Aspen CE Madeleine K. Albright Leadership Award – EN

Since 2019, the Aspen Institute CE has recognized young emerging professionals with outstanding achievements and has bestowed the Aspen Central Europe Leadership Award annually.

We cannot be more proud that as of 2022, the Award will carry the name of the United States Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright and it is being renamed to the Aspen CE Madeleine K. Albright Leadership Award. The Award is bestowed annually on young emerging professionals with outstanding achievements in the active promotion of responsible citizenship, values-based leadership, and the development of innovative policies with positive societal impact in Central Europe. The Award carries the name of United States Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, a native of Prague and a friend of Aspen CE, to honor her life-long mission of educating and encouraging young leaders to carry a strong value system and contribute to the growth of society. With the Award, we recognize representatives of this generation who demonstrate great leadership early in their careers, show extraordinary potential to inspire others and impact Central European society positively. The Award serves as a great encouragement to the Laureates, inspiring their further commitment to values-based leadership, morality and courage.

The Award ceremony was opened by Elliot Gerson, Executive Vice-president of The Aspen Institute, who shared a letter from the Albright family in respect to the Award renaming. We are delighted that the laureates received the Award from Miloš Vystrčil, President of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, and Pavel Řehák, President of the of the Board of Directors of the Aspen Institute Central Europe.

We are delighted to announce the 2022 Laureates of the Aspen CE Madeleine K. Albright Leadership Award.

Zuzanna Krzątała

Zuzanna Krzątała received her MA in Liberal Studies from The New School for Social Research. Through her fieldwork with the International Rescue Committee in Jordan and Lesbos she focused on initiatives that empowered refugee women. As a Project Coordinator at Humanity in Action Poland, she leads an educational mentorship program for young activists from Poland, Ukraine, Germany and the U.S. On her podcast, CALL TO ACTION!, Zuzanna speaks to activists on how to best use their resources and avoid burnout. Amid the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, she has been assisting  refugees in Poland by hosting a Ukrainian family, setting up and running a shelter for women and children, and organizing transport and accommodation abroad. Zuzanna is also a Sustainability Project Manager at Vogue Poland, where she is responsible for the annual Business Fashion Environment Summit in Warsaw.

Jana Hlaváčová

Jana Hlaváčová is a patient advocate, Co-Founder of a patient involvement agenda at the Ministry of Health, as well as a civil servant, devoted to democratic principles and innovation in public policies. As a law-graduate, starting her professional career in the Association for International Affairs, she took several positions in the human rights sector. After being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, aged 24, she became active in patient advocacy, volunteering for patient organizations on national and international level. In 2016 she joined the Ministry of Health, Czechia, to establish a patient involvement agenda. With a team, she co-founded a new unit and a complex system of patient participation and support of patient organizations, to make sure patients take part in shaping healthcare policies. During the COVID-19 pandemics, among volunteers within the ministry, she was a part of emergency response teams, most importantly on strategy of vaccination against COVID-19. Shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, she was coordinating the establishment of a system providing humanitarian aid to Ukraine in medicinal products. Currently she works as an interim CEO of European Multiple Sclerosis Platform in Brussels, gaining more experience in supporting patient empowerment as well as the potential of using real world data and patient reported outcomes for better healthcare systems.

You can download the official press release here