Near the end of the 2026 Citizen of the Year Awards, Mural Arts Philadelphia’s Jane Golden, the lifetime achievement award winner, reminded the crowd that, “Social change begins when human beings defiantly — and I mean defiantly — refuse to accept the idea that there’s nothing new, because something new is always possible.”

The idea that change — in medical technology, in how we treat our neighbors, in how we support our students — is possible is at the heart of The Philadelphia Citizen’s mission. Philadelphia’s first nonprofit solutions journalism organization has uplifted the work citizens are doing every day to make Philadelphia better, all while holding those in power to account.

The Citizen of the Year Awards — which Citizen Media Group (CMG) President and CEO Larry Platt likes to call the ESPYs of civic engagement — began three years ago to further that mission, honoring the ordinary and not-so-ordinary Philadelphians who have accepted the call to make this city great.

This year, on April 22, the event honored 10 Philadelphians who have gone above and beyond for their neighbors and their city. The energy in the room, to paraphrase Youth Leader award winner Yuvaraj R. Gambhir, was effervescent.

“There’s a term for it in sociology, collective effervescence. It’s the force that builds when people share something joyful together. You can feel it at Citizens Bank Park. You can feel it at Lincoln Financial. You can feel it right here in this room right now,” he said. “People stop being strangers. Conversations open up and everyone locks into the same energy.”

Here are some highlights that capture that essence.

Citizen of the Year: Dr. Paul Offit, presented by MS NOW host and Citizen board member Ali Velshi

In a moment when science and public health is under attack, Offit is unafraid to speak truth to power — especially to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s anti-science efforts to rollback vaccine mandates.

Offit sat down with Velshi after receiving his award for a 15-minute interview. The crowd laughed as he noted one of the only things he agrees with RFK Jr. about, which is when the HHS Secretary said: ‘Don’t get your medical advice from me.’”

“It’s science denialism,” he said during his conversation with Velshi. “We do have a responsibility to our neighbor. There are 10 million people in this country who can’t be vaccinated. It’s not your right to catch and transmit a potentially fatal infection.”

Educator: Charlie McGeehan, presented by Committee of Seventy CEO/President Lauren Cristella

Academy at Palumbo’s McGeehan is training up the next generation of civic changemakers. The 11th and 12th grade civics teacher takes his students to testify before City Council and rallies them to serve as poll workers throughout the city on Election Day. His goal: Prepare Philly kids to be good citizens.

“I work to make every student feel seen,” McGeehan said. “One of my students told me that I should tell you, ‘Kids are the future. Treat them like it.’ This feels easy, but sadly, is incredibly rare. Too often, those in power use young people when it feels convenient, but ignore their voices when it isn’t.”

Leon Higgonbotham Jr. Social Justice Champion: Keisha Hudson, presented by Forman Arts Initiative Co-founder and CMG Board Member Jennifer Rice

Hudson, chief defender at the Defender Association of Philadelphia, spent the past year raising funds and advocating for a dedicated Immigration Law Practice to provide free legal services to immigrants and asylum-seekers who have been detained in Philly under the Trump administration. So far, the unit has already helped more than 120 people with their cases.

“Justice should not depend on where you were born. Regardless of how you got here, immigrants belong here. You’re all immigrants. We built this country,” Hudson said.

Youth Leader: Yuvaraj R. Gambhir, presented by University of Pennsylvania President J. Larry Jameson

Gambhir was diagnosed at age three with the progressive muscle wasting disease Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Now, the Penn senior and his family have raised over $3 million for the nonprofit CureDuchenne to fund research and care access and to support families facing the diagnosis of their loved ones.

“This is a city that will do whatever it takes, whether that’s a tush push … or researchers staying late in the lab until midnight, because one more experiment might be the one,” Gambhir said. “When Philadelphia decides something matters — a game, a cause, a kid with a diagnosis — it does not stop. Let’s keep doing what we as Philadelphians do best: Keep locking it together; keep caring all the way when the odds are long and the doubters are loud.”

Disrupters: Dr. Carl June and Jeff Marrazzo, presented by banker, historian and CMG Co-founder and Honorary Trustee Richard Vague

When June’s Penn laboratory developed CAR-T cells, the first FDA-approved gene therapy, they helped save thousands of patients from leukemia and lymphoma. Now, with the help of co-founder Marrazzo, Dispatch Biotherapeutics is turning their attention to the next frontier: using CAR-T cells to attack solid tumors, without harming healthy tissue.

“Science is never a solo sport,” June said. “Breakthroughs like CAR-T universal cancer treatments don’t happen in a vacuum. They require a society that values, that treats, and that invests in fundamental science research. That believes in facts.”

“We had a motto, which was, we don’t follow footsteps, we create a path, because real disruption is never done alone. It is always done together,” Marrazzo added.

Block Captain: Mekia Elizabeth, presented by former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter

The smallest community in any city is the people who share a block. As block captain, Elizabeth has gone above and beyond for her neighbors, transforming her front porch into a coffee shop for people to gather and using the cafe’s proceeds to fund a $2,500 scholarship for one of the students who staffed it as a barista. In the process, Elizabeth has helped neighbors become not just people who live nearby one another, but real, lifelong friends.

“What we’ve learned is simple: if we get block life right, we get community life right,” said Elizabeth. “And strong communities create strong cities.”

Lewis Katz Corporate Citizen: John and Leigh Middleton, presented by Interstate Outdoor Advertising CEO Drew Katz

When the Middletons took the stage, Leigh joked that their daughter asked, “Why are you being honored?” But it was clear to everyone in attendance what a tremendous impact the Middleton’s philanthropic endeavors have had on Philadelphia.

From their support of Project HOME, enabling a transformational increase in the housing nonprofit’s capacity, to supporting career and technical education programs at Philadelphia’s schools, to, most recently, sharing their personal art collection for the exhibition A Nation of Artists at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Middletons — John is the controlling owner of the Philadelphia Phillies — have helped people, education, art, culture, and, of course, sports, thrive in this city.

The best part? Throughout the evening, the couple, inspired by their co-awardees, was, said John, “taking notes.”

“You are what good citizenship looks like,” John said. “America’s 250th birthday is a perfect moment to recommit to being a good citizen for the city, to each other, and to embrace that stubborn, generous idea that none of us get very far by going it alone.”

Edward G. Rendell Lifetime Achievement Award: Jane Golden, presented by The Roots’ Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter

When Golden took the stage to accept her award, she quoted from the Adrienne Rich poem “Dreams Before Waking” by: “‘What would it mean to live in a city whose people were changing each other’s despair into hope? You yourself must change it.’”

Golden is about to make a big change herself. In July, she will step down from the organization she’s shepherded for 40 years. It’s a big change, but Golden promises she will still be here, fighting for and cheerleading Philadelphia — and, for as long as possible, jumping up and down while doing it.

Watch the entire evening unfold here:

See photos of the event here: 

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