Van Jones Honored with Nelson Mandela Changemaker Award for Social Justice Work

PTTOW!, an invite-only network for the world’s leading and inspiring CEOs, CMOs, and Icons, spanning 70 key sectors, has awarded CNN broadcaster, Dream Corps creator, and social justice campaigner Van Jones with the Nelson Mandela Changemaker Award.

Van, Paris Hilton, Ryan Reynolds, LL Cool J, Katie Couric, Nelson Mandela’s grandson, Kweku Mandela, and more than 300 Fortune 500 CEOs, CMOs, and global change-makers attended the PTTOW! private event.

Van was honored for his long-term commitment to criminal justice reform and social justice activism, which included co-founding five social impact organizations: The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights (1996), Color of Change (2005), Green for All (2007), Dream Corps (2011), and REFORM Alliance (2011). (2019). As you may recall, he co-founded the latter organization (REFORM Alliance) with JAY-Z, Meek Mill, Robert Kraft, Michael Rubin, and others.

The award also recognized Van’s role in pioneering one of the most significant rewrites of federal prison laws in decades, The First Step Act, which was dubbed “the most significant criminal justice breakthrough in a generation” by the New York Times. He also enlisted the help of Kim Kardashian in these endeavors.

Meek Mill, Sharon Stone, Sophia Bush, Masai Ujiri, Toronto Raptors President and Founder of Giants of Africa Foundation Masai Ujiri, Global Citizen CEO/Founder Hugh Evans, and Dr. Martin Luther King’s advisor Clarence Jones are among the past recipients of the Nelson Mandela Changemakers Award.