Pulitzer Prize Winner Named Distinguished Scholar, Polish Chair of the Central European Institute at Quinnipiac University

“The addition of Alex Storozynski to our institute provides instant credibility throughout Poland and here in the U.S.,” said Christopher Ball, István Széchenyi chair and executive director of the Central European Institute. “Alex is a respected, award-winning journalist, and champion for Poland, having led the most prestigious and effective Polish-American organization.”

The Central European Institute builds bridges between the United States and the nations of Central Europe by fostering relationships in academia, business and culture. At Quinnipiac, the CEI is an umbrella organization under which country-specific endowed chairs have been established to develop relations between the United States and their respective countries.

The Novak Family Chair was established in 2014 by Peter and Kasia Novak of Longmeadow, Massachusetts. The Novaks will travel to Poland in June with university officials to launch the Polish/American Business Leader Scholars Program. The program will provide annual scholarships for Polish students to pursue their MBA degrees at Quinnipiac and gain corporate experience at American companies before returning to Poland. The first two scholars will be introduced at a June 22 reception in Warsaw.

“Kasia and I are delighted and honored to have Alex serve as Distinguished Scholar and Polish Chair,” said Peter Novak. “I have enormous respect and admiration for Alex and know that he will make significant and lasting contributions to the institute.”

Storozynski wrote and directed a documentary film on American Revolutionary War hero and Polish freedom fighter Thaddeus Kosciuszko, narrated by Blair Underwood, to be aired later this year on PBS stations.

Storozynski and his colleagues at New York Daily News editorial board won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize and prestigious George Polk Award. Storozynski’s award winning book, “The Peasant Prince: Thaddeus Kosciuszko and the Age of Revolution,” was published in 2009 by St. Martin’s Press.

“Many Polish students who win scholarships to travel abroad are invited by companies to work in Western Europe to benefit the economies of those countries,” said Storozynski. “The key to the Novak chair is that MBA grads will gain valuable experience working in American companies before they are required to return home to work in Polish firms and expand on the Polish phenomenon.”

Storozynski has a bachelor’s degree in political science from the State University of New York at New Paltz and a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University. He received a post-graduate fellowship at the University of Warsaw in the waning days of the Cold War. During this time he interviewed underground Solidarity activists such as Lech Walesa, and was interrogated and harassed by the Communist Secret Police. This is the topic of his next book.

Quinnipiac is a private, coeducational, nonsectarian institution located 90 minutes north of New York City and two hours from Boston. The university enrolls 6,500 full-time undergraduate and 2,500 graduate students in 58 undergraduate and more than 20 graduate programs of study in its School of Business and Engineering, School of Communications, School of Education, School of Health Sciences, School of Law, Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine, School of Nursing and College of Arts and Sciences. Quinnipiac consistently ranks among the top regional universities in the North in U.S. News & World Report’s America’s “Best Colleges” issue. The 2015 issue of U.S. News & World Report’s America’s “Best Colleges” named Quinnipiac as the top up-and-coming school with master’s programs in the Northern Region. Quinnipiac also is recognized in Princeton Review’s “The Best 379 Colleges.” The Chronicle of Higher Education has named Quinnipiac among the “Great Colleges to Work For.”

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