The Cleveland Council on World Affairs (CCWA) is excited to honor Patrick Kearns, Executive Director of Refugee Response, with our inaugural Dr. Wael Khoury Award for Emerging Global Leaders at our 2022 Global Impact Award event on May 4, 2022.

The Dr. Wael Khoury Award for Emerging Global Leaders recognizes an inspirational, emerging leader in the Cleveland area, whose work has a global reach and a strong local impact.

Patrick Kearns’s leadership at Refugee Response fully embodies the essence of this award, and we believe that he is a most deserving recipient of the inaugural award. Throughout his career, Mr. Kearns has expressed a global mindset and shown deep commitment to the people he has served, in our community and in communities overseas. Mr. Kearns’s inspiring work and compassionate leadership at the Refugee Response specifically resonates with CCWA and our own commitment to educating our audiences about the importance of a range of global issues, such as the global migration and refugee crisis.

In the past year, the work of Refugee Response has been critical in ensuring that Cleveland is part of the response to major international crisis, such as the exodus of Afghans after the fall of Kabul and currently of Ukrainian civilians from their war-devastated country.

The Dr. Wael Khoury Award for Emerging Global Leaders will be presented at CCWA’s 2022 Global Impact Award event honoring the National Geographic Society on May 4, 2022. The program includes reception and dinner, award presentations and remarks from National Geographic.

Tickets for the event are available at www.ccwa.org/events/2022-global-impact-award-event/