SHI PRESIDENT ROSITA WORL TO RECEIVE NATIONAL HUMANITIES MEDAL TODAY FROM U.S. PRESIDENT
Event to be live streamed at 1:30 Alaska time
Oct. 21, 2024
United States President Joe Biden will award Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) President Rosita Worl, Ph.D., with a 2023 National Humanities Medal today at the White House.
The award, from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), honors an individual or organization whose work has deepened the nation’s understanding of the human experience, broadened citizen engagement with history and literature or helped preserve and expand Americans’ access to cultural resources.
Worl gave credit for her life’s work to her mother.
“I am honored to receive this award, but I owe a debt of gratitude to my mother, Bessie Quinto, who instilled in me that I have a responsibility to work for our people. She devoted her whole life as a union organizer to secure economic equity for our people, among many other things,” Worl said.
The National Humanities Medal recipients have enriched our world through writing that moves and inspires us; scholarship that enlarges our understanding of the past; and through their dedication to educating, informing and giving voice to communities and histories often overlooked, said NEH Chair Shelly C. Lowe (Navajo) in a press release issued this morning.
“I am proud to join President Biden in recognizing these distinguished leaders for their outstanding contributions to our nation’s cultural life,” Lowe said.
Worl is one of 10 recipients to receive the 2023 award and joins luminaries such as Anthony Bourdain (posthumous), LeVar Burton, Roz Chast, Nicolás Kanellos, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Mellon Foundation, Dawn Porter and Aaron Sorkin.
The first National Humanities Medal was awarded in 1996. Since then, 225 medals have been bestowed—207 to individuals and 18 to organizations—inclusive of this year’s recipients, according to the NEH.
President Biden will give the awards at 5:30 pm eastern time today. The event will be live streamed at 1:30 pm Alaska time. He will also give awards to 2022 recipients and receivers of the National Medals of Arts.
About Rosita Worl
Worl, whose Tlingit names are Yeidiklasókw and Ḵaaháni, is Tlingit of the Shangukeidí (Thunderbird) clan from the Kawdliyaayi Hít (House Lowered from the Sun) in Klukwan.
Worl, who has served as the president of Sealaska Heritage Institute since 1998, is an anthropologist who conducted research throughout Alaska and the circumpolar arctic and taught at the University of Alaska Southeast. Worl has a Ph.D. in anthropology from Harvard University and a B.A. from Alaska Methodist University. She also holds an honorary Doctor of Sciences degree from the University of Alaska Anchorage. She has received many honors including the American Anthropological Association Solon T. Kimball Award for Public and Applied Anthropology. She has served on multiple national and statewide boards focusing on Alaska Native and Native
American interests.
During her 26-year tenure at SHI, Worl grew the institute from a small office in Juneau to a large nonprofit and set a vision to make Juneau the Northwest Coast arts capital of the world. In 2015, SHI opened its cultural center, the Walter Soboleff Building, through which visitors learn about Southeast Alaska Native cultures.
In 2022, SHI opened its Sealaska Heritage Arts Campus to teach and perpetuate Northwest Coast arts, one of the most distinctive and unique art traditions in the world. In 2023, SHI raised the first of 30 totem poles for its Kootéeyaa Deiyí (Totem Pole Trail) along the Juneau waterfront and unveiled Faces of Alaska, an installation of bronze masks on the SHI arts campus honoring the five major Native groups of Alaska. SHI plans to open a new building in 2024 to teach Indigenous science.
Sealaska Heritage Institute is a private nonprofit founded in 1980 to perpetuate and enhance Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures of Southeast Alaska. Its goal is to promote cultural diversity and cross-cultural understanding through public services and events. SHI also conducts scientific and public policy research that promotes Alaska Native arts, cultures, history and education statewide. The institute is governed by a Board of Trustees and guided by a Council of Traditional Scholars, a Native Artist Committee and a Southeast Regional Language Committee.
CONTACT: Kathy Dye, SHI Communications and Publications Deputy Director, 907.321.4636, kathy.dye@sealaska.com.
Caption: SHI President Rosita Worl, Ph.D.. Photo by Connor Meyer, courtesy of Sealaska Heritage Institute. Note: Media outlets are permitted to use this image for coverage of this story. For a higher-res image, contact kathy.dye@sealaska.com.