Columbia’s Joan Griffith-Lee Honored Among 2026 Community Impact Award Class

Columbia Community Service Director Joan Griffith-Lee (GS’98, SIPA’05, SPS’17) was recently recognized as one of Community Impact's 2026 Public Service Honorees, a distinction that felt incredibly deserved to everyone who knows her work.

Community Impact, which has spent 45 years connecting Columbia students, staff, and faculty to the neighborhoods of Harlem, Morningside Heights, and Washington Heights, gathers each year to celebrate the people who embody its mission, including student ambassadors and community members. 

At the Public Service Celebration and Awards Breakfast on April 17, 2026, Griffith-Lee was honored alongside an outstanding class of fellow community leaders: New York City Council Majority Leader Shaun Abreu (CC’14); Deputy Mayor for Housing and Planning Leila Bozorg; Robin Hood Foundation CEO Richard R. Buery Jr.; Gerrard P. Bushell (CC’83), Partner & Chair of CAG, the Carlyle Airport Group; Union Theological Seminary President Serene Jones; and the Literacy Assistance Center.

The room at Lerner Hall was abuzz, packed with colleagues, advocates, and community members who filled the space with warmth, energy, and inspiring speeches on the vital importance and impact of being of service. 

An opening performance from the Columbia University Gospel Choir set the tone, and when Griffith-Lee took the podium to give a poignant and personal speech on how community service organizations impacted her life as well as her decades at Columbia as both staffer and student, the room was fully with her. Community Impact’s Interim Executive Director Kenneth Ebie closed the event with heartfelt thanks to all.

We're so proud of Joan and inspired by this entire class of honorees. If you'd like to join in celebrating the work they represent, consider supporting Columbia Community Service or Community Impact, two organizations making a real difference in Upper Manhattan, every day.