The Thomas S. Foley Award for Distinguished Public Service 2026
Thursday September 10, 2026
VIP Reception from 5 p.m., Dinner from 6 p.m.
Please join Heather Foley and the Foley Institute for the presentation of the annual Thomas S. Foley Award for Distinguished Public Service to the 48th Vice President of the United States, Mike Pence.
The 50th Governor of the State of Indiana and U.S. Representative from Indiana will receive this year’s Thomas S. Foley Award for Distinguished Public Service in a ceremony to be held in Spokane.
Premier sponsors
- Dr. Edmund O. Schweitzer and Mrs. Beatriz Schweitzer
- Media sponsor: The Spokesman-Review
- Benefactor sponsor: Avista
Buy tickets here. This link to purchase tickets opens in a new window.
The Distinguished Service Award is given to individuals who have demonstrated integrity, courage, and a commitment to democratic values in public service and whose body of work has had a lasting impact.
“Vice President Pence has a long and distinguished history of public service and has continued to display that commitment since leaving public office,” said Cornell Clayton, director of the Foley Institute. “In addition to his service as Vice President, his illustrious career includes governorship of the state of Indiana and twelve years serving in the U.S. House of Representatives. He demonstrated remarkable integrity, courage and a commitment to upholding democratic norms in the face of pressures to block or delay the certification of the 2020 election.”
In 2021, he founded Advancing American Freedom, a policy and advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C. In 2025, he received the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award at the JFK Library, and in 2026, he was Distinguished Visiting Professor of Practice, at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government.
The Foley Institute was established at WSU in 1995 to honor the lifetime of service by Thomas S. Foley. A Spokane native who represented the citizens of the 5th congressional district for 30 years, Foley served as the 49th Speaker of the House of Representatives and later served as U.S. ambassador to Japan. He remains the highest elected official ever to hail from Washington State.
The institute’s mission is to recognize his extraordinary legacy of public service and his belief that democracy requires an educated and informed public. Since its inception, the institute has developed a reputation for quality educational programs and engaging young people in public service.
Questions should be addressed to the Foley Institute
Contact Richard Elgar
relgar@wsu.edu
509-335-3477
Watch the Inaugural Thomas S. Foley Award For Distinguished Public Service in 2024 at a Foley Institute event at Gonzaga University