Seven time Tour de France winner and Lance Armstrong Foundation founder and chairman Lance Armstrong has been named one of the United States of America’s best leaders by the U.S. News Media Group in association with the Center for Public Leadership (CPL) at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.  The 2008 edition of America’s Best Leaders, which highlights 24 professionals who offer optimism and hope through their work, is available today online at www.usnews.com/leaders and on USA newsstands starting Monday, November 24.

“I am honored to be among such distinguished company,” Armstrong told Roadcycling.com. “My Foundation and I focused on making cancer a national priority in this election year and recognition by these renowned institutions—U.S. News and Harvard—serves as great testament to our efforts.  At the LAF, we believe one of the most powerful weapons in the fight against cancer is hope and we plan to harness that power as we embark on our premiere global cancer awareness campaign next year.”

In addition to Armstrong, the Best Leaders issue and features some of the country’s most visionary individuals:

* David Baltimore, Ph.D., Robert Andrews Millikan Professor of Biology and Former President, California Institute of Technology; Nobel Laureate (California)
* Regina M. Benjamin, M.D., Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic, Alabama (Bayou La Batre, AL)
* Jeff Bezos, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Amazon.com (Seattle)
* Terence Blanchard and Herbie Hancock, Artistic Director and Chairman, Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance Arts (Washington, D.C.)
* Benjamin Carson, M.D., Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery, Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore)
* Manuel Diaz, Mayor, City of Miami (Miami)
* Marian Wright Edelman, Founder and President, Children’s Defense Fund (Washington, D.C.)
* Anthony Fauci, M.D.,  Director, National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease (Bethesda, MD)
* Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin, Co-founders, Knowledge Is Power Program (San Francisco, CA)
* Robert Gates, Ph.D., United States Secretary of Defense (Washington, D.C.)
* Fiona Harrison, Ph.D., and Maria Zuber, Ph.D., Physics and Astronomy Professor at Caltech and the Chief Investigator for NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array Mission (Pasadena, CA);  Chair of the department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Professor of Geophysics at MIT and the Principal Investigator for NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory Mission Science (Cambridge, MA)
* Freeman Hrabowski III, Ph.D., President, University of Maryland, Baltimore County (Baltimore, MD)
* Amory B. Lovins, Founder, Rocky Mountain Institute (Snowmass, CO)
* Anne Mulcahy, Chief Executive Officer, Xerox (Norwalk, CT)
* Indra Nooyi, Chief Executive Officer, PepsiCo. (Purchase, N.Y.)
* Linda Rottenberg, Chief Executive Officer and cofounder, Endeavor (New York, N.Y.)
* Jeffrey Sachs, Ph.D., Economist, Author, Director, UN Millennium Project, the Earth Institute, Columbia University (New York, N.Y.)
* Steven Spielberg, Director and Producer, Founder, Universal, DreamWorks, The Shoah Foundation (Los Angeles, CA)
* Michael Tilson Thomas, Conductor, San Francisco Symphony; Founder, New World Symphony Arts (San Francisco, CA)
* U.S. Junior Officers, U.S. Armed Forces (United States)

“These leaders are creatively working to address the country’s most pressing needs,” commented Brian Kelly, editor of U.S. News & World Report. “Consider Marian Wright Edelman’s advocacy for the disadvantaged, Dr. Anthony Fauci’s work in transforming the field of medicine and public health, Lance Armstrong’s fight to inspire and empower cancer patients—these leaders demonstrate innovation and perseverance at an important time in the nation's history.” 

In a collaborative effort between U.S. News and Harvard’s CPL, the leaders were selected by a nonpartisan and independent committee, convened and organized by the Center, without the participation of U.S. News editors. The selection criteria used by the committee in choosing the honorees included the ability to set direction, achieve results, and cultivate a culture of growth.