five previous books, four of which are New York Times bestsellers: Germany: The Empire Within, The Greedy Hand: Why Taxes Drive Americans Crazy, The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression, Coolidge, and The Forgotten Man/Graphic. She was a syndicated columnist for ten years, first at the Financial Times, then Bloomberg. Before that, she served as an editorial board member of The Wall Street Journal. Over the decades she has published in periodicals including The New Republic, The New Yorker, the Spectator of London, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and National Review.  For the past five years she has chaired the jury of the Hayek Prize, the Manhattan Institute's book prize. She also serves as presidential scholar at the King's College in New York.    

 
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Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (retired)

Judge Janice Rogers Brown was confirmed to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on June 8, 2005. From 1996 to 2005, she was Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court. Previously, she served as Associate Justice of the Third District Court of Appeals in Sacramento and as the Legal Affairs Secretary to Governor Pete Wilson.

Prior to joining Governor Wilson’s senior staff, Judge Brown was an associate at Nielsen, Merksamer, Parrinello, Mueller & Naylor. Earlier, she served as Deputy Secretary and General Counsel for California’s Business, Transportation and Housing Agency (BT&H), working primarily with business regulatory departments. She came to BT&H after eight years in the Attorney General’s Office, where she worked in both the criminal appellate and civil trial divisions. She also worked for two years for the Legislative Counsel and previously served as an adjunct professor at the University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law.

Judge Brown currently serves on the Board of Regents of Pepperdine University and is a member of the Board of the Coolidge Foundation. She also serves as the Darling Foundation Jurist-in-Residence and a visiting professor at the University of California-Berkeley School of Law.

Judge Brown is a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law and California State University, Sacramento. In 2004, Judge Brown received a Master of Laws degree in Judicial Process after completing the Graduate Program for Judges at the University of Virginia School of Law.

The recipient of honorary doctorates from Pepperdine University, Ave Maria School of Law, Catholic University’s Columbia School of Law, and Southwestern School of Law, Brown received the UCLA School of Law Alumnus of the Year award in 1998 and UCLA’s 2004 Award for Excellence in Public Service. She has been honored with the Jurisprudence Award of the Claremont Institute’s Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence. Judge Brown retired from the bench in 2017.

 
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Financial Journalist and Historian
Founder and Editor, Grant’s Interest Rate Observer

James Grant, financial journalist and historian, is the founder and editor of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, a twice-monthly journal of the investment markets. His book, The Forgotten Depression, 1921: the Crash that Cured Itself, a history of America’s last governmentally unmedicated business-cycle downturn, won the 2015 Hayek Prize of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. His new book, Bagehot: The Life and Times of the Greatest Victorian, will be published in July.

Among his other books on finance and financial history are Bernard M. Baruch: The Adventures of a Wall Street Legend (Simon & Schuster, 1983); Money of the Mind (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1992); Minding Mr. Market (Farrar, Straus, 1993); The Trouble with Prosperity (Times Books, 1996); and Mr. Market Miscalculates (Axios Press, 2008).

Mr. Grant is also the author of a pair of political biographies: John Adams: Party of One (Farrar, Straus, 2005) and Mr. Speaker! The Life and Times of Thomas B. Reed, the Man Who Broke the Filibuster (Simon & Schuster, 2011).

Mr. Grant’s television appearances include 60 Minutes; The Charlie Rose Show; CBS Evening News; and a 10-year stint on Wall Street Week. His journalism has appeared in a variety of periodicals, including The Wall Street Journal; Financial Times; Foreign Affairs; and The Claremont Review of Books. He contributed an essay to the Sixth Edition of Graham and Dodd's Security Analysis (McGraw-Hill, 2009).

Mr. Grant, a former Navy gunner's mate, is a Phi Beta Kappa alumnus of Indiana University. He earned a master's degree in international relations from Columbia University, began his career in journalism in 1972 at the Baltimore Sun, and joined the staff of Barron’s in 1975. Mr. Grant is a trustee of the New York Historical Society and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

 
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Editor and Publisher, The New Criterion
President and Publisher, Encounter Books

Roger Kimball is Editor and Publisher of The New Criterion and President and Publisher of Encounter Books. He writes regular columns for American Greatness, PJ Media, and the Spectator USA. Mr. Kimball lectures widely and has appeared on many national radio and television programs as well as the BBC.

Mr. Kimball is the author of several books, including The Fortunes of Permanence: Culture and Anarchy in an Age of Amnesia (St. Augustine’s Press); The Rape of the Masters: How Political Correctness Sabotages Art (Encounter); Lives of the Mind: The Use and Abuse of Intelligence from Hegel to Wodehouse (Ivan R. Dee); and Art’s Prospect: The Challenge of Tradition in an Age of Celebrity (Ivan R. Dee). Other titles by Mr. Kimball include The Long March: How the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s Changed America (Encounter) and Tenured Radicals: How Politics Has Corrupted Our Higher Education (HarperCollins).

Mr. Kimball is a frequent contributor to many publications here and in England, including The New Criterion, The Times Literary Supplement, Literary Review, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post, The Washington Times, Standpoint, National Review, Quadrant, and The National Interest.

Mr. Kimball is also a contributor to and editor of several books, including Vox Populi: The Perils and Promises of Populism (Encounter); The Future of the European Past: Essays from The New Criterion (Ivan R. Dee); The Betrayal of Liberalism: How the Disciples of Freedom and Equality Helped Foster the Illiberal Politics of Coercion and Control (Ivan R. Dee); and The Survival of Culture: Permanent Values in a Virtual Age (Ivan R. Dee).

Mr. Kimball has served on the Board of Advisors of the Gilder-Lehrman Institute of American History, the Board of Visitors and Governors of St. John’s College, Annapolis and Santa Fe, and Transaction Publishers. He currently serves on the advisory board of Ralston College, the board of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, and is Chairman of the William F. Buckley, Jr. Program at Yale.

 
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Michael W. Grebe is the retired President and Chief Executive Officer of The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation. Previously, he served as Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Partner in the law firm of Foley & Lardner LLP. Mr. Grebe served on the Board of Directors of the Milwaukee Brewers Baseball Club, Oshkosh Corporation and the Church Mutual Insurance Company, among others. He was a director of the Hoover Institution, a director and board chairman of the Philanthropy Roundtable, and a member and board president of the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System. Mr. Grebe holds a J.D. from the University of Michigan and a B.S. from the United States Military Academy. Mr. Grebe was awarded a Bradley Prize in 2016 in recognition of his 20 years of outstanding service to the Foundation.