Ann Burroughs, president and CEO of the Japanese American National Museum and a Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation board member, will receive the Hon. Annice M. Wagner Pioneer Award from the Bar Association of the District of Columbia (BADC) during its annual banquet Saturday, Dec. 6, in Washington, D.C.
The BADC, founded at the historic National Hotel (Pennsylvania Avenue and 6th Street NW) in 1871, was the first bar association in the District of Columbia and is the third-oldest bar association in the U.S.
The award was announced by Shirley Ann Higuchi, the BADC’s president and chair of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation.
Named in honor of a revered chief judge of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, the award is one of the highest honors that the BADC can bestow to a leader in human rights and social justice. Past honorees include 2011 honoree Norman Mineta, who was incarcerated at Heart Mountain as a child before becoming a 20-year member of the U.S. House of Representatives and a member of the Cabinet of two presidents – Democrat Bill Clinton and Republican George W. Bush.
Burroughs led JANM through a tremendous period of growth since starting in her position in 2016. She is also being recognized for her human rights work as chair of the board of directors of Amnesty International USA and her previous position as chair of Amnesty International’s Global Assembly.
A native of South Africa, she was jailed as a political prisoner for opposing her nation’s racist apartheid regime.
Before joining JANM, Burroughs served as the executive director of the Taproot Foundation and executive director of L.A. Works. She has worked as a consultant to the Omidyar Network, the Rockefeller Foundation and the government of South Africa.
“I’m extremely pleased that Ann Burroughs will receive an award named after such a legal pioneer, because Ann herself is a beacon for civil rights and justice,” Higuchi said.
“Ann Burroughs demonstrates each day her commitment to rights and equality,” said Douglas Nelson, vice chair of Heart Mountain and a JANM governor. “She is richly deserving of such an award.”
Other BADC honorees in December include U.S. Circuit Judge Florence Y. Pan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, who will be named Judge of the Year, and William Atkins of the Pillsbury law firm, who will be named Lawyer of the Year.
The Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation, a Smithsonian affiliate, preserves the site where some 14,000 Japanese Americans were unjustly incarcerated in Wyoming from 1942 through 1945. Their stories are told within the foundation’s museum, the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center, and its new Mineta-Simpson Institute located between Cody and Powell.
For more information, call (307) 754-8000 or email info@heartmountain.org.