Long-time Chicago civic leader and businesswoman Anna Eleanor (Anne) Roosevelt has been selected to receive the 2011 Woman Extraordinaire Award by International Women Associates (IWA).

Initiated in 1996, the annual IWA Woman Extraordinaire Award honors a distinguished Chicago-area woman who has made outstanding contributions in her field and in the international arena (see full list below). According to IWA President Ana Manglano, “Roosevelt’s whole career has been devoted to public service at home and abroad, and IWA is delighted to recognize her outstanding achievements in this special way.”

As Vice President for Global Corporate Citizenship at Chicago-based Boeing Company, Roosevelt leads a network of U.S. and international community investors to address the needs of selected communities around the world. She is currently working with key non-governmental organizations in the Middle East to provide educational programs and entrepreneurship training to citizens of the region.

Roosevelt serves on the boards of Roosevelt University, Spelman College, and the Foundation for the National Archives, and is co-chair of the Franklin and Eleanor Institute in New York. She is a member of the advisory boards of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum Foundation, the Hubert Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. Previously Roosevelt served as the first executive director of Chicago’s Museums in the Park and director of the Mayor’s Office of Program Development for the City of Chicago. She managed the Chicago office of the late U.S. Senator Paul Simon and is a member of the Chicago Sister Cities Casablanca Committee.

IWA is a Chicago-area forum that promotes cross-cultural exchange, dialogue, and friendship among women with significant global experience and others in the larger community. Through its educational programs and other avenues. IWA creates links among diverse peoples and organizations and advocates for global understanding and universal human rights, especially those of women and girls.

The past winners of International Women Associates’ Woman Extraordinaire Award are:

2010 Marjorie Craig Benton
2009 L. Tammy Duckworth
2008 Bliss Browne
2007 Funmi Olopade
2006 Mary Margaret McCarthy
2005 Adele Simmons
2004 Georgie Anne Geyer
2003 Cheryl I. Niro
2002 Nina Nathan Schroeder
2001 Jeanne L. Nowaczewski
2000 Ronne Hartfield
1999 Janet Davison Rowley
1998 Eva L. Maddox
1997 Stephanie Pace Marshall
1996 Mary Zimmerman

Recorded Thursday, March 31, 2011 at the Union League Club.