NYUAA Award Honorees

George S. Barrett
Named a top CEO on multiple occasions by Institutional Investor magazine, George S. Barrett (STERN ’88) received a Distinguished Alumnus Award. He is the executive chairman of Cardinal Health, a global integrated healthcare services and products company that offers customized solutions for hospitals, pharmacies, ambulatory surgery centers, clinical laboratories, and physician offices worldwide. Under Barrett’s leadership, Cardinal Health grew to rank No. 15 on the Fortune 500. Involved in a number of national and local industry, civic, policy, and arts organizations, he was previously awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, which is given to distinguished American citizens who exemplify a life dedicated to community service. Barrett also received the Peter G. Peterson Business Statesmanship Award from the Committee for Economic Development, which recognizes corporate executives who champion issues in the interest of the public good and who hold themselves to the highest standards of ethics and integrity.

Lindsey Ferrentino
New York–based playwright Lindsey Ferrentino (TSOA ’09) received a Distinguished Young Alumna Award. The New York Times has described Ferrentino as “a brave playwright of dauntless conviction whose unflinching portraits are hard to come by outside of journalism.” Her play Amy and the Orphans recently wrapped its Off-Broadway engagement, while her critically acclaimed Ugly Lies the Bone played a sold-out, extended run at the Roundabout Theatre before being produced at the National Theatre in London. The only two-time finalist for the Kendeda Playwriting Prize, Ferrentino has been the recipient of the 2016 Kesselring Prize, the ASCAP Foundation Cole Porter Award, and the Woodward/Newman Drama Award. She is currently under commission for new plays from Roundabout, the Geffen, and South Coast Rep. Ferrentino’s new production, The Year to Come, will open at La Jolla Playhouse this fall.

Anthony R. Foxx
Anthony R. Foxx (LAW ’96), the 17th US secretary of transportation, received a Distinguished Alumnus Award. Foxx developed the Obama administration’s first surface transportation bill and worked on a a bipartisan basis to get its congressional incarnation, the FAST Act, passed. He blueprinted the most comprehensive national policy on autonomous vehicles in the world and launched the department’s first—and the administration’s most successful—Smart City Challenge, engaging more than 70 cities to develop their own strategies to incorporate new technologies into their transportation networks. Before joining the Department of Transportation, Foxx served as the 54th and youngest mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina. He also served as an attorney in the US Justice Department and as counsel to the US House Judiciary Committee.

Lee M. Morin  
Lee M. Morin (GSAS ’78, ’82, MED ’81) is a retired US Navy captain and NASA astronaut who has logged more than 259 hours in space, including more than 14 hours of spacewalk. He is currently assigned to the Exploration Branch, where he is working on the cockpit of NASA’s newest spacecraft: the Orion Multipurpose Crew Vehicle. According to NASA, Orion will be the first human spacecraft designed for deep space exploration in more than a generation. Orion benefits from the 50-plus years of research and development from NASA team members like Morin, and the mission plans to begin flying with astronauts in the early 2020s. Morin is also supervisor of the Crew Interface Rapid Prototyping Lab, where they design and build prototypes of the Orion interface. For his significant contributions to the US space exploration program, Morin received the Eugene J. Keogh Award for Distinguished Public Service.

Billy Rosa
Billy Rosa (TSOA ’04, MEYERS ’09), who recently spent a year working for the Human Resources for Health Program in Rwanda, received a Distinguished Young Alumnus Award. Previously, he had been recognized as one of America’s Most Amazing Nurses by Prevention magazine and The Doctors TV show, and he was named one of Modern Healthcare’s Rising Stars in Nursing. Rosa is currently a supportive care nurse practitioner at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center as well as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Future of Nursing Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania. Later this year, he will receive the American Association of Nurse Practitioners New York State Award for Excellence, and his third book—A Handbook for Caring Science: Expanding the Paradigm—will be released.