Oluwatoyosi Ogunseye to Receive Presidential Precinct’s Inaugural Young Leader Award

The first female editor of Nigeria’s Punch newspaper, Oluwatoyosi Ogunseye, has been selected as the recipient of the Presidential Precinct’s inaugural Young Leader Award.

Ogunseye first came to the Presidential Precinct as a member of the inaugural 2014 class of the Mandela Washington Fellowship. She was one of 500 emerging leaders selected from over 50,000 applications to participate in the program, which is the flagship effort of the U.S. government’s Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI).

As Editor of Punch’s Sunday edition, Ogunseye empowers reporters to produce top-quality articles and helps ensure that Punch’s online platforms are competitive and profitable. Drawing on her experience as a Mandela Washington Fellow, she is a passionate advocate for young people and gives motivational speeches in Nigeria and abroad. Ogunseye was named a winner of the Knight International Journalism Award for her outstanding investigative reporting in Nigeria. This award, from the International Center for Journalists, recognizes outstanding news coverage that makes a difference in the lives of people around the world. Since her recognition from the ICFJ, Ogunseye has also been elected to the board of the World Editors Forum, a global network of editors and news organizations. She is currently studying for a Ph.D. in Politics and International Relations at the University of Leicester, United Kingdom.

The Presidential Precinct announced the creation of the Young Leader Award in January 2016 to honor the current and expected future contributions of a young, emerging leader to their country or community’s economic, social, political, or cultural development.

“We are honored to present the Precinct’s inaugural Young Leader Award to Oluwatoyosi Ogunseye.  Since her time at the Precinct as a Mandela Washington Fellow, she has continued to make outstanding contributions across Nigeria as an investigative journalist and made a positive impact on politics, crime, business, health and the environment with her reporting,” said Precinct Managing Director Neal Piper.

The Precinct will present Ogunseye with the Young Leader award at a dinner in Charlottesville, Virginia on March 29. Ogunseye will join former U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright as an award recipient that evening. Albright has been selected for the University of Virginia’s Edward R. Stettinius Jr. Prize for Global Leadership. The Stettinius Prize celebrates the 70th anniversary of the United Nations. The honor’s namesake is a former UVA student and U.S. Secretary of State who supervised the Lend-Lease Act program and helped found the U.N. Albright served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations before becoming the first female Secretary of State in 1997, serving in President Bill Clinton’s administration until 2001. She presided during a time of great tumult in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong.

The award presentations will take place as part of a two-day Global Leadership Forum at UVA on March 29 and 30, sponsored by the Presidential Precinct in partnership with the U.S. Department of State. The Forum will explore some of the world’s most pressing issues. Participants include emerging and established leaders from more than 25 countries, current State Department-sponsored international exchange partners and alumni, faculty and students from UVA and William & Mary. In the last three years, UVA, the State Department and Presidential Precinct partners have together hosted more than 275 emerging leaders from more than 100 countries in various programs.

Through events like the Global Leadership Forum and the formation of the Young Leader Award, the Presidential Precinct continues its mission to empower the next generation of influential leaders. This year’s forum will bring together leaders from over 25 countries worldwide to explore some of the world’s most pressing issues.

The Presidential Precinct is a partnership among UVA, the College of William & Mary, Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, James Madison’s Montpelier, James Monroe’s Ash Lawn-Highland, and William Short’s Morven.