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Common Good Awards

The Common Good Award honors those alumni who have "demonstrated an extraordinary, profound, and sustained commitment to the common good, in the interest and for the benefit of society, with conspicuous disregard for personal gains in wealth or status."

George A. Khaldun ’73

George Khaldun headshotGeorge A. Khaldun, distinguished member of the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ Class of 1973, you have devoted your considerable skill as an administrator, expertise as an educator, and passion as a reformer to bettering the lives of young people in distressed communities. You have been innovative, effective, and influential in your quest to break the cycle of poverty in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood and other urban communities throughout the country.

An exceptionally talented and successful student at ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾, you majored in government and studied abroad at the London School of Economics and Political Science. You were honored as a member of the Dean’s List and a recipient of both a prestigious Thomas J. Watson Fellowship and a Charles A. Revson Fellowship. You also served the student body thoughtfully and enthusiastically as chair of the African American Society and as a member of the Student Council.

After graduating from ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾, you embarked on a remarkable twenty-five-year career in education and community development, through which you helped to develop a transformational model of support for infants, children, teens, and young adults living in poverty. You cofounded the Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ), a paradigm-shifting nonprofit that employs a comprehensive approach to breaking the cycle of poverty incorporating education, health care, family support, early childhood intervention, leadership training, and violence prevention. You served in vital leadership roles at HCZ, including chief administrative officer, chief operating officer, and deputy to the president, directly impacting the lives and altering the trajectories of tens of thousands of young people each year. A ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ staff member described you as “always on a mission to benefit society,” and your work with HCZ has been broadly and deeply life-changing, as its model has been adopted in communities throughout the country.

In 1990 you earned a master’s degree in educational policy from Columbia University Teachers College, which you followed by completing the Columbia University Business School Executive Management Training Program. After leaving HCZ in 2015, you found a new way to leverage your skill and expertise in effectively lifting communities by founding and leading Khaldun Associates, through which you guide foundations, nongovernmental organizations, nonprofit organizations, and for-profit corporations as they seek to address challenging social issues in their communities and organizations.

You are consistently generous in sharing your insights on policy, strategy, and implementation of community development initiatives both with the public and your ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ community. In 2017 you founded the Institute for Urban Leadership, an affiliate program of the Executive Education Program at Columbia University Business School; you also have served as a member of the Advisory Council of the New York University Leadership Initiative, preparing students of color to be influential leaders, as an economic development specialist for the national NAACP, and as an adjunct professor at the College of New Rochelle and you taught international affairs at Bermuda College. You were elected to the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ College Board of Trustees in 2011, and you regularly return to campus to counsel students, speak to your classmates and peers at Reunion events, and share insights in forums and on panels such as the Symposium on Race and Justice and the anniversary celebration of the John Brown Russwurm African American Center. Your impact on others, both in large settings and individual conversations, is profound. One staff member said of you, “If you ever meet George, you’ll leave the conversation having a deep understanding of your purpose to serve the larger world.”

For all that you have done not only to improve the lives of young people and their communities but also to develop a blueprint for lifting communities, and to inspire others to devote themselves to this transformational work, we are proud to present you with the 2025 Common Good Award. We join your family, friends, classmates, and colleagues in honoring your extraordinary contributions to the common good.