Aly Khalifa, owner of Gamil Design, has been awarded a prestigious Eisenhower Fellowship for 2012.
“Eisenhower Fellowships engages emerging leaders from around the world to enhance their professional capabilities, broaden their contacts, deepen their perspectives, and unite them in a diverse, global community – a network where dialogue, understanding, and collaboration lead to a more prosperous, just, and peaceful world.”
The Eisenhower Fellowship sends approximately eight to ten high-achieving mid-career (aged 32-45) U.S. citizens abroad for an intensive, individually designed program in the country of their choice. Fellows are selected by blue ribbon steering committees and are currently recruited from Philadelphia, Research Triangle North Carolina, New England (Boston), and St. Louis.
Aly was chosen to represent the Research Triangle of North Carolina in recognition of his contributions in community and design leadership through his creation of SPARKcon (a Raleigh creativity showcase in it’s 6th year in 2011), Designbox (a collaborative group of creative professionals in Raleigh, NC) his leading roles in design thinking for the City of Raleigh, the Raleigh Convention Center, IDSA and Universities and non-profits around the world. The Program also chose Aly to support his stated fellowship goal to study the relationships between Chinese and US manufacturers, designers and brands and to explore new opportunities for those relationships to be more creative, collaborative and,ultimately profitable for all.
Aly will travel to Asia for 5 weeks in 2012 to meet with international business and political leaders, as well as other Eisenhower Fellows. Stay tuned, and congrats to Aly!
Here’s a great article from New Raleigh: designbox’s Aly Khalifa awarded Eisenhower Award