2011 Top American Leaders

The Washington Post and Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership will jointly present seven public figures with the 2011 Top American Leaders awards at Ford’s Theatre on December 5, 2011. Here are this year’s winners.

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Chris Christie is the governor of New Jersey and a former U.S. attorney. The Republican state leader has sharply reduced deficits since his term began in 2009, working closely with a Democratically controlled state legislature.

Lucas Jackson / Reuters

Jared Cohen is the director of Google Ideas, the tech company's new "think/do-tank" for innovations in international issues. Cohen previously served in the State Department, where he was the youngest member to be on the secretary of state's policy planning staff.

Courtesy of Center for American Progress / Courtesy of Center for American Progress

Since 2001, Michael Kaiser (left) has been the president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, in Washington, D.C. He is a leader in the arts management field, having revitalized the Kennedy Center's arts programming and, previously, turned around the American Ballet Theatre.

Ahmed Altoqi

Nicholas Kristof is a Pulitzer Prize-winning op-ed columnist for the New York Times, where he began as a reporter in 1984. He is known widely for his focus on international human rights issues, including the crisis in Darfur.

Will Okun

Sheila Bair served as chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation from 2006 until 2011, leading the agency's efforts to help stem the U.S. financial crisis. Under Bair's leadership, the FDIC also climbed to the No. 1 slot in the 2011 Best Places to Work in federal government rankings.

Melina Mara

Freeman A. Hrabowski III,is president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, which he has led since 1992. He has been named one of the 10 best college presidents by Time magazine, and has been recognized for his efforts to increase minority participation in the sciences.

Mark Gail/The Washington Post

Ahmed Zewail is a Nobel Prize winner and a professor of chemistry and physics at the California Institute of Technology. He also currently serves as the first U.S. science envoy to the Middle East.

Courtesy of Ahmed Zewail

Featured Photo Galleries

Paula and Clay Gustin become emotional as dozens of balloons float above during a memorial Wednesday, May 23, 2012, for their five-year-old son, Rhett, who died in an accident on May 20. (AP Photo/The Coeur D?Alene Press, Shawn Gust) MANDATORY CREDIT

Fleet Week, solar impulse plane, artificial heart, Air Force academy graduation and more in the day in photos

Fleet Week, solar impulse plane, artificial heart, Air Force academy graduation and more.

Red Panda Bears sleep in the Panda Bear enclosure at the Beijing Zoo on May 22, 2012. The zoo grounds were originally a Ming Dynasty imperial palace and finally opened to the public in 1908. The zoo's history states that during the WWII, most of the zoo's animals died of starvation with only 13 monkeys and one old emu surviving the war. AFP PHOTO/Mark RALSTONMARK RALSTON/AFP/GettyImages

Barn owls, pit bulls, red pandas, cheetah cubs and more in animal views

Barn owls, pit bulls, red pandas, cheetah cubs and more.

CANNES, FRANCE - MAY 24: Actress Macy Gray attend the 'The Paperboy' photocall during the 65th Annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 24, 2012 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

Eye on entertainment

Macy Gray, Zac Efron, Philip Phillips, Fantasia Barrino, Neil Diamond and other celebrities.

‘Dancing with the Stars’

Season 14 of “Dancing With the Stars.”

May 21, 2012: Members of the Naval Academy freshman class (plebes) lock arms and form a human ladder while climbing the Herndon Monument at the United States Naval Academy on May 21, 2012 in Annapolis, Md. Each year members of the Naval Academy's freshman class (plebes) climb the lard covered 21-foot tall Herndon Monument to replace a plebe dixie cup hat with a midshipman's hat at the top of the obelisk.

Teamwork, discipline help plebes get to the top

At the U.S. Naval Academy, the freshman class attempts to climb the Herndon Monument.

The National Zoo has two new additions: the female cheetah cub, left, and her brother on the right.

The National Zoo’s new cheetah cubs

A dramatic rescue saved these two cheetah babies and their distressed mother giving birth.

JOPLIN, MO - MAY 19: Grace Goebel plays outside of the new Habitat for Humanity home of her parents that was built on the spot of a home that had been destroyed after a tornado hit the neighborhood almost one year ago on May 19, 2012 in Joplin, Missouri. Tuesday will mark the one-year anniversary of the EF-5 tornado that devastated the town. The tornado left behind a path of destruction along with 161 deaths and hundreds of injuries, but one year later there are signs that the town is beginning to recover. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Joplin, Missouri, one year after tornadoes devastate town

Reminders of destruction are everywhere in Joplin, Mo., a year after a killer tornado.

COLLEGE PARK, MD - APRIL 4: Pet acupuncturist Greta McVey puts needles in mixed breed 'Cashew' at her home office in College Park, MD on April 4, 2012. Cashew was rescued by his owner this past December and suffers from anxiety and fear of abandonment. McVey first licensed as an acupuncturist on humans then went on to be certified on animals. She hosts a variety of clientele, anything from birds, to guinea pigs but mainly treats dogs and cats. (Photo by Linda Davidson/The Washington Post)

Washington’s ‘pet-u-puncture whisperer’

College Park’s Greta McVey is part of the growing industry focused on veterinary acupuncture.

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