Honors alumni receive awards at Homecoming 2022

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Honors alumni Esther Cuesta Santana '02 and Thomas F. Burke '84 will both be recipients of alumni awards at Homecoming 2022 this year. Cuesta Santana will be awarded the Honors Revolutionary Spirit Award while Burke will be awarded the Honors Distinguished Leader Award.

Cuesta Santana has been a member of Ecuador’s National Assembly since 2017, representing the constituency of Europe, Asia, and Oceania. She is currently a member of the Committee on Children and Adolescents’ Rights, and is also the president of the parliamentary group for the rights of people in human mobility. As a public servant and legislator, she has focused on defending and promoting migrants’ rights, and has contributed to the construction of a society with more social justice and equity so that no matter where people are born or where their national origins are, they can have equal access to rights.

Burke is the director of the Global Health Innovations Laboratory in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he also practices as an attending physician. In addition, he is an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Burke’s innovative research experience spans 25 years. Over that time, he pioneered several award-winning scientific advances and translated them into policy and practice. Since 2004, the majority of his work has focused on maternal, newborn, and infant survival.

Cuesta Santana and Burke will both be discussing their work during the events of Homecoming 2022.