2022 Public Service Award

William Henry, A&S 1992
Mr. Henry worked for several years with the Baltimore City Council, working his way up from a legislative aide to chief of staff for the city council president. During this time, he also received his MBA from Loyola University Maryland. While chief of staff, he advocated for communities with the Patterson Park Community Development Corporation and was board president of the Citizens Planning and Housing Administration and the Greater Homewood Corporation (now Strong City Baltimore), helping to lead revitalization efforts for the York-Greenmount corridor. Mr. Henry was elected to the Baltimore City Council in 2007. He advocated for prioritizing city funds toward education and youth development. He represented District 4 from 2007-20, serving on and leading several committees during his tenure, including chairing the Equity and Structure Committee from 2019-20. He unseated a 25-year incumbent in December 2020 and was sworn in as comptroller of Baltimore City, his current position. As comptroller, Mr. Henry oversees regular financial and performance audits of the city’s agencies and the government as a whole. The Office of the Comptroller also oversees the Department of Real Estate, the Department of Telecommunications, and the Municipal Post Office. One of Mr. Henry’s initial actions in office was to introduce bills that would modernize the comptroller’s office, including moving the real estate records from a physical record book to an online public database, with the goal of increasing transparency in city government. Mr. Henry publicized these goals during his campaign by explaining his intended reforms to the public using social media, including Twitter, and, more notably, on TikTok.

Veneeth Iyengar, Bus 2011
Veneeth Iyengar is the First Executive Director for Broadband Development & Connectivity for the State of the Louisiana. He is responsible for coordinating and leading efforts between Federal, State and local leaders to investing over $1.2 Billion in infrastructure dollars in Louisiana with the goal of eliminating the digital divide in by 2029.  Previously, Veneeth led Economic Development efforts for the Mayor-President of the city of Baton Rouge/East Baton Rouge Parish (the capital of Louisiana). During his time, 2019 & 2020 resulted in the best year in history for Economic Development projects in the parish in terms of Capex, projects secured and diversity of projects. In 2020, he was asked by Governor John Bel Edwards to Co-Chair his Resilient La. Healthcare Task Force which included the CEO’s of Ochsner, BCBS La, Franciscan Health System and Executives from the leading healthcare providers in the state. Through this task force, he led the creation of a report that provider recommendations that were focused on how to create an innovative healthcare economy given the challenges faced during the pandemic. Previous to his time as a public servant, Veneeth helped build the Venture Capital/Private Equity healthcare practice for Sage Growth Partners and worked in the Office of the Honorable Robert Mosbacher Jr, Former CEO of OPIC under President George W. Bush a US federal agency and was a former US Peace Corps Volunteer in the Philippines. Veneeth was named a 2018 40 under 40 in Baton Rouge by the Baton Rouge Business Report, named a 2020 Leadership Louisiana Recipient by the Council for Better Louisiana, serves on Ochsner Health’s State Advisory Board, elected on the Board of the Pennington Biomedical Research Foundation in 2019 was named Chairman for Innovation Catalyst, an evergreen investment fund in 2019. In addition, he has been awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award for Outstanding Public Service by Johns Hopkins University. He received his Master’s in Science in Finance from Johns Hopkins University and his Bachelors in Science in Economics from Purdue University. Veneeth grew up in Baton Rouge, attended Baton Rouge High and is a proud Louisianan.

Loyce Pace, BSPH 2005
Loyce LeShawndra Pace, MPH ‘05 is the Assistant Secretary for Global Affairs, Department of Health and Human Services.  As Assistant Secretary for Global Affairs in the Department of Health and Human Services, Pace is responsible for setting priorities and policies that promote American public health agencies and interests worldwide. She executes global health diplomacy with foreign governments, international institutions, and policymaking bodies including the G7, G20, United Nations General Assembly, and World Health Assembly. In her role, Pace also has testified before Congress, joined President Biden at the 2021 Global COVID-19 Summit, and represented the administration in the media to explain key global health strategies and challenges.  In November 2020, she was invited to be one of the initial 13 public health experts to serve on the Biden–Harris Transition COVID-19 Advisory Board. Pace approached that role with a commitment to prepare the administration to hit the ground running after inauguration.  At Global Health Council (GHC) as executive director and president, Pace drafted an open letter urging the Trump administration to reverse course when it first considered pulling U.S. funding for the WHO; the letter was signed by over 1,000 charities, medical experts, and health care companies. Also in this role, she advocated for increased federal investments in global health, in the face of budget cuts to the CDC, USAID, and the WHO. Pace has championed a wide range of issues over her career, including global health equity, universal health coverage, patient advocacy and survivorship, and the integration of health in other social or economic policies.  

Nicholas Platt, SAIS 1959
Ambassador Nicholas Platt’s expansive and illustrious career is one that helped define the United State’s relationship with Asian nations throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, particularly the resumption of US-China diplomacy in 1972-73. After graduating from SAIS in 1959, Platt made the prescient decision to study Mandarin at the Foreign Service Institute and in Taiwan in 1962, even though Americans could not visit China at the time. He then began his career in Asia as a China analyst at the U.S. Consulate General in Hong Kong, a position he held until 1968 when he transferred to the U.S. Department of State. His tenure at the State Department from 1969 to 1973 included accompanying President Nixon on the historic trip to Beijing that signaled the resumption of relations between the United States and China. He was one of the first members of the U.S. Liaison Office in Beijing (the forerunner of the U.S. Embassy in the People’s Republic of China) when the United States established a mission there in 1973. Platt’s focus then shifted to Japan, where he served as deputy chief of the political section at the Embassy in Tokyo, Japan and then Director for Japanese Affairs in Washington. His career in Washington flourished, taking on progressive roles at the White House, Department of Defense, Department of State. His 34-year foreign service career was capped with roles as U.S. Ambassador to Zambia (1982–84), the Philippines (1987–91) and Pakistan (1991–92). Upon retiring from government service, Platt served for 12 years at the helm of the Asia Society before becoming President Emeritus on July 1, 2004. In 2010, he published China Boys: How U.S. Relations with the PRC Began and Grew, a memoir that chronicles the preparations and negotiations that went into Nixon’s 1972 trip.