Lance Armstrong Named One of America's Best Leaders by U.S. News Media Group in Association With Harvard's Center for Public Leadership

The Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) is proud to announce that its founder and chairman, Lance Armstrong, today was named one of America's Best Leaders by U.S. News Media Group, one of the nation's leading sources of news analysis and service journalism, 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 newsstands Mon., Nov. 24.

"I am honored to be among such distinguished company," said Armstrong. "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 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
    (Pasadena, CA)
--  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,
    WA)
--  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, MD)
--  Manuel Diaz, Mayor, City of Miami (Miami, FL)
--  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," said 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.

About the Lance Armstrong Foundation

The Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) unites people through programs and experiences to empower cancer survivors to live life on their own terms and to raise awareness and funds for the fight against cancer. The LAF focuses on cancer prevention, access to screening and care, research and quality of life for cancer survivors. Founded in 1997 by cancer survivor and champion cyclist Lance Armstrong, the LAF has raised more than $260 million for the fight against cancer. Join 60 million LIVESTRONG(TM) wristband wearers and help make cancer a global priority. Unite and fight cancer at www.LIVESTRONG.org.

About the Center for Public Leadership

Established in 2000 through a generous gift from the Wexner Foundation, the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School provides cutting-edge teaching and research as well as hands-on training in the skills of leadership for people in government, nonprofits and business. For more information, go to: www.hks.harvard.edu/leadership.

About the U.S. News Media Group

The U.S. News Media Group is a multi-platform digital publisher of news and analysis, which includes U.S. News & World Report magazine, www.usnews.com and www.rankingsandreviews.com. Focusing on Health, Money & Business, Education and Public Service/Opinion, the U.S. News Media Group has earned a reputation as the leading provider of service news and information that improves the quality of life of its readers. The U.S. News Media Group's signature franchises include its News You Can Use® brand of journalism and its "America's Best" series of consumer guides that include rankings of colleges, graduate schools, hospitals, health plans and more.