The New School’s City Visionary Awards Celebrates Four Individuals Creating Positive Change in NYC and Beyond
Since its founding more than a century ago, The New School has been part of the culture of New York City. Rather than just the home of the university, the city is an extension of the campus, with the thinkers, doers, and industry leaders who make it a global hub of innovation and culture. The New School’s connection with New York is an important legacy of the university that is celebrated through the City Visionary Awards, which recognize individuals whose bold and innovative work makes New York City a more equitable, sustainable, and creative place.
This year, the university honored four individuals:
- Susan Foote, trustee of The New School and chair of the Board of Governors of The New School for Social Research
- BK Fulton, MS Urban Policy Analysis and Management ’91, former president of Verizon, producer and filmmaker, and four-time Tony Award winner
- Wes Jackson, MA Media Studies ’13, president of BRIC Arts & Media
- Dan Tishman, chairman of Tishman Realty & Construction Co., Inc.
The honorees were nominated by members of the New School community and selected by the Alumni Council and New School leadership. They received their awards at an event that doubled as a fundraiser, raising more than $350,000 for scholarships to make the university and the city more accessible to emerging scholars, artists, and entrepreneurs.
During the event, President Joel Towers said that it was inspiring to “honor four individuals whose contributions to the city—in its physical form, its cultural fabric, and its intellectual life—have made New York more dynamic, equitable, resilient, and joyful.” He remarked, “Cities are both the answer to an essential systemic rebalancing of human–nature relations and a relic of the fossil fuel–driven population explosion of humankind that has seen our species triple over the last 80 years. Changing cities is also about changing ourselves, and the two kinds of transformation are related. Tonight we honor individuals who have been making and remaking cities for their whole lives. They are true visionaries.”
About the honorees:
Susan Foote
Susan Foote’s life-long passion for history, culture, politics, art, music, and innovative education has led to her decades-long involvement with The New School. She has served as a member of the Board of Governors of The New School for Social Research (NSSR) since 2002 and has been the chair since 2009. She has also served as a member of The New School Board of Trustees since 2007. Through her leadership on the Academic Affairs Committee, membership on the Committee on Trusteeship, and service on two university search committees, Susan has acquired a deep familiarity with the strengths of and challenges faced by this unique institution over the years. In 2015, Susan helped found NSSR’s Institute for Critical Social Inquiry, a prime example of The New School’s unique brand of groundbreaking scholarship.
BK Fulton, MS Urban Policy Analysis and Management ’91
Since retiring as the president of Verizon in 2015, BK Fulton has become a media mogul, producing more than 20 films, 19 books, and four No. 1 Broadway shows, including The Piano Lesson, with Samuel L. Jackson, John David Washington, and Danielle Brooks. The play was nominated for two Tonys and remains the highest-grossing Broadway revival of all time. Fulton also worked on the 2024 Broadway revivals of The Wiz and The Outsiders (nominated for 12 Tonys and the winner of four, including Best Musical). Fulton and his wife, Jackie Stone, are philanthropists who donate to organizations that cultivate young entrepreneurs and introduce them to leaders from around the globe.
Wes Jackson, MA Media Studies ’13
Wes Jackson is currently the President of BRIC Arts & Media, a multidisciplinary arts and media institution anchored in downtown Brooklyn that has shaped the cultural and media landscape for more than 45 years. Jackson has more than 25 years of experience as a leader and innovator in entertainment and academia. He previously taught at Emerson College, where he served as director of the Business of Creative Enterprise program and senior executive In residence. Earlier he taught at CUNY–York College. An accomplished entrepreneur, Jackson founded and, with his wife, Ebonie, ran the Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival, an event aimed at honoring and preserving hip-hop music and culture. He began his career producing concerts for Nas, The Roots, The Dave Matthews Band, The Fugees, and A Tribe Called Quest. He went on to start his own record label and marketing firm, Seven Heads Entertainment, which helped launch the careers of Yasiin Bey (Mos Def), Talib Kweli, El-P (Run The Jewels), Common, and others.
Dan Tishman
Dan Tishman is a principal and the chairman of Tishman, a privately held real estate and investment business based in New York and founded in 1898. An advocate for environmental sustainability, he and his wife, Sheryl, established the NorthLight Foundation, which works on environmental justice, land conservation, and climate-related issues. The Tishmans have described the foundation as one that “invests at the intersection of human and environmental landscapes and works with organizations to deliver high-impact and systemic change.” The couple have funded the Tishman Environmental Justice Fellowship at The New School’s Tishman Environment and Design Center, a program that supports community leaders working toward just and equitable transitions around the country.