George A. Khaldun, a member of the Class of 1973, has devoted his considerable skill as an administrator, expertise as an educator, and passion as a reformer to bettering the lives of young people in distressed communities through his quest to break the cycle of poverty in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood and in other urban communities throughout the country.
For his efforts, Khaldun has been selected by the Bowdoin College Board of Trustees to receive the 2025 Common Good Award.
After graduating from Bowdoin with a major in government, Khaldun embarked on a career in education and community development, through which he helped to develop a transformational model of support for infants, children, teens, and young adults living in poverty. He cofounded the Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ), a paradigm-shifting nonprofit that employs a comprehensive approach to breaking the cycle of poverty by incorporating education, health care, family support, early childhood intervention, leadership training, and violence prevention. He served in vital leadership roles at HCZ, including chief administrative officer, chief operating officer, and deputy to the president, directly impacting the lives and altering the trajectories of tens of thousands of young people each year.
In 1990, Khaldun earned a master’s degree in educational policy at Columbia University Teachers College and then went on to complete the Columbia University Business School Executive Management Training Program. Following twenty-four years at HCZ, Khaldun left in 2015 to start Khaldun Associates, through which he guided foundations, nongovernmental organizations, nonprofit organizations, and for-profit corporations as they sought to address challenging social issues in their communities and organizations.
In 2017, he founded the Institute for Urban Leadership, an affiliate program of the Executive Education Program at Columbia University Business School; he also served as a member of the Advisory Council of the New York University Leadership Initiative, preparing students of color to be influential leaders, as an economic development specialist for the national NAACP, and as an adjunct professor at the College of New Rochelle. He also taught international affairs at Bermuda College.
Khaldun was elected to the Bowdoin College Board of Trustees in 2011 and regularly returns to campus to counsel students, speak with classmates and peers at Reunion events, and share insights in forums and on panels such as the Symposium on Race and Justice and the anniversary celebration of the John Brown Russwurm African American Center.
Established in 1994 on the occasion of the Bowdoin College Bicentennial, the Common Good Award honors those alumni who have demonstrated an extraordinary, profound, and sustained commitment to the common good, in the interest of society, with conspicuous disregard for personal gain in wealth or status.
Common Good Award recipients personify the idea of the common good as set forth by Bowdoin’s first president, Joseph McKeen. In his inaugural address on September 2, 1802, McKeen reminded his audience, “It ought always to be remembered that literary institutions are founded and endowed for the common good and not for the private advantage of those who resort to them for education. It is not that they may be able to pass through life in an easy and reputable manner, but that their mental powers may be cultivated and improved for the benefit of society."
The award will be presented during Reunion Weekend (May 29–June 1, 2025), at which time William Bao Bean ’95, recipient of the 2025 Alumni Service Award and Malcolm W. Gauld ’76, P’14, recipient of the 2025 Distinguished Educator Award, will also be celebrated. Read about the other award recipients.
