NEW YORK — The Andrew Carnegie Foundation announced its 2026 "Great Immigrants, Great Americans" honorees on June 30, 2026. The list includes Citi CEO Jane Fraser, Pulitzer Prize-winning authors Hernan Diaz and Cristina Rivera Garza, fashion designer Gabriela Hearst, Dr. Iman Abuzeid, Cristian Măcelaru, and Gregory Nagy.

The foundation, previously known as the Carnegie Corporation of New York, changed its name earlier in June 2026. The awards were first launched in 2005. Dame Louise Richardson, president of the foundation and a naturalized American citizen born in Ireland, stated the awards were not a direct response to current events.

"We're not articulating it in response to this moment," Richardson told the Associated Press. "But it seems especially important at this moment that we celebrate immigrants and their contributions and also that we present a view of immigrants different from the ones so often portrayed in the media." She added, "That just strikes me as an act of self-harm on a national level, because so many of these people are the engines of the economy."

Iman Abuzeid, co-founder and CEO of Incredible Health, is a native of Sudan who lives in San Francisco. She previously lived in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and completed medical school in England before emigrating to the United States. Approximately 20 percent of the healthcare workers on the Incredible Health platform are immigrants.

"And if my story makes it feel like it's more possible for someone else, then that's probably the part that I care about the most," Abuzeid said. "It is the best country for what I'm trying to do. I think if you're ambitious and you're willing to work hard and you've got some skills, it is probably the best country in the world for you." She added, "I think being from Sudan does make me a little bit more attuned to topics like bias and diversity. Because we're operating a marketplace at scale, we can see these patterns in our data where workers of certain last names were seeing bias against them. … So when we removed that, we were able to improve that part of the marketplace."

Cristian Măcelaru, a native of Romania, is the conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. He moved to Michigan at age 16 to study music at Interlochen Arts Academy. In 2024, Măcelaru conducted the Orchestre National de France during the Paris Olympics opening ceremony.

"This is an opportunity we should hold dear," Măcelaru said. "It really makes for a unique kind of country." He added, "I've met so many incredible people that were supportive of my arrival to the United States and embracing of who I was. But, at the same time, there is that nostalgia for what you've left behind that accompanies you on a daily basis. … The immigrant experience never leaves you."