PHILADELPHIA – The Ukrainian Federation of America (UFA) has awarded the 2015 Alexander B. Chernyk Medal to a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, William Green Miller. Ambassador Miller was presented the medal “for his outstanding leadership and deep commitment to U.S.-Ukraine relations” at an annual awards ceremony held at the Ukrainian Educational and Cultural Center in Jenkintown, Pa.
The Alexander B. Chernyk Medal honors those who promote leadership and help to the Ukrainian people. Past recipients include Reps. Bob Schaffer, Charles F. Dougherty and Jim Gerlach, Bishop Borys Gudziak and E. Morgan Williams, president/CEO of the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council.
During the May 3 ceremony, Ambassador Miller received greetings from Sens. Pat Toomey and Bob Casey, and personal congratulations from Rep. Jim Gerlach. Archbishop Stephen Soroka gave the invocation. The event was attended by representatives of the American Jewish Committee and multiple Ukrainian American organizations from Philadelphia and Washington.
Speaking at the event, former Rep. Dougherty, who represented constituents in the greater Philadelphia area and was co-chair of the Congressional Ukrainian Caucus, thanked Ambassador Miller for his many years of service and dedication, and provided an insightful overview of an exceptional career that has spanned seven decades.
Ambassador William Green Miller (right) with former Rep. Charles Dougherty and Dr. Zenia Chernyk.
“With an education from Williams College, Oxford and Harvard, Ambassador Miller entered the Foreign Service in 1959, serving five years in Iran before transitioning back to Washington as a line officer in the office of Secretary of State Dean Rusk. In the years to follow, he served as a foreign policy and defense advisor to Sen. John Sherman Cooper, and held the position of associate dean and professor of international politics of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University,” Mr. Dougherty said. In 1986 Ambassador Miller returned to Washington as president of the American Committee on United States-Soviet Relations, where his position permitted him to travel frequently throughout the Soviet Union, obtaining direct knowledge of the monumental changes taking place in the region.”
He continued: “Between 1993 and 1998, Mr. Miller served as United States ambassador to Ukraine under President Bill Clinton. As ambassador, he was a supporter to some of the most fundamental transformations of the Ukrainian state, including ratification of Ukraine’s Constitution. To this day, Ambassador Miller still promotes peace and stability in Ukraine through his work as a senior public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.”
Mr. Dougherty thanked Ambassador Miller “for his lifetime of international diplomatic accomplishments and his help in forging the steadfast U.S.-Ukraine relationship that has lasted and will continue to last for decades to come.”