Former Sam Nunn School of International Affairs Chair Joe Bankoff and School of Literature, Media, and Communication alumna Archel Bernard will be honored by the Georgia Tech Alumni Association at the eighth annual Gold & White Honors Gala on February 13, 2020. 

Each year, the Alumni Association presents its four highest awards to eight distinguished members of the Georgia Tech community in recognition of their service to the Institute, their contributions to their communities, and in celebration of the inspiration they provide for alumni leaders of tomorrow.

Bankoff will receive The Honorary Alumni Award, which honors non–alumni who have devoted themselves to the greater good of Georgia Tech. At the end of June 2019, he transitioned from chair of the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs to the role of professor of the practice. The change capped seven years of leadership that, in collaboration with faculty, brought cohesion, identity, partnerships, and a stronger reputation for the School, both on campus and beyond.

To learn more more about Bankoff's legacy as chair, read this recent retrospective feature.

Bernard will receive The Outstanding Young Alumni Award, which honors alumni younger than 40 who have demonstrated outstanding leadership and service to Georgia Tech, the Alumni Association, the general welfare of their communities and their professions.

Bernard graduated with a Bachelor's in Science, Technology, and Culture (now LMC) from the School of Literature, Media, and Communication in 2011. After graduating, she moved to Monrovia, Liberia—her ancestral homeland which her parents had fled in the 1980s during a brutal civil unrest. She has since helped train and employ disadvantaged Liberians by creating her fashion business, The Bombchel Factory.

Learn more about Bernard's work by reading her alumni success story.

The Sam Nunn School of International Affairs and the School of Literature, Media, and Communication are units of the Georgia Tech Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.