President of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Hilda Heine, has been recognised with the East-West Center’s Women of Impact award.
Established by the East-West Center Board of Governors in 2022, the Women of Impact Award recognises the important role of women’s leadership and impact in governance, diplomacy, and society.
The award was presented last week to President Heine, a former member of the Center’s Board of Governors, by the board’s current chair, former Hawai‘i Governor John Waihe‘e.
“To be counted among the previous recipients of this award is indeed an unexpected honour,” Heine said in her remarks accepting the award “on behalf of those who have come before me.”
She added: “If there is anything my career has taught me, it is that positive impact can be made only through building community and building bridges. There is that Western saying, ‘No person is an island.’ It’s a concept that our islander cultures have known for millennia, and that my mother and father taught me as well: We are only as strong as our communities and our kinship to one another.”