Mary Barra, Lester Holt, Jon Iwata headline annual Page Center Awards

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The 2023 Larry Foster Award honorees may represent leadership roles in different areas of public communication, but their appearance at the annual Page Center Awards displayed their shared value of integrity in all that they do.

This year’s honorees were Mary Barra, chair and CEO of General Motors; Lester Holt, anchor and managing editor of “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” and anchor of “Dateline NBC;” and Jon Iwata, former senior vice president and chief brand officer at IBM.  

Each honoree received a Larry Foster Award for Integrity in Public Communication and 450 people registered for the Feb. 22 virtual event.

The three honorees join 19 past recipients in a group of remarkable leaders representing business, journalism, public relations, and other areas. Hosts Bill Nielsen, Page Center advisory board chair, and Marie Hardin, dean of the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications, opened the night with an overview of the Center and the purpose of the awards. 

“Not only are Mary, Lester and Jon shining examples of integrity, they are steady voices who lead by example and impact the world with well-deserved authority,” said Nielsen.

First to be honored was Iwata. Page Center board member Aedhmar Hynes, who is board director of IP Group Plc and Jackson Family Wines, led the conversation. The two discussed the role of integrity in communication amidst quickly evolving AI technology.

“I believe integrity in every form of public communication, media, business, and education and public discourse is needed now more than ever,” said Iwata, who is also the founding executive director of the Data & Trust Alliance. “It has never been more at risk.”

Barra participated in a fascinating conversation with Page Center board member Roger Bolton, president of Page. They discussed topics like advice for young professionals, the importance of safety vehicles and the need to always be truthful.

“I tell the entire team your integrity is everything,” Barra said. “It takes years to build it, and it can crumble in a moment, and once it has gone it is almost impossible to get it back.”

The evening’s final honoree was Holt. Nielsen led the conversation with the NBC News anchor who shared his thoughts on the need to uplift marginalized voices and recognize the importance of honest, truthful communication.

Holt said that “NBC Nightly News” has been successful because its leaders and journalists acknowledge the “importance of listening to people.”

“Nightly News has been a program where for over 70 years we have kept the tradition of integrity and honesty,” Holt said.

This was the seventh installment of the annual event. Past honorees include Dr. Anthony Fauci, Christiane Amanpour, Ginger Hardage, Ken Chenault and 18 others. Learn more about past events and honorees on the awards page.

About the Page Center Awards

Located in Penn State’s Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications, the Arthur W. Page Center is a research center that advances integrity in all forms of public communication. It was founded by public relations legend Larry Foster, a Penn State alumnus and the namesake of the Center’s integrity award.

The purpose of the Page Center Awards is to celebrate icons of ethics, integrity and truth in public communication. The event supports innovative research by Page Center scholars who represent universities all over the world. The Center’s research projects aim to build the scholarly and public understanding of ethics in communication. To date, the Center has funded more than 300 scholars and awarded more than $1 million in research funding.

Areas of focus include corporate social responsibility, digital ethics, sustainability communication, advocacy, fake news and more. Other Center initiatives focus on educational opportunities like regular speaker series, oral history archiving and online educational modules.

Learn more at thepagecenter.org.