2007

Dr. Shigeaki Hinohara is one of the most revered physicians in Japan.  Honorary President of St. Luke’s International Hospital and Chairman of the Board of Trustees at St Luke’s Life Science Institute, he is best known for pioneering modern hospital practice, primary care and nursing education in Japan.  Dr. Hinohara was a member of the advisory committee of the Ministry of Education for 24 years and served as chairman of the advisory committee of graduate medical education of the Ministry of Health and Welfare.  He was the founding member of the specialty board of Internal Medicine, and was the chairman of all specialty boards of Clinical Medicine in Japan from 1981 to 1986.  In October 2005 he and his close friend Maestro Seiji Ozawa led a “Peace Message to the World” Concert in Hiroshima featuring an international youth orchestra appealing to young people worldwide to work for the abolition of nuclear weapons and an end to war. 

Swanee Hunt directs the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, where she also teaches. An expert on domestic policy and foreign affairs, and member of the Council on Foreign Relations, she is president of Hunt Alternatives Fund, a foundation committed to provoking social change at local, national, and global levels. From 1993 to 1997, Hunt served as Ambassador to Austria. Ambassador Hunt's work in Europe inspired the creation of Women Waging Peace, an initiative she incubated at the Kennedy School, which advocates for the full participation of women in peace processes. Hunt teaches "Inclusive Security" at the Kennedy School, a course exploring why women are systematically excluded from peace processes and the policy steps needed to rectify the problem. Her musical composition, "The Witness Cantata," for five soloists and chorus, has had nine performances in six cities. Hunt is married to the symphony conductor Charles Ansbacher. They have three children.  For more information about Ambassador Hunt, click here. 

Jim Yong Kim is chair of the Department of Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, director of the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health, and chief of the Division of Social Medicine and Health Inequalities at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.  He previously served as director of the WHO’s HIV/AIDS department, overseeing all of WHO’s work related to HIV/AIDS, focusing on initiatives to help developing countries scale up their treatment, prevention, and care programs, including the “3x5” initiative designed to put three million people in developing countries on AIDS treatment by the end of 2005.  Dr. Kim has 20 years of experience in improving health in developing countries.  He is a founding trustee and the former executive director of Partners In Health, a not-for-profit organization that supports a range of health programs in poor communities in Haiti, Peru, Russia, Rwanda, and the United States. 

Dr. Bernard Lown is one of the world’s leading cardiologists and co-founder of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, on whose behalf he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985.  He is Professor of Cardiology Emeritus at the Harvard School of Public Health and Senior Physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.  He has dedicated much of his life to fostering international medical and humanitarian cooperation. In 1974-1975 he presided over the USA-China Physicians Friendship Association, and in 1988 he founded SatelLife, an international organization dedicated to using modern technology to serve the health communication needs of the developing world.  Dr Lown is the recipient of the George P. Kennan Award, the Ghandi Peace Prize and many other honors.

World-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma devotes much of his life to exploring music as a means of communication, and as a vehicle for the migrations of ideas, across a range of cultures throughout the world. To that end, he has taken time to immerse himself in subjects as diverse as native Chinese music with its distinctive instruments and the music of the Kalahari bush people in Africa.  In 1998 he founded the Silk Road Project to promote the study of the cultural, artistic and intellectual traditions along the ancient Silk Road trade route that stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to the Pacific Ocean.  Yo-Yo is strongly committed to educational programs that not only bring young audiences into contact with music but also allow them to participate in its creation. While touring, he takes time whenever possible to conduct master classes as well as more informal programs for students --musicians and non-musicians alike.  In September 2006 United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed him as a UN Messenger of Peace, commending him for his “dedication to overcoming cultural differences and bridging gaps between nations and generations” and for spreading a message of harmony through his music.

Mikko Nissinen is recognized internationally as an accomplished dancer, teacher and artistic director. He has served as artistic director of Boston Ballet and the Boston Ballet Center for Dance Education since September 2001. Born in Helsinki, Finland, Nissinen trained at The Finnish National Ballet School, and The Kirov Ballet School. He has danced with the Dutch National Ballet, Basel Ballet and San Francisco Ballet - where he held the position of principal dancer for ten years. As artistic director of Boston Ballet, Nissinen has defined the Company’s image with classical and neo-classical works, ranging from full length ballets including Nureyev’s Don Quixote, and Swan Lake, to masterworks by George Balanchine, to new works and world premieres from some of the finest contemporary choreographers including William Forsythe, Mark Morris, Val Caniparoli, David Dawson, and Jorma Elo. For more biographical information, click here.