HAIMAN AWARD - The Mieczyslaw Haiman award is offered annually to an American scholar for sustained contribution to the study of Polish Americans. The award was established in 1969 in honor of the late Mieczyslaw Haiman (1888-1949), a co-founder and charter member of the Polish American Historical Association, curator of the Polish Museum of America in Chicago, and pioneer in the compilation of Polish American history.

2008/9 - John Radzilowski. Dr. Radzilowski has contributed substantially to the study of Polish-Americans and to understanding, exploring and documenting the lifeworlds of American Polonia. His recent works include: Poles in Minnesota (St. Paul, MN : Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2005);The Eagle & the Cross: A History of the Polish Roman Catholic Union of America, 1873-2000 (Boulder: East European Monographs; New York : Distributed by Columbia University Press, 2003); Out on the Wind : Poles and Danes in Lincoln County, Minnesota, 1880-1905 [with Jennifer Mahal] (Marshall, Minn.: Crossings Press, 1992); Poland's Transformation: A Work in Progress [compiled and edited with Marek Jan Chodakiewicz and Dariusz Tołczyk] (Charlottesville, VA : Leopolis Press, 2003); Spanish Carlism and Polish Nationalism: The Borderlands of Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries [compiled and edited with Marek Jan Chodakiewicz] (Charlottesville, VA: Leopolis Press, 2003)

2007/8 - Eugene Obidinski. Dr. Obidinski is Professor Emeritus in Sociology at the State University of New York at Oneonta. He has made extensive contributions to understanding, exploring and documenting the lifeworlds of American Polonia and some of his important works include: Ethnic to Status Group: A Study of Polish Americans in Buffalo (New York: 1980) and Polish Folkways in America: Community and Family (Lanham, MD: 1987), written with Helen Stankiewicz Zand. In addition to a distinguished academic career, Dr. Obidinski is active in Polish-American community life and contributing editor to the Polish American Journal.

2006/7 - Mary Patrice Erdmans. Dr. Erdmans is Professor of Sociology at Central Connecticut State University, with specialties in race and ethnic relations, social movements, field studies, and Polish and Polish American studies. She is a two-time recipient of the PAHA Halecki Prize for her books Opposite Poles (1998) and The Grasinski Girls (2005). She served as PAHA President 2003-2007. She is cited for the extent, quality, and influence of her scholarship, largely on significant issues having received little attention from previous researchers. In this way, Dr. Erdmans has produced work of interest not only to Polonia specialists, but to a broader audience of scholars in the fields of immigration and ethnicity.

2005/6. Donald and Angela Pienkos. Donald Pienkos, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Polish National Alliance, the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America, and as a national director of the Polish American Congress. He was president of PAHA (2001-2003). His spouse, Angela, taught European history at Ripon College and Alverno College, was a high school administrator for 24 years, and served as executive director of the Polish Center of Wisconsin. She was president of PAHA in 1980 and its executive director in 1986. Donald authored the histories of the Polish National Alliance (1984, awarded the Halecki prize from PAHA in 1985), the Polish Falcons of America (1987), and the Polish American Congress and its predecessor organizations (1991). He and Angela co-authored the history of the Polish Women's Alliance (2003). Each has published extensively on Polish and Polish American political and historical topics. In 1978 Angela edited one of the first PAHA-sponsored books, Ethnic Politics in Urban America: The Polish Experience in Four Cities.

2004/5 - Adam Walaszek. Over the past twenty years, Prof. Dr. Adam Walaszek helped to re-invent the study of Polish Americans with his original work on return-migration, labor, local community studies and the family. Mentored by prominent historians of the first generation of scholars in Poland to seriously investigate Polish American culture -- including Andrzej Brozek and Miroslaw Francic -- Adam Walaszek was one of the first Polish historians to be equally at home with cutting-edge American scholarship as well as the newest work by young Polish scholars. He is currently a full professor of history and chair of the History Department at the Institute of Polish Diaspora and Ethnic Studies of the Jagiellonian Univerrsity where he teaches courses on the history of international migrations, world diasporas, the history of the Polish ethnic group in the United States, and United States social history. He is a member of the editorial board of Przeglad Polonijny and editor-in-chief of the Prace Polonijne series published by the Jagiellonian University. He is the author of three ground-breaking monographs on Polish American history: Reemigracja ze Stanów Zjednoczonych do Polski po I wojnie swiatowej, 1919 1924 [Return Migration from the United States to Poland after the First World War, 1919-1924 ] (1983); Polscy robotnicy, praca i zwiazki zawodowe w Stanach Zjednoczonych Ameryki, 1880 1922 [Polish workers, work and the labor movement in the USA, 1880-1922] (1988), and Swiaty imigrantów. Tworzenie polonijnego Cleveland, 1880-1930 [Immigrant Worlds: The Making of Polish-American Cleveland 1880-1929] (Nomos, 1994). He co-edited (with T. Gladsky, and M. Wawrykiewicz) the anthology: Ethnicity, Culture and City: Polish Americans in the USA. Cultural Aspects of Urban Life, 1870-1950 (1998); and he is sole editor of the new anthology Polska diaspora. Leksykon historyczny, (2001). He has published over eighty articles in scholarly journals and anthologies in both Polish and English and nearly ninety book reviews.

2003/4 - Mieczyslaw S. Biskupski. The Stanislaus A. Blejwas Endowed Chair in
Polish and Polish American Studies at CCSU, Prof. Dr. Biskupski is the author of nine books, numerous journal articles, and a specialist in modern Central Europe. Before his appointment at CCSU, Dr. Biskupski was Professor of History and Graduate Professor of
International Studies at St. John Fisher College in Rochester, NY. He earned his doctorate at Yale, where he was a student of Piotr Wandycz, and he has held Visiting Professorships at the University of Rochester, served as Fulbright Research Professor at the University of Warsaw, and, in 1997, he was a Fellow of the Central European University of Budapest. Bolek is the recipient of many academic and national awards, including the Honor Roll of Polish Science by the Polish Ministry of Education and the Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences, and a past president of PAHA.

1966-2002

2002/3 - Thomas Gladsky
2001/2 – No award given
2000/1 - William Galush
1999/0 - Daniel Buczek
1995-1998 - No award given
1994/5 - John J. Bukowczyk
1993/4 - Andrzej Brozek
1992/3 - Anthony J. Kuzniewski, S.J.
1991/0 - No award given
1990/1 - Stanislaus Blejwas
1989/0 - Edward Pinkowski
1988/9 - James S. Pula
1987/8 - Helena Znaniecki Lopata
1986/7 - Edward Rozanski
1985/6 - Thaddeus Gromada
1984/5 - Eugene Kusielewicz
1983/4 - Thaddeus Radzialowski
1982/3 - Ellen Marie Kuznicki
1981/2 - Victor Greene
1980/1 - Joseph Wieczerzak
1979/0 - Metchie Budka
1978/9 - Frank Renkiewicz
1977/8 - No award given
1976/7 - Jacek Przygoda
1975/6 - Waclaw Jedrzejewicz
1974/5 - No award given
1973/4 - M.J. Madaj
1972/3 – No award given
1971/2 - Joseph Swastek
1970/1 - Ludwik Krzyzanowski
1969/0 - Arthur Waldo
1967/8 - Marion Moore Coleman
1966/7 - Oscar Halecki

HALECKI PRIZE - This award recognizes an important book or monograph on the Polish experience in the United States. Eligibility is limited to works of historical and/or cultural interest, including those from related fields in the social sciences or humanities, published in 2005 or 2006. The prize honors Oskar Halecki (1891-1973), eminent Polish-born historian who was also a co-founder and charter member of PAHA.

2008/9 - Mieczysław B. Biskupski and Antony Polonsky. Polish-Jewish Relations in North America (Oxford: 2007). When Poles and Jews emigrated to North America, the relationship between them developed in new ways. This volume 19 of the Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry series looks at various aspects of that relationship, past and present. An edited anthology, key topics include Polish and Jewish relations from the early to mid 20th century; literary and journalistic representations; institutional contacts; attitudes to the Holocaust; the debate over Jedwabne; physical violence and initiatives for mutual understanding. Substantial space is also given, in 'New Views', to recent research in other areas of Polish-Jewish studies.

2007/8 - William J. Galush. Dr. Galush is Professor Emeritus in History at Loyola University of Chicago. He is the author of numerous scholarly works and articles related to Polish-American history. His recent work, For More than Bread: Community and Identity in American Polonia, 1880-1940 (Boulder: 2006) provides a rich, cultural history of the Polish American community and its integration into American society, comparatively exploring changing identities of immigrants and their second-generation children.

2006/7 - John Radzilowski, Poles in Minnesota (Minneapolis: 2005). Dr. Radzilowski is Associate Professor of History at the University of Alaska, a senior fellow at the Piast Institute, Detroit, and president of the Polish American Cultural Institute of Minnesota. He is as well a two-time winner of the PAHA Swastek Prize. Poles in Minnesota is honored as a highly readable account of the Polish Americans who created and sustained community institutions in that state. Filled with intriguing details, the book shows how Polish Americans established their own cultural identity within Minnesota.

2005/6 - Mary Patrice Erdmans. The Grasinski Girls: The Choices They Had and the Choices They Made (Athens, OH: 2004). Dr. Erdmans is Professor of Sociology at Central Connecticut State University, and current President of PAHA. The Grasinski Girls is a study of working class Americans of Polish descent, born in the 1920s and 1930s. The book has been praised by reviewers as “very original,” “refreshingly written,” and “remarkably [successful] on all levels.” Professor Erdmans is a two time winner of the Halecki Prize, having been honored for her Opposite Poles in 1998.

2004/5 - Anna Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann. The Exile Mission: The Polish Political Diaspora and Polish Americans, 1939-1956 (Athens, OH: 2004). Dr. Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann monograph takes on several large issues: the relationship between an established ethnic community and new arrivals, debates over the distinction between economic immigrant and political refugee, the evolving relationship between an ethnic community and the politics of the homeland, and the continual re-construction of ethnic identity with new waves of immigration. She crafts a readable master narrative that draws on memoirs, ethnic organization records, government documents and interviews. She puts these sources into a framework drawn from wide-ranging research into secondary sources from several disciplines including sociology, diplomatic history and international law. Dr. Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann clarifies the spectrum of ideological positions in post-World War II American Polonia and shows the impact of an "exile mission," first articulated in Europe, on the interaction between the exiles and the established Polish American community.

2003/4 - Karen Majewski. Traitor and True Poles: Narrating a Polish American Identity, 1880-1939. (Athens, OH: 2003). Dr. Majewski's work is the first extended look at Polish-language fiction written by turn-of-the-century immigrants. Addressing a blind spot in our understanding of immigrant and ethnic identity and culture, Traitors and True Poles challenges perceptions of a silent and passive Polish immigration. Polish-American
immigrant writers used their work to define and consolidate an essentially transnational ethnic identity that was both tied to Poland and independent of it. In Traitors and True Poles, Dr. Majewski illustrates how immigrants manipulated often difficult economic, social, and political realities to provide a place for and a sense of themselves. What emerges is a fuller picture of American literature, one vital to the creation of an ethnic consciousness. Madeline Levine of UNC wrote in her review of the book: “She shows how the detective stories, comic narratives, romantic tale, and realist novels not only entertained a not-yet-assimilated and not very well-educated readership but also expressed a range of contented definitions of Polishness.” The book was chosen as one of Choice's top academic books of 2003. Dr. Majewski is Special Collections Librarian for the Polish Collection at the Orchard Lake Schools, in Orchard Lake, Michigan.

2002/3 - Joseph Bigott and Stephen Leahy.

SWASTEK PRIZE - The Swastek Prize is awarded annually for the best article published in a given volume of Polish American Studies, the journal of the Polish American Historical Association. This award is named in honor of Rev. Joseph V. Swastek (1913-1977), editor of Polish American Studies for many years, and past president of the Polish American Historical Association.
2008/9 - Iwona Korga. “The Information Policy of the Polish Government-in-Exile Toward the American Public During World War II” Polish American Studies 64. Dr. Korga is the Executive Director of the Pilsudski Institute of America. The recent recipient of awards from the Kosciuszko Foundation and Polonia Aid Foundation Trust (London), her academic research focuses Polish-American relations during Second World War, especially in propaganda and information policies. Dr. Korga’s Ph.D. dissertation, entitled: Propaganda activities of the Polish Government in Exile towards American society 1939-1945, was the recipient of PAHAs Stanley and Sophie Kulczycki Award in 2007. She has also been th author of numerous articles for Polish – American newspapers as well as periodicals in Poland.
2007/8 - Maja Trochimczyk. “The Impact of Mazowsze and Slask Folk Dancing in California,” Polish American Studies 63. Dr. Trochimczyk’s research focuses on ideas of musical space and spatialization and recent monographs include: After Chopin: Essays on Polish Music (USC Press, 2000); The Music of Louis Andriessen (Routledge, 2002); and Polish Dance in Southern California (East European Monographs, 2007).

2006/7 - Adam Walaszek. “Tomasz Siemiradzki: An Intellectual in Ethnic Politics,” Polish American Studies 62. Adam Walaszek is Professor of History at the Instytut Amerykanistyki i Studiów Polonijnych, Uniwersytet Jagiellonski, Kraków, and 2004 recipient of the PAHA Haiman Award. His article is cited as an excellent biography of a major Polonia figure based on extensive original research that makes a strong contribution to Polish American history.

2005/6 - Neal Pease. “The Kosciuszko Reds, 1909-1919: Kings of the Milwaukee Sandlots,” Polish American Studies 61. Dr. Pease is Associate Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. His article explores the significance of a local semiprofessional baseball team in the life of the Polish American community of Milwaukee shortly after the turn of the 20th century.

2004/5 - Ann Hetzel Gunkel. “The Sacred in the City: Polonian Street Processions as Countercultural Practice,” Polish American Studies 60. Dr. Gunkel’s article on Good Friday processions brings a new disciplinary approach to Polish American Studies. With good ethnographic skills, she documents outdoor processions with her own photographs and careful eye-witness description. Given how little evidence remains of similar processions and parades from past decades, this alone is a worthwhile contribution to Polish American scholarship. More importantly, in her article, she draws on theoretical perspectives from anthropology, ethnography, literary criticism, aesthetics, and liturgical studies to present a new argument about the layers of meaning embedded in these ceremonies.

CREATIVE ARTS PRIZE - This award recognizes contributions in the field of creative arts by individuals or groups who have promoted an awareness of the Polish experience in the Americas.

2008/9 - Anthony Bukoksi. Dr. Bukoski recently published North of Port (2008), a critically well received collection of twelve short stories that highlight the lives and legacies of ordinary Polish immigrants at mid-century. He is the author of four other story collections, including Children of Strangers (SMU, 1993), Polonaise (SMU, 1999), and Time Between Trains (SMU, 2003), which was a Booklist Editors' Choice. His stories have been featured on Wisconsin Public Radio, National Public Radio, and in live performance in the "Selected Shorts" series at Symphony Space in New York City. He teaches at his alma mater, the University of Wisconsin in his hometown of Superior, where his Polish émigré grandparents settled early in the last century.

2007/8 - Linda Nemec Foster. Ms. Foster is the author of seven poetry collections including Living in the Fire Nest (finalist for the Poet's Prize), Amber Necklace from Gdansk (finalist for the Ohio Book Award in Poetry), and Listen to the Landscape (short-listed for the 2007 Michigan Notable Book Award).  Her poems have appeared in over 250 literary magazines and journals including The Georgia Review, New American Writing, North American Review, Nimrod, and the International Poetry Review. Ms. Foster's work has also been included in various anthologies, translated in Poland, exhibited in museums and galleries, and produced for the stage.  She has received awards for her work from the Arts Foundation of Michigan, Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs, the National Writer's Voice of New York City, and the Academy of American Poets. 

2006/7 - Ann Hetzel Gunkel. Dr. Gunkel is Professor of Humanities and Cultural Studies at Columbia College, Chicago. A specialist in urban cultural studies, she is widely regarded as the leading scholar of polka in the United States. A previous recipient of the PAHA Swastek Prize, Dr. Gunkel is honored with the Creative Arts Prize in recognition of her body of scholarly work focusing on Polish American culture.

2005/6 - Marek Czarnecki.  Mr. Czarnecki is an iconographer, the director of Seraphic Restorations in Meriden, Connecticut. The son of Polish immigrants, he enjoys a national reputation, and is held in particularly high esteem in New England, where he has painted and restored many icons for local Polish churches. He also has written on the subject of sacramental art in Catholic churches in the United States.

2004/5 - Keith Mallard. Mr. Mallard’s work, The Clarinet Polka (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2003) was discussed enthusiastically in several presentations at the January 2004 PAHA Annual Meeting. The buzz continued into the June 2004 Conference, "One Hundred and Fifty Years of Polonia in North America" in New Britain, CT. The repeated refrain was, “he got it right.” The protagonist of the Clarinet Polka, Jimmy Dobrowski, returns from military duty, to a fictional West Virginia steel town in 1969. Avoiding sentimental and patronizing portrayals of working-class ethnicity, Maillard shows Jimmy emerging from an alienated, numb state by connecting to a homegrown, and vital local polka culture. This book reminds us that while working-class baby boomers struggled, as their middle-class cohorts did, with political cynicism and alienation in the 1970s, some found meaning in a different place: celebrating and re-inventing an ethnic heritage they had initially scorned.

2003/4 - Anthony Bukoski. Time Between Trains (Southern Methodist University
Press). The 13 stories in Time Between Trains represent Dr. Bukoski's fourth collection of short stories set in his hometown of Superior, Wisconsin. The stories have been described by reviewers as “beautifully written” and successfully “portraying the overwhelming smallness of his world.” Suzanne Strempek Shea writes these stories are “a stark,
honest, and poignant time capsule of a Lake Superior Polish enclave” and Leslie Pietrzyk notes that the stories represent a “beautifully rendered community of proud people.” Excerpts from Time Between Trains have been read on Wisconsin Public Radio and National Public Radio. In addition, Booklist, the magazine of the American
Library Association, designated Time Between Trains as one of the best books in 2003. Tony's work introduces non-Polonians to Polonia, and allows Polish Americans the pleasure of reading about their everyday lives in American literature.

DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD - This award is given occasional to a member of PAHA who has rendered valuable and sustained service to the organization.

2008/9 - Thomas Duszak. Mr Duszak was nominated for this award for his extensive efforts in working to ensure that PAHA’s journal -- Polish American Studies is incorporated into online databases such as EBSCO and J-STOR. Mr. Duszak’s devotion and persistence to the project has been exemplary and has proved instrumental at all levels relating to the digitization project. Though Mr. Duszak’s work, PAHA has been able to substantially raise its academic profile, and the journal is now available to a global audience.

2007/8 - Mary Patrice Erdmans. Dr. Erdmans has held several important posts within PAHA, including most recently serving as President from 2003-2006. During her tenure, Dr. Erdmans guided PAHA through a successful reorganization that has now placed the Association on a firm financial footing with an expanding program of scholarly activities and membership base.

2006/7 - Joseph Wieczerzak. Joseph Wieczerzak is Professor Emeritus of History, Bronx College, CUNY. He has served two terms as PAHA president, is a past recipient of the organization’s Haiman Award, and is a current member of the PAHA Board. He is now editor of The Polish Review.

2006/7 - Theodore Zawistowski. Theodore Zawistowski has taught college courses in the fields of Sociology and Psychology, and has served as a consultant on history and archives to the Commission of the Polish National Catholic Church. He has edited PNCC Studies, The Polish Review, and the PAHA Newsletter. In addition, he has contributed greatly to the annual PNCC conferences.

2005/6 - Mark Kulikowski. Mark Kulikowski is Associate Professor of History at State University of New York-Oswego, with expertise in modern Russian and U.S. diplomatic history. Among other works, he has written the well known Bibliography of Slavic Mythology (1989). Professor Kulikowski has been a longtime member of the editorial board of Polish American Studies, as well as a frequent contributor.

2003/4 - Tom Napierkowski.  Dr. Napierkowski is a professor of English at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. His area of specialization is medieval English literature, with particular emphasis on the works of Geoffrey Chaucer and the fifteenth century. Tom has also worked and published in the fields of Slavic literature and Eastern and Central European Culture and Politics. Dr. Napierkowski has served as PAHA president twice, which required that he organize two national conferences. He has been a board member for numerous years, helped to recruit the Kulczycki monies ($20,000+) for what is now the Kulczycki scholarship. In addition, Tom has also helped to broaden the scope of PAHA by including Polish-American literature as a key tool to understanding the Polish migrant experience in America.

2002/3 - Karen Majewski.

AMICUS POLONIAE AWARD - The Amicus Poloniae Award recognizes significant contributions enhancing knowledge of the Polish and Polish American heritage by individuals not belonging to the Polish American community.

2008/9 – Stephen Leahy. Dr. Leahy has also held several important positions within PAHA. Most notably, he has served as editor of the PAHA newsletter, our organisation’s most important direct communication tool with its members and, until resigning in 2007, he provided notable service on the PAHA Awards committee.

2007/8 Sean Martin. Dr. Martin’s academic interests lie in Polish-Jewish relations. He is Associate Curator for Jewish History at the Western Reserve Historical Society and teaches at the University of Phoenix. His recent book, Jewish Life in Cracow, 1918-1939 (London: 2004) received acclaim and he is currently working on a history of Jewish child welfare in interwar Poland.

2006/7 - Joel Wurl. Now a Senior Program Officer at the National Endowment for the Humanities in Washington, D.C., Joel Wurl is recognized for his longtime service at the Immigration History Research Center, University of Minnesota. While at IHRC he filled various positions, including Head of Research Collections and Associate Director. Due to his initiatives, many priceless manuscript collections produced by Polish American organizations were acquired by IHRC and made available to researchers. His nominator states that “anybody who has ever done research at the IHRC can attest to Joel Wurl’s invaluable assistance.”

2005/6 - Gillian Berchowitz. Ms, Berchowitz is senior editor and assistant director of Ohio University Press, having worked with the firm more than 20 years. She is a native of Capetown, South Africa, of Latvian/Jewish background. She helped develop and has been essential to the success of OUP’s Polish and Polish-American Studies Series, which has produced numerous award winning volumes.

2004/5 - Catholic University of America Press.

STANLEY AND SOPHIE KULCZYCKI PRIZE - The Kulczycki Prize is granted occasionally in recognition of an important dissertation on the Polish experience in the United States offered to a graduate student or younger scholar.

2008/9 – No Award given
2007/8 - No Award given

2006/7 - Iwona Drag Korga. Dzialalnosc propagandowa rzadu RP na uchodzstwie wobec spoleczenstwo amerykanskiego 1939-1945. Akademia Pedagogiczna im. Komisji Edukacji Narodowej, Kraków, 2004. Dr. Korga is Executive Director/Treasurer of the Joseph Pilsudski Institute of America, New York. Her dissertation is an accomplished and professional study of the propaganda activity of the Polish Government in Exile within American society during the Second World War.

2005/6 - Brian McCook. “The Borders of Integration: Polish Migrant Workers in the Ruhr Valley of Germany and the Pennsylvania Anthracite Regions of the United States, 1870-1924,” University of California-Berkeley, 2004. Dr. McCook is the current holder of the Thyssen-Heidelberg Postdoctoral Fellowship of the University of Cologne. His doctoral dissertation is a very successful comparative project exploring why distinctive patterns of minority inclusion and exclusion emerged in Germany and the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER AWARD - The Graduate Research Paper Award recognizes outstanding research into Polish-American history and culture by a young scholar in the humanities or social sciences.

CIVIC ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS - The Civic Achievement Awards honor individuals or groups who advance PAHA’s goals of promoting research on and awareness of the Polish experience in the Americas.

2008/9 - Peter Obst. Mr. Obst has been active in preserving and promoting knowledge of Polish American history in Pennsylvania. He has worked with the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission to ensure that historical makers were erected to figures such as Pulaski and Polish-born engineer Ralph Modjewski “America’s greatest bridge builder”.  He was also a key member of the Pulaski Re-interment Committee and is prominent in Philadelphia Polonia affairs.

2008/9 - Janusz Bruks. Mr. Bruks has been active in various Polonia organisations and recently was involved in the establishment of a permanent display on the Kosciuszko Squadron at the Connecticut Air Museum. He is also the printer for the PAHA newsletter and has been of invaluable aid to the organisation.

2008/9 - Addy Tymczyszyn. Ms. Tymczyszyn has been the Kosciuszko Foundation’s Scholarship & Grants for Americans Program Officer for many years. In her work at the Foundation, Ms. Tymczyszyn has overseen the administration of a program that has aided thousands of students of Polish-American descent pay for the costs of undergraduate or graduate education. She also coordinates the Summer Study Abroad program, which fosters Polish language study for Americans through 3 to 8 week courses given in either Krakow or Lublin.

2007/ 8 - Alexander and Patricia Koproski. Alexander and Patricia Koproski were integral in founding the American Center of Polish Culture in Washington, D.C. and have provided assistance in helping endow the Polish Studies program at CCSU. Over the past years, both Alexander and Patricia’s work on behalf of the Polish-American community has been nationally and internationally recognized. Recently, both Alexander and Patricia were awarded the Krzyzem Kwalerskim Orderu Zaslugi Rzeczypospolitej (Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland) by the Polish government. Alexander Koproski has also been the recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.

2007/8 - Kaya Mirecka-Ploss. Active in popularizing Polish culture in the United States, Dr. Mirecka-Ploss served as executive director of the American Center of Polish Culture, serving from 1991-2005. Currently, she is executive director of the Jan Karski Institute. She has been active in popularizing Polish culture in the US through radio programs and cultural centers. Dr. Mirecka Ploss has also worked tireless on behalf of children and has sponsored two-week “Dream Holidays” for young Poles to visit the United States. In carrying out this project, she worked with the former Polish first lady Jolanta Kwaśniewska and approximately 180 children have so far benefited from this program. In 2006, a school in Poland was named after her and she presently oversees the Kaya Mirecka Ploss Silesian Children's Foundation to aid handicapped children.

2007/8 - Edward Rowny. Ambassador Rowny is a highly decorated United States Army General and former Chief United States Strategic Arms Negotiator who was awarded the Presidential Citizen’s Medal by President Reagan and honored by the Polish government with the Commander’s Cross (for returning Ignacy Jan Paderewski’s remains to Poland) and the Commander's Cross with Star (for promoting American-Polish relations). Since retiring from government, Ambassador Rowny has worked to promote a greater awareness among the American public of Ignacy Jan Paderewski and recently created the Paderewski scholarship program. This program is designed to advance closer ties between the United States and Poland by enabling potential young Polish leaders to attend leadership training programs at Georgetown University. 

2007/8 - Kathleen Urbanic. Ms Urbanic Kathleen Urbanic has been documenting the history of Rochester's Polish community since the 1980s.  Shoulder to Shoulder, her comprehensive study of Rochester Polonia, was originally published in 1991 and reprinted in a new edition in 2000.  Her work has also appeared in Polish American Studies, PNCC Studies, Rochester History, the Gannett Rochester newspapers, and other publications. In 2006 Kathy organized an exceptional exhibit in Rochester entitled: “Under the Wings of the White Eagle: Rochester’s Polish American Heritage.”

2006/7 - Elzbieta and Krzysztof Krawczynski. Holders of both MD and PhD degrees, the Drs. Krawczynski have resided in Atlanta since 1984. They have organized many Polish cultural events, and are active in the Polish Catholic Apostolate in the Archdiocese of Atlanta. In 1940 Elzbieta, her mother, and grandmother were deported to Kazachstan; in 2006 she received the Siberian Cross from the government of the Republic of Poland.

2006/7 - Dorota Lato Folkert. Born and educated in Poland, Ms. Lato immigrated to the United States. Since settling in the Atlanta area, she and her husband, Piotr Folkert, have contributed greatly to Polish musical and cultural events, notably in connection with the 1996 Olympics. They are co-founders of the Chopin Society of Atlanta, a musical series developing a national reputation.

2006/7 - Lee J. Meyer. Mr. Meyer is a prominent Savannah architect, associated with the firm of Meyer and Heitmann. He served as co-chair of the Savannah Pulaski Committee at the time of the Pulaski reinterment ceremonies in 2005.

2006/7 - Edward Pinkowski. A noted authority on Polish American history, Edward Pinkowski holds the dual distinction of having discovered the Kosciuszko residence in Philadelphia and the grave of General Pulaski near Savannah. He is a recipient of numerous honors, including the 1989 PAHA Haiman Award.

2006/7 - Bozena Zaremba. A resident of the Atlanta area since 1999, Ms. Zaremba has served the Polish community in the metropolitan area in diverse ways ever since. Notable among her activities, she initiated Bajecznik, a weekly get-together for Polish speaking pre-school children and their mothers.

2005/6 - Michael Blichasz. Michael Blichasz is President of the Eastern Pennsylvania State Division of the Polish American Congress, and President of the Polish Cultural Center in Philadelphia. Each October, he chairs the national celebration of Polish American Heritage Month.

2005/6 - Feliks Bruks. Feliks Bruks was a longtime Polonia leader on the east coast, and was active in many organizations. Born in Poland, he was President of Former Political Prisoners of Nazi and Soviet Concentration Camps, and in 2004 received the second highest civilian award bestowed by the Third Polish Republic. Mr. Bruks died in June 2005.

2005/6 - Hilary Czaplicki. Hilary Czaplicki has been active in Polonia affairs for more than forty years. He has served as National Censor of the Polish National Alliance since 1975, and as an officer of the Polish American Congress. For 12 years, he was a member of the Board of Alliance College.

2005/6 - Eugene Golomb. Eugene Golomb is President of the Polonia Civic Center in Rochester, New York, which he has served for over three decades in various capacities. Aside from his activities on behalf of Polish and Polish American culture, he was instrumental in developing partnerships between Rochester and Krakow in the fields of medicine and business.

2005/6 - Regina Gorzkowska-Rossi. Regina Gorzkowska-Rossi is Philadelphia correspondent for Nowy Dziennik, and a prominent figure in Polish literary and artistic affairs in the Philadelphia area. She is President and founder of Pro Arte Associates, an artistic and literary agency. She is currently promoting the work of her husband, Jacques Rossi, as a Gulag artist.

2005/6 - Michael Leach. Michael Leach is Chair of the Krakow-Rochester Sister Cities Committee. He has been active in local Rochester Polonia circles since the early 1980s. Since that time he has given generously of his time to support everything from academic courses to polka fests in the Rochester community.

2005/6 - Deborah Majka. Deborah Majka of Philadelphia is Vice President for Cultural Affairs of the Polish American Congress. She is President of the American Council for Polish Culture, founded in 1948 to coordinate a network of Polish cultural organizations in the United States.

2005/6 - Frederic Skalny. Frederic Skalny is President of the Polish Heritage Society of Rochester. A founder, guiding light, and financial backer of this organization, through it he helped bring together several groups on the verge of extinction into a single viable association to promote Polish and Polish American history, culture, and the arts in the Rochester area.

2004/5 - Tom Podl. Mr. Podl explained to a reporter for the Seattle Intelligencer, how he regards his world-class collection of Polish art. “It is not owned by me,” he said. “This art was owned by many other people. To say it’s mine would be selfish. It belongs to the artists.” Mr. Podl has used his collection to introduce others to Polish culture and the historical context in which the artists worked. His passion for sharing the beauty and insights in this art extends to all sorts of audiences, from local neighborhood exhibitions (in restaurants and at ethnic events) to the Frye Museum, and the Polish Museum of America in Chicago. The collection includes works by major Polish artists such as Jacek Malczewski, Aleksander Kotsis, Olga Boznanska, Josef Pankiewicz, Wojciech Weiss and Jozef Chelmonski as well as dozens of other nineteenth and twentieth century artists. One indication of the value of this collection for art historians is that the curators of the National Museum in Krakow arranged for a major exhibit of the paintings in Poland in 2001. Tom Podl continues to travel, research and build his collection and to make it available to raise appreciation for Polish culture across the language barrier.

2004/5 - Ron and Martha Golubiec. Mr. and Mrs. Golubiec are proof that a love of one's own homeland culture and an appreciation for local community is compatible with an outgoing, open-minded, global perspective. They are at once the most modern of American citizens, living in a port city open to the world and protectors of precious Old World traditions that give texture and meaning to daily life. Having settled in Seattle, they generously have directed their energies, language skills, international experience and professional talents to the community around them. Thus it is no surprise that they took a leading role in raising public awareness of the Solidarity movement in the 1980s and later in creating the Seattle-Gdynia Sister City Association. Martha has also served as the president of the Wallingford Chamber of Commerce and is an articulate advocate for pedestrian-friendly communities. She and Ron bring those same values to their work for the Polish Home where both have taken leadership roles, Ron serving as president of the Polish Home and Martha leading the Ladies Auxiliary. Their lives are a good example of the ways that Polish American community and the great American mosaic, that the local and global, energize each other.

2004/5 - The Polish Home, Seattle (http://www.polishhome.org/). When the Poles of Seattle opened the Polish Home in 1920, their initial intention was to provide a comfortable space for meetings and social events. However, the needs of World War I refugees and the dramatic impact of the Great Depression meant the Polish Home took on additional duties. By 1937, when the building was damaged by fire, the community rallied to rebuild and soon added a new Immigration Committee, just in time to aid refugees from World War II. In 1983, the Polish Home expanded its mandate once again to host the Solidarity Association which supported the Solidarity movement. When arsonists struck in 1993, the building was restored. The Polish Home hosts the Polish School in Seattle (Szkola Polska im. Juliusza Slowackiego) which offers weekly classes in Polish language, history, and geography in small age-appropriate groups. Other projects supported by the Polish Home include Radio Wisla, the Seattle-Gdynia Sister City Committee and the University of Washington Polish Studies Fund. In addition to the fund-raising efforts of the Polish Home Foundation, popular Friday night dinners and an active Ladies Auxiliary have been important in underwriting the activities of the Polish Home into the twenty first century.

2003/4 - Leonard Baldyga. Mr. Baldyga is a former Senior U.S. Foreign Service officer. He is also active in various Polish and international organizations including being a member of the Executive committee, a board member of the National Polish American Jewish Council; a board member of International Research and Exchange Board, a US-based nonprofit organization committed to international education in academic research. He is also on the board of the PIASA, and the Public Diplomacy Institute.

2003/4 - Casimir Lenard. Colonel Casimir Lenard is a war veteran, a seasoned lobbyist and a long-time Polish community leader from the Washington metropolitan area. He became the first National Executive Director of the Polish America Congress, Washington D.C. Office in July 1970; he continued to with his wife Mryra Lenard in the office during the 1980s, and after her death he was again appointed the director.

2003/4 - John Leczowski. Dr. Leczowski is a strong anti-communist activist. He is the
Director of the Institute of World Politics and his prior positions include Director of European and Soviet Affairs for the National Security Council and Special Advisor to the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. His areas of expertise include communism, foreign policy and international relations.

2003/4 - Ted & Irena Mirecki. Mr. and Mrs. Mirecki are prominent leaders of the Polish American Congress, Washington Metropolitan Area Division. Ted is the President of
the Executive Committee, and Irena is the Corresponding Secretary. Together they are editors of the popular email newsletter of the PAC Washington Metro Division.

2003/4 - Estelle Wachtel von Torres. Dr. Wachtel von Torres is a long-time activist in Polonia. She is presently the President of the Polish American Arts Association of Washington, DC and former director of the American Council of Polish Culture

2003/4 - Marcin Zmudzki. Mr. Zmudzki is an interpreter and translator as well as editor of the popular email newsletter Polish Global Village. He is also the regional editor of the PolOrg.com Web site, and webmaster of the Polish Washington.com - the home page for the Polish community of the Washington metropolitan area.

2003/4 - Joseph Furgal. Mr. Furgal is a retired teacher who has been active in Polonia affairs in central New York. An officer in numerous Polish civic, religious, and veterans societies, he has played a leading role particularly in the continued existence of the Gen. Casimir Pulaski Society and the Kopernik Memorial Association. In addition, Mr. Furgal
donated to Utica College a substantial endowment specifically for Polish studies to be used to obtain books, sponsor events, and support a scholarly exchange with Poland.

2002/3 - Victor and Irena Barczyk.

2002/3 - Maria Chwojko.

2002/3 - Zygmunt Dyrkacz.

2002/3 - Christopher Kurczaba.

2002/3 - Leszek Kuczynski.

2002/3 - Jan Lorys.

2002/3 - Msgr. Stanley Milewski.

2002/3 - Joseph Zurawski.