From left: Lehman College President José Luis Cruz and his wife, Dr. Rima Brusi; honorees Christopher Stavrou and Joanne Walsh Stavrou; honoree Kerry Washington; honoree Wendy Lehman Lash; Lehman College Foundation Chair Myrna Rivera; honorees Ivan and Phyllis Seidenberg; and Lehman College Foundation Vice Chair Ira Cohen
Lehman College President José Luis Cruz and honoree Kerry Washington

Kerry Washington Honored at Lehman College 50th Anniversary Celebration and Leadership Awards Dinner in New York City

​NEW YORK — Acclaimed actress, activist and producer Kerry Washington received the Lehman Award for Artistic Achievement at the Lehman College 50th Anniversary Celebration and Leadership Awards Dinner on April 11, at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in New York. 














A Bronx native, Kerry Washington, said, “I have many precious memories of Lehman College and its beautiful campus. I’m honored to help usher in this next chapter in Lehman’s history of service to the Bronx.”

Lehman College President José Luis Cruz, said, “Ms. Washington is an outstanding role model for our students – an accomplished artist who works tirelessly for equality and education. We are thrilled to present her with the Lehman Award for Artistic Achievement.”


















Lehman College also honored philanthropists and business leaders.   


  • Iven Seidenberg, the former chairman and CEO of Verizon Communications and his wife Phyllis, both Lehman College alums, received the Distinguished Alumnus Award for their work with the Seidenberg Family Foundation.   
  • Joanne Walsh Stavrou and Christopher Stavrou received the Lehman Medal for Business, Cultural and Civic Leadership, for their work promoting educational opportunity for all.
  • A special President’s Medal was awarded posthumously to Edith and Herbert H. Lehman and accepted by their granddaughter Wendy Lehman Lash.  Edith Lehman was a lifelong philanthropist.  Herbert H. Lehman, for whom the college is named, served as Governor and as US Senator from New York. 


Lehman College is The City University of New York’s only four-year college in the Bronx, serving the borough and surrounding region as an intellectual, economic, and cultural center. Lehman provides undergraduate and graduate studies in the liberal arts and sciences and professional education within a dynamic research environment. With a diverse student body of more than 13,000, Lehman offers more than 90 undergraduate and graduate programs. Ranked as having the fourth highest mobility rate in the nation by the National Bureau of Economic Research and the Equality of Opportunity Project, Lehman is a proud catalyst for economic and social mobility for its students, almost half of whom are first generation college students.