Guerline Jozef, co-founder and executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, will receive the 2026 Wallenberg Medal at 4:30 p.m. Sept. 29 in Rackham Auditorium.

In keeping with the tradition of the Wallenberg Lecture, Jozef will draw on her personal experience to share with the audience her understanding of how one person can make a difference.

Under the auspices of the Donia Human Rights Center, U-M awards the Wallenberg Medal to those who, through their actions and personal commitment, perpetuate Raoul Wallenberg’s extraordinary accomplishments and human values, and demonstrate the capacity of the human spirit to stand up for the helpless, to defend the integrity of the powerless, and to speak out on behalf of the voiceless.

Jozef, a servant leader rooted in faith, is a globally recognized human rights advocate, thought leader and strategist who has worked to transform the conversation on migration, race and justice. 

Jozef is the executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, a Haitian-American-women-led organization serving immigrants, with a particular focus on Black immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border and beyond. With the HBA, she has built a movement that centers people of African descent in migration while amplifying the voices of the most marginalized. 

She is the creator of “Tales from the Borderlands and Beyond,” and co-founder of both the Black Immigrants Bail Fund and the Cameroon Advocacy Network.

Her influence has been recognized nationally and internationally. She was named one of the Washingtonian’s 500 Most Influential People of 2025, one of Politico’s 40 Most Influential People on Race, Politics, and Policy of 2021, and one of the BBC’s Top 100 Women of 2024. She was honored with the 2025 Afro-Caribbean Diaspora IMPACT Award from the Caribbean Philanthropic Alliance, the 2021 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, the AFL-CIO’s 2024 GMLK Human Rights Award, the 2024 Haitian Impact Awards, and the 2023 Midwin Charles Legacy Award from the 1804 Haitian Roundtable. 

She has been recognized by the Women’s Refugee Commission (Voices of Courage Award, 2024), The Haitian Times (Newsmaker of the Year, 2022), the National Haitian-American Elected Officials Network, and the American Immigration Lawyers Association’s Arthur C. Helton Human Rights Award among others.

Jozef has been featured in Forbes, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Politico, Time, The Miami Herald, The Haitian Times, The Grio, Politico, and Democracy Now. She has testified before the United Nations, the U.S. Congress, and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and recently brought her advocacy to the international stage during the IV International Forum of Parliamentarians in Barranquilla, Colombia. Jozef went to the border for Haitians—but she stayed for everyone seeking safety and protection. 

“Guerline Jozef is a powerful advocate for the dignity and rights of migrants who has linked the experience of migration at the U.S.-Mexico border to global human rights movements. She works tirelessly to give voice to the marginalized and to shape a more just future for all,” said Sioban Harlow, chair of the Wallenberg Medal Executive Committee and professor emerita of epidemiology, obstetrics and gynecology, and global public health. 

Recent Wallenberg Medal recipients include Vladimir Kara-Murza, Russian politician, author, historian, and former political prisoner (2025); Nnimmo Bassey, executive director of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation and a global environmental activist (2024); Lucas Benitez, a co-founder of the Florida-based labor and human rights organization the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (2023); and Safa Al Ahmad, Saudi Arabian journalist and documentary filmmaker (2019). 

Notable medal recipients over the past 30 years include Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Bryan Stevenson, Miep Gies, John Lewis, Elie Wiesel, Denis Mukwege, and His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, Fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet.

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• Raoul Wallenberg
• Wallenberg Medal and Lecture