Outstanding Americans by Choice
The Outstanding Americans by Choice initiative recognizes the outstanding achievements of naturalized U.S. citizens. Through civic participation, professional achievement, and responsible citizenship, recipients of this honor have demonstrated their commitment to this country and to the common civic values that unite us as Americans.
USCIS will recognize naturalized citizens who have made significant contributions to both their community and their adopted country on a case-by-case basis.
Note: The following biographies have been provided by the ABC recipients.
2009
Eva A. Millona is the Executive Director at the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition (MIRA). She has been with the organization since July 1999. Ms. Millona focuses on providing analyses of federal and state legislation on immigration and naturalization issues, and also on reviewing and analyzing policy changes that affect immigrant communities eligible for immigration benefits.
Eartha Dengler is the Founder of the Immigrant City Archives in Lawrence, MA. Mrs. Dengler was born near Hamburg, Germany and lived through World War II in extreme hardship and deprivation. She and her husband left Germany for the United States in 1951 with their four-year old daughter. Mrs. Dengler and her family eventually settled in Lawrence where she started the Immigrant City Archives in 1979 with a limited budget and a few dedicated volunteers.
Born in Canada, Peter C. Lemon received the Medal of Honor for his actions during the Vietnam War. Sgt. Lemon is one of the youngest surviving recipients and only living Canadian-born recipient.
Subir Chowdhury was born in Chittagong, Bangladesh in 1967. He left his family in 1991 to come to the United States and eventually settled in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Dr. Chowdhury became a naturalized citizen in 2004. He is the author of 12 books on business quality management, including international bestsellers, The Power of Six Sigma, Design For Six Sigma, and Management 21C.
U.S. Representative Anh “Joseph” Cao joined the 111th Congress on January 6, 2009 representing the 2nd district of Louisiana. He was born in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam. His father, an officer with the South Vietnamese Army, was imprisoned by the Communists. At the age of eight, Joseph escaped to the United States with two of his siblings. He learned English, thrived in school, and earned a degree in physics from Baylor University.
2008
Professor Abul Hussam was awarded the 2007 Grainger Challenge Prize Gold Award from the National Academy of Engineering for his SONO filter, a household water treatment system that removes arsenic from contaminated groundwater. This was the highest prize given to an individual by the National Academy of Engineering which comprises a citation, a gold medal, and one million dollars.
Staff Sergeant (SSG) Ramel Turic's commitment to the United States was marked by his entry into the military service. He has been deployed several times; twice to Iraq in support of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom, and twice to the Korean peninsula. SSG Turic has received numerous military awards and decorations and is also a recipient of the prestigious Saint Barbara’s Award. In February 2006, after serving the people of the United States for nearly six years, SSG Turic became a United States citizen.
Sergeant First Class (SFC) Robert Olton is a native of Barbados. He immigrated to the United States in October 1989 to be with his future wife. They married soon afterwards. In June 1992, SFC Olton enlisted in the United States Army as a cannon crewmember. After serving in Louisiana, Texas, and Germany, SFC Olton re-enlisted in the late 1990s to be stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. In 1999, he became a United States citizen.
Donald Zacherl was born in Canada and became a citizen of the United States in 1970. He is the president and chief executive officer of T3 Technologies, a business process and custom software development firm in Virginia. A retired Army Lieutenant Colonel, Mr. Zacherl attended the Military Academy at West Point.
Charles Simic is the author of 18 books of poetry. He is also an essayist, translator, editor and professor emeritus at the University of New Hampshire, where he has taught for 34 years. Mr. Smic won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1990 for his book of prose poems The World Doesn't End.