Advancement Project’s Judith Browne Dianis wins Kettering Democracy Prize
May 14, 2025
Dayton, OH – The Charles F. Kettering Foundation, which focuses on the needs of democracy worldwide and works to advance inclusive democracies around the globe, today announces the two inaugural winners of the Kettering Democracy Prize. Beginning this year, the foundation will give this award to honor and elevate the work of an individual or group that has gone beyond the ordinary to champion and defend inclusive democracy. The winners of the Kettering Democracy Prize in 2025 will each receive $100,000 and a commemorative medal at an event in November in Washington, D.C.
The two winners of the first Kettering Democracy Prize are Judith Browne Dianis and Alexei Navalny.
Judith Browne Dianis is a lawyer, civil rights advocate and executive director of the nonprofit Advancement Project, which works with individuals, communities and organizations to strive for racial justice, fight voter ID laws, restore voting rights to those convicted of felonies and disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline. Dianis went to her first protest with her mother when she was 3 years old. A graduate of Columbia Law School, Dianis is a voting rights expert and former managing attorney in the Washington, D.C., office of the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund. She has been with the Advancement Project since 1999 and has worked to thwart voter suppression, prevent the closure of polling locations and fight cuts to early voting. Dianis has documented the unnecessary criminalization of students in schools, where the majority of those arrested are students of color. She is a reliable voice for the poor and marginalized and has made it her life’s work to speak up on their behalf, always with the goal of making our country fairer and more just.
The late Alexei Navalny was the Russian opposition leader, anti-corruption activist and international symbol of courage who ceaselessly championed democracy and challenged Russian President Vladimir Putin’s authoritarian rule. During his lifetime he exposed corruption within the Russian government and galvanized the Russian public both to protest fraudulent election results and demonstrate against corruption. He endured multiple arrests and violent attacks, including a near-fatal poisoning in 2020 that was orchestrated by the Russian state. After his months-long recovery in Germany, Navalny returned to Russia in Jan. 2021 and was immediately arrested. His imprisonment in an Arctic penal colony, under increasingly brutal and inhumane conditions, sparked international outrage and widespread Russian protests. Navalny’s death was announced Feb. 16, 2024, and the Kremlin’s refusal to permit an independent autopsy deepened the belief that he was murdered. Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, will accept this posthumous award on behalf of her husband.
“The Kettering Foundation is pleased to launch this new prize to honor individuals who embody an uncommon commitment to democracy work despite real threats,” said Sharon L. Davies, president and CEO of the Kettering Foundation. “Alexei Navalny and Judith Browne Dianis are shining examples of the type of courageous dedication to democracy the foundation seeks to celebrate in bestowing the Kettering Democracy Prize. Their lives of activism and bravery are an inspiration to all who fight for democracy worldwide.”
At the invitation of the Kettering Foundation, organizational leaders from across the political spectrum and around the world submitted nominations for the prize. An external panel of experts, practitioners, and scholars evaluated the nominees and chose finalists from which the foundation’s board of directors selected winners.
###
The Charles F. Kettering Foundation, headquartered in Dayton, Ohio, is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, operating foundation rooted in the American tradition of inventive research. Founded in 1927 “to sponsor and carry out scientific research for the benefit of humanity,” the foundation is inspired by the innovativeness and ingenuity of its founder, the American inventor Charles F. Kettering. For the past four decades, the foundation’s research and programs have focused on the needs of democracy worldwide. Today, the organization is committing itself to advancing inclusive democracies by fostering citizen engagement, promoting government accountability, and countering authoritarianism.
Advancement Project is a next-generation, multi-racial civil rights organization. Rooted in the great human rights struggles for equality and justice, we exist to fulfill America’s promise of a caring, inclusive and just democracy. We use innovative tools and strategies to strengthen social movements and achieve high impact policy change. We are a co-convener of the National Campaign for Police Free schools, a formation of 20+ youth-led grassroots organizations fighting to end the criminalization of youth in the classroom, create liberatory educational spaces, and implement an affirmative vision of safety and transformative justice. Visit www.advancementproject.org to learn more.
