Started in 2014, the Massachusetts Governor’s Awards in the Humanities recognize excellence in the humanities. Mass Humanities partners with the Office of the Governor to name the awardees.
Proceeds from sponsorships, ticket sales, and direct donations benefit the organizations and programs that Mass Humanities supports each year, including The Clemente Course in the Humanities, Reading Frederick Douglass Together, the Smithsonian Museum on Main Street initiative, and the more than 200 Massachusetts non-profits receiving funding from the foundation each year.
2022 Awards
The 2022 Governor’s Awards in the Humanities celebration took place at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston on October 23, 2022. Guests from across the Commonwealth joined in-person and online as Mass Humanities supporters honored four individuals whose commitments to the free press, Civil Rights, women’s rights, and history continue to benefit residents and the nation.
Callie Crossley
Callie Crossley is host of Under the Radar with Callie Crossley and presents radio essays each Monday on GBH’s Morning Edition. She also hosts Basic Black, which focuses on current events impacting communities of color, and serves as on the Board of Trustees of her alma mater, Wellesley College.
Frances Jones-Sneed
Professor of history and former Director of Women’s Studies at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, Frances Jones-Sneed teaches and researches local history, focusing on African Americans. She directed three National Endowment for the Humanities grants and is co-director of the Upper Housatonic Valley African American Heritage Trail.
Barbara Lee
Barbara Lee is a national leader in advancing women’s equality and representation in American politics and in the field of contemporary art. She founded and leads the Barbara Lee Family Foundation, which endowed a nonpartisan training program for women at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and an internship program at the Massachusetts State House for students at Simmons College in Boston.
Fredric Rutberg
Fred Rutberg is the president and publisher of New England Newspapers, Inc., which owns The Berkshire Eagle located in Pittsfield, MA. The Eagle is a daily paper that serves all of Berkshire County and adjacent areas of Connecticut and New York State.
The 2022 Awards Committee: Co-chairs Amy Macdonald and Marita Rivero; Elizabeth Duclos-Orsello, Al Griggs, Jeff Musman, and Nancy Netzer
2022 Sponsors
Luminary
Berkshire Health Systems
Al & Sally Griggs
Lia & Bill Poorvu
Laura Roberts & Ed Belove
Howard & Fredi Stevenson
Anonymous
Champion
Eastern Bank
GBH
Ronald Hertel
K | B Private Wealth Management Group
Benefactor
Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation
John Burgess and Nancy Adams
Steve Immerman
Paula Johnson/Wellesley College
Celinda Lake/Lake Research Partners
Mass College of Liberal Arts
Kristin McGurn
Jeff Musman
Seyfarth Shaw LLC
Raymond James
Watch: The 2022 Governor’s Awards
Past Awardees
2022
- Callie Crossley
- Frances Jones-Sneed
- Barbara Lee
- Frederic Rutberg
2021
- John Burgess
- Heather Cox Richardson
- Annette Gordon-Reed
- Sonia Nieto
2020
- Al Griggs
- jessie little doe baird
- Lee Pelton
- Fredericka Stevenson
2019
- Danielle Allen
- Lee Blake
- Nancy Donahue
- Jeffrey Musman
2018
- Ellen Dunlap
- David Harris
- Nancy Netzer
- David Tebaldi
2017
- Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
- Sasha Pfeiffer
- David Starr
2016
- Frieda Garcia
- Atul Gawande
- Lia Poorvu
2015
- Lowell Institute
- Margaret Marshall
- Margot Stern Strom
2014
- Jill Ker Conway
- Hubie Jones
- J. Donald Monan, S.J.
- Malcolm Roger