October 2023

in the news

Anna Yu Receives the City Champion Shattuck Award

Celebrating AFH Executive Director, Anna Yu.

On October 5 at the Seaport Hotel Boston, our very own Anna Yu, Artists For Humanity’s Executive Director, was honored with the City Champion Shattuck Award by the Boston Municipal Research Bureau.

AFH Anna Yu receiving the City Champion Shattuck Award by the Boston Municipal Research Bureau

Anna Yu (2nd from left) with members of the Shattuck Awards Committee.

Each recipient exemplifies the integrity, initiative, leadership and commitment to the public good that Henry L. Shattuck personified as Chairman of the Research Bureau for 17 years.

This year, the Bureau is celebrating 38 years of honoring individuals for their dedicated service to the City of Boston and the Boston community. The Shattuck Awards Committee receives many worthy nominations from department heads, peers and business leaders—highlighting candidates that go above and beyond their job descriptions. The Committee evaluates each nomination and selects a few—the everyday heroes of public service—to thank them for a job well done.

A Champion has been defined as an advocate or defender, one who does battle for another’s rights or honor. This definition has inspired the Committee’s established criteria for the Shattuck City Champion Award—an award established in 1998 to honor one business leader and one nonprofit leader for their significant contributions to the Boston civic community.  This year, Anna stands beside Paul English, a long time friend of AFH, an entrepreneur and activist at Boston Venture Studio, along with 10 recipients of the Shattuck City Employee Public Service Award.

A most prestigious award, the AFH family is thrilled to have Anna as our Champion, bringing AFH into its future!

AFH Executive Director (2nd from right) at Shattuck Award breakfast, with Mayor Wu (1st from right)

AFH Executive Director (2nd from right) at the Shattuck Award breakfast gathering with Boston's Mayor Michelle Wu (1st on right).

More about Anna.
Anna’s journey to AFH in 2022 includes over 20 years of experience in branding, advertising, and marketing. She has worked with a diverse array of global and local clients to develop and implement brand strategy and high-impact creative content. After leaving the creative agency world, she became a valued leader at the non-profit Citizens Schools, serving as Chief Growth Officer and Vice President of Operations. She has a deep passion for fostering hands-on, experiential learning, supporting diversity, equity, inclusion, and championing workforce development initiatives. She also volunteers on the Board of Directors of the Benjamin Franklin Cummings Institute of Technology and Tomorrow's Women TODAY, both organizations that advance workforce development.

Thank you to our supporters, including:

The Lynch Foundation
National Endowment for the Arts
Sustaining Grants - Cummings Foundation - Cummings Foundation
State Street
John Hancock - MLK Scholars
Stavros Niarchos Foundation
Mass Cultural Council
NEFA
The Wilson Sheehan Foundation
Wellington Management
Liberty Mutual Insurance
Ann Theodore Foundation
edvestors - Driving Change in Urban Schools