Save the Date!
March 28, 2025
Join The Puffin Foundation and Type Media Center on Monday, May 12th when we will honor Kica Matos from the National Immigration Law Center with the Puffin Prize for Creative Citizenship.
About Kica Matos
Kica Matos is the President of the National Immigration Law Center and the Immigrant Justice Fund, as well as a Distinguished Practitioner at Yale University’s Brady Johnson Program in Grand Strategy.
Previously, she was Vice President of Initiatives at the Vera Institute of Justice and Director of Immigrant Rights and Racial Justice at the Center for Community Change. She also led the U.S. Reconciliation and Human Rights Program at Atlantic Philanthropies and served as deputy mayor in New Haven CT, overseeing community programs. Kica has also worked as executive director of JUNTA, as an assistant federal defender representing death sentenced inmates, and as an organizer with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
She holds a B.A. from Victoria University, an M.A. from the New School, and a J.D. from Cornell Law School. She has received honorary doctorates from Albertus Magnus College and the University of New Haven. She is a recipient of several awards, including the John F. Kennedy New Frontier Award, and she was inducted into the CT Women’s Hall of Fame in 2021.
About the Puffin Prize for Creative Citizenship
The Puffin Foundation Ltd. and Type Media Center are the mutual sponsors of an annual $100,000 award given to an individual who has challenged the status quo through courageous, distinctive, and socially responsible work. The prize is intended to encourage the recipients to continue their work, and previous winners have included Colin Kaepernick, Amy Goodman, the Sunrise Movement, and the Parkland students who founded March for Our Lives. Learn more here.
About Type Media Center
Founded in 1966 (as The Nation Institute), Type Media Center is home to a half-dozen programs and a community of hundreds of journalists, authors, and writing fellows. Our dynamic range of programs includes a bestselling book publishing imprint, Bold Type Books (formerly known as Nation Books); our award-winning Type Investigations (formerly known as the Investigative Fund), which supports groundbreaking investigative journalism; TomDispatch, the widely read and syndicated website; Fellowships that fund over 25 high-profile reporters every year; Prize programs that spotlight invaluable achievements; and high-profile Events that provide a platform for key journalists, thinkers, and activists to discuss the urgent and important issues of our time.
