From the Nominator

“I would like to be remembered as a champion of human rights, as a president who kept our country at peace, and as having been a distinguished professor at Emory University," said President Jimmy Carter. With President Carter’s death on Dec. 29, 2024, the world lost a beacon for justice and human rights, and Emory lost a beloved member of our community. We honored his life and legacy through a comprehensive storytelling initiative that began then and spanned all of 2025. Carter joined Emory as University Distinguished Professor in 1982, becoming a steady presence on campus. In addition to founding The Carter Center in partnership with Emory, he visited classes, fielded students' questions at his annual Carter Town Hall, and held regular luncheons with faculty and staff. Our goal was to highlight the breadth and depth of Carter’s impact—at Emory and globally—through a coordinated multimedia campaign featuring an immersive tribute story, videos, photo timeline, coverage of campus memorial gatherings, community members' reflections, and strategic curation of stories from his many campus visits. Storytelling was amplified through the Emory.edu homepage, social media, special editions of email newsletters and Emory Magazine, campus digital signs and banners, and advertising in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, garnering consistently high engagement with faculty, staff, students, alumni, and external audiences. Themes of “Thank You, President Carter” and “Steadfast Partner, Beloved Professor, Revered Friend” connected storytelling across channels, emphasizing the warmth of Carter’s unique relationship with Emory and our gratitude for his enduring legacy.

From the Judges

We praise the all-encompassing nature of this tribute and the way Emory engaged the full campus, local, and national community across platforms. The work showed how institutions can thoughtfully lean into meaningful campus moments and honor beloved figures with both authentic care and broad resonance.