Public Service Award

2025 Award Recipients 

Philip Gordon, SAIS Eur ’86, ’87, ’91
Philip H. Gordon is the Sydney Stein, Jr. Scholar at the Brookings Institution. He has served in numerous senior positions in the U.S. government, including as Assistant to the President and National Security Adviser to the Vice President (2022-25); Special Assistant to the President and White House Coordinator for the Middle East, North Africa, and the Gulf Region at the National Security Council (2013-15); Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs (2009-13) and Director for Europe at the National Security Council (1998-99). Dr. Gordon has also been a Senior Fellow in U.S. Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, an Executive Partner at Xn, a global investment firm, and a Senior Counselor at the Albright Stonebridge Group. Gordon received his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies in 1991; he also has an MA from SAIS (1987) and a BA from Ohio University (1984). He has lectured widely at universities and other institutions around the world and taught at SAIS and INSEAD, in Fontainebleau, France. Gordon is the author of numerous books on international relations and foreign policy including, most recently, Losing the Long Game: The False Promise of Regime Change in the Middle East, named as a “book of the century” by Foreign Affairs and “book of the year” by the Financial Times and CNN. He has published numerous articles in journals including Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and International Security, as well as newspapers and magazines including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Financial Times, The Atlantic, and Politico.

Sana Shaikh, Ed ’13
Sana Shaikh, PhD, is a nationally recognized leader in educational equity, organizational transformation, and culturally responsive innovation. With over 14 years of experience spanning K–12 education, academic research, nonprofit leadership, and public policy, she brings a dynamic, interdisciplinary approach to the complex challenges facing today’s schools and communities. A proud alumna of the Johns Hopkins School of Education, Shaikh began her journey in education as a Teach For America corps member teaching Secondary English in Baltimore. Early in her career, she mentored new teachers as a Manager of Teacher Leadership Development, gaining firsthand insight into the supports educators need to create inclusive and high-impact learning environments. Shaikh earned her PhD in Education from Brandeis University, where her mixed-methods research examined how racial identity and relational dynamics shape culturally responsive teaching. She presented her findings at numerous academic forums, including the Relational Coordination Roundtables, and developed practical, evidence-based frameworks that have since informed professional development and classroom practice nationwide. In 2020, Shaikh founded TimeED (Taking Initiative, Making Equity in Education), a consulting firm that partners with schools, nonprofits, and government agencies to advance equity, inclusion, and systems-level change. Through TimeED, she has led professional learning programs on anti-racist pedagogy, organizational DEI audits, trauma-informed practices, and cross-sector collaboration—earning praise for her ability to translate research into action with authenticity and care. Shaikh’s leadership has been recognized through prestigious fellowships and appointments, including as a 50CAN National Voices Fellow, a Governor’s Fellow for the Connecticut Commission for Educational Technology, and a participant in leadership programs through the Aspen Institute, the Harvard Kennedy School’s Rappaport Institute, and the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Her policy contributions have focused on closing opportunity gaps, strengthening educator pipelines, and creating inclusive digital learning environments. Currently, Shaikh serves as a Business Development Specialist at the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, where she supports regional investment strategies focused on equity, education, and economic opportunity. In this role, she brings together community stakeholders, funders, and policymakers to build capacity and drive measurable impact across sectors. Her global perspective and cross-cultural fluency are further reflected in her work with organizations such as Mursion, which uses virtual reality simulations for professional training, and the Ghana Health and Education Initiative, where she has contributed to cross-border collaborations focused on community health and education. As a first-generation Pakistani-American immigrant and a former English learner herself, Shaikh brings lived experience to every space she enters. Her work is grounded in a deep understanding of identity, belonging, and the urgent need for systemic transformation that centers marginalized voices. She has built her career around asking difficult questions, forging human-centered solutions, and creating pathways for others to thrive

Laura Herrera Scott, BSPH ’05
Laura Herrera Scott is a national leader in healthcare delivery and financing reform, integrating value-based care philosophy with clinical and population health strategies. She has a a diverse background of public and private sector experiences from direct care, to public health, to payer and health care delivery transformation. Her work has focused on the creation of progressive programs that optimize patient outcomes, improve the quality of care, and advance health equity. Most recently she served Maryland under Governor Moore and Lieutenant Governor Miller as the Secretary of Health. In that role, she worked to ensure that the state built an equitable, world class health care delivery system that improved the health of all Marylanders. Prior to her appointment as Secretary of Health, Dr. Herrera Scott drove population health outcomes through improved data analytics and reporting in clinical care as the Executive Vice President of Population Health at Summit Health. As Vice President of Clinical Strategy and Population Health at Elevance (formerly Anthem), she helped shape enterprise-wide strategies and largescale Medicaid initiatives that improved health outcomes, fostered operational excellence, and advanced sustainable health care solutions. She also previously served as the Deputy Secretary for Public Health and the Chief Medical Officer for the Department under the O’Malley/Brown Administration. Dr. Herrera Scott is a Veteran of the United States Army Reserves having served in 2004 and 2005 in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and in 2008 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. She received her Master’s Degree in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University where she also practiced, caring for individuals living with HIV. She received her Doctor of Medicine from SUNY Health Science Center in Brooklyn, New York.  

Carlos Dawayne Williams, BSPH ’09
Carlos Williams, MD, MPH/MBA ’09, is an exceptional leader and change agent with a demonstrated history of consensus building, innovation, organizational transformation, and both global and domestic development. He has worked across the global health care industry in emergency management and disaster response, intelligence, and policy and international relations.  Dr. Williams has had an impressive career in the United States military, serving the US Navy in various capacities, the National Intrepid Center of Excellence (NICoE), and most recently the United States Army War College. Throughout his career, Dr. Williams has worked on several high priority clinical and public health initiatives including pandemic response work, vaccine trials, and responding to noncommunicable disease threats. From 2012-2015, Dr. Williams served as the U.S. Health Affairs Attaché to the Pacific Islands where he coordinated the Regional U.S. Health Team serving the U.S. Missions in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea (PNG), Suva, Fiji, and Oceania at-large. As the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) point of contact for PNG, he led his team to a significant resource and personnel increase and was pivotal in gaining increased funding from the Global Fund to combat the drug-resistant tuberculosis, deemed a national emergency. In 2015 he was part of the inaugural Presidential Leadership Scholars, which brings together bold and principled leaders who are committed to facing critical challenges, both at home and around the world. From 2018 to 2020 he was a Health Policy Fellow with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and National Academy of Medicine. In this role he served as a fellow advisor to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee through the office of Senator Edward J. Markey (MA), directly supporting legislation to reform US Global Health Assistance and coordination. Beginning in October 2020 and continuing through November 2024, Dr. Williams served as the Director of National Intrepid Center of Excellence (NICoE), a Department of Defense organization, and was the senior member of Defense Intrepid Network for Traumatic Brain Injury and Brain Health. In this role, Dr. Williams led the programs to diagnose, treat, and rehabilitate service members with traumatic brain injuries (TBI), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and other mental health conditions. He regularly reviewed the programs and conducted stakeholder analysis to review strengths and weaknesses of the programs and resources available, ensuring this Center was working across sectors to treat some of the most vulnerable service members. Regular program reviews resulted in his successful efforts to establish the Defense Intrepid Network for TBI and Brain Health, which includes 13 centers across the Military Health System, and was instrumental in getting key legislation passed to support military brain health in the Nation Defense Authorization Act of 2025. Dr. Williams has also worked extensively in global health, including as the principal agent for the hallmark U.S. Agency for International Development and U.S. Africa Command-funded Pandemic Response Program (PRP), which focused on crisis response to public health emergencies. Here, Dr. Williams designed and implemented his Unified Strategic Implementation and Planning Process, which mobilized stakeholders across the community to ensure inclusiveness while working in coordination with U.S. government departments, United Nations agencies, and international and national non-governmental organizations to improve partner nations’ disaster-response capability. As a result, more than 14 nations developed their own pandemic-response plans.