Honored For a Life of Leadership
Lexington, Va. (January 30, 2024) –On Wednesday, January 24, 2024, in a ceremony hosted by Davidson College, The Omicron Delta Kappa Society and Educational Foundation Board of Trustees presented former Secretary of Transportation Anthony R. Foxx (Davidson College, 2006) the 2023 Laurel Crowned Circle Award. Matthew Clifford (Davidson College, 2001) nominated Foxx for the award.
First presented in 1980, the Laurel Crowned Circle Award is the highest individual honor awarded by Omicron Delta Kappa. Recipients are exceptional leaders in their respective fields or noted for their service in advancing leadership development. Award winners also demonstrate the highest ideals of the Society: scholarship, service, integrity, character, and fellowship. Foxx currently serves as the Emma Bloomberg Professor of the Practice of Public Leadership at Harvard College John F. Kennedy School of Government. On July 1, 2024, Foxx will become the co-director of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership. Previously, Foxx served as the 17th Secretary of Transportation (2013-2017). He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate by a 100-0 vote. Before serving at the U.S. Department of Transportation, he served as the youngest elected mayor of Charlotte, NC, where he made transportation and infrastructure investments the centerpiece of his administration.
Foxx has a long and distinguished career in public service. He has been a vocal advocate for social justice, using his platform to address systemic injustices. He exemplifies the qualities of leadership, collaboration, and service throughout his life and work that make him an
exceptional Omicron Delta Kappa Laurel Crowned Circle Award recipient.
Foxx earned his Bachelor of Arts in History from Davidson University and his Juris Doctor from New York University. He was Davidson College’s first African American student body president and was also a member of the Honor Council, Student Conduct Council, Project Life, and the Union Board.
Past recipients of the Laurel Crowned Circle Award include business leaders, scholars, heads of large nonprofit organizations, journalists, academic administrators, and philanthropists, including former U.S. Attorney General Richard Thornburgh, acclaimed author James MacGregor Burns, President of the United Negro College Fund Michael Lomax, former Congresswoman Donna Shalala, former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and a host of university presidents and philanthropists.
For more information, contact Jennifer L. Waller, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of Omicron Delta Kappa.
(540)458-5340, [email protected]
