University News

UVA, Thomas Jefferson Foundation Announce 2025 Jefferson Medalists

The University of Virginia and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello have announced the recipients of the 2025 Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medals, awarded each year to national and international leaders in the fields of citizen leadership, law and architecture.

The honorees include a best-selling author, a lawyer who has argued more than 150 cases at the U.S. Supreme Court and an architect who specializes in reshaping spaces while maintaining their historical significance

The medal winners:

Citizen Leadership: Bryan Stevenson is a widely acclaimed public interest lawyer who has dedicated his career to helping the poor, the incarcerated and the condemned. Stevenson is the author of the critically acclaimed New York Times bestseller “Just Mercy” and the subject of the Emmy Award-winning HBO documentary “True Justice.” He is the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, a human rights organization in Montgomery, Alabama.

Under his leadership, the initiative has won major legal challenges eliminating excessive and unfair sentencing, exonerated innocent death row prisoners, confronted abuse of the incarcerated and the mentally ill, and aided children prosecuted as adults. Stevenson has won multiple cases at the U.S. Supreme Court, won numerous awards including the prestigious MacArthur Foundation “genius grant,” and has received more than 50 honorary doctoral degrees.

Law: Edwin S. Kneedler, a 1974 UVA School of Law graduate, has served as a U.S. deputy solicitor general for more than three decades in a career that has spanned 10 presidential administrations. He has argued more cases before the U.S. Supreme Court – more than 150 – than any other current practicing attorney. Kneedler has argued for the United States in several high-profile cases, including the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, and cases involving separation of powers, executive powers and international affairs.

Architecture: Walter J. Hood, a multidisciplinary designer from Charlotte, North Carolina, is globally recognized for his contributions in art, landscape architecture, urbanism and research. Having founded Hood Design Studio in Oakland, California, in 1992, he now leads as its creative director. Hood earned a bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture at North Carolina A&T State University. He earned a master’s in landscape architecture and architecture at the University of California, Berkeley.

Infusing African American cultural arts into his philosophy, he established a unique voice, reshaping spaces to reflect contemporary needs without erasing their history. A professor at UC Berkeley and former Harvard educator, Hood penned “Black Landscapes Matter” and has received accolades such as a 2019 MacArthur Fellowship, the 2021 Architectural League’s President’s Medal award and 2024 Vincent Scully Prize.

The Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medals recognize the exemplary contributions of recipients to the endeavors in which Jefferson – the author of the Declaration of Independence, the third U.S. president and the founder of the University of Virginia – excelled and held in high regard.

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“This year’s Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal recipients exemplify excellence and service to their communities, the nation and the world,” UVA President Jim Ryan said. “Each has profoundly influenced their respective fields, and each has inspired others to act boldly and courageously, as Jefferson did. I extend my heartiest congratulations to Walter Hood, Bryan Stevenson and Edwin Kneedler.”

The awards will be presented April 11, two days before Thomas Jefferson’s April 13 birthday – known locally as Founder’s Day – by the president of the University and the president of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, the independent, nonprofit organization that owns and operates Jefferson’s home, Monticello. This year’s celebrations mark the 282nd anniversary of Jefferson’s birth. The medals will be presented during a luncheon in the Rotunda Dome Room at UVA. Medalists will be honored at a formal dinner at Monticello the prior evening.

“‘Our part,’ Thomas Jefferson counseled in 1822, ‘is to pursue with steadiness what is right,’” Jane Kamensky, president of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, said. “This year’s medalists exemplify that Jeffersonian value of principled leadership, and that of turning principles into action. We are honored to recognize their decades of determined effort and look forward to witnessing the ways they continue to shape our world for the better.”

Kneedler will speak April 10 at 1 p.m. in the Law School’s Purcell Reading Room. Stevenson will be the featured keynote speaker at Monticello’s Founder’s Day ceremony on April 11 at 10 a.m. on Monticello’s West Lawn. Hood will speak April 11 at 3:30 p.m. in Old Cabell Hall’s auditorium. The talks are free and open to the public.

The complete schedule of Founder’s Day events and details about how to attend the talks in person or view their livestreams can be found on the Founder’s Day Page of UVA’s Major Events website.