The Louis DeJoy and Aldona Wos Family Foundation supports a number of initiatives to shape and advocate public policy in a free society.
DeJoy-Wos Scholars visit the VOC Museum in August 2024
VOC Museum Ribbon Cutting Ceremony on June 8, 2022
Students and alumni of the Ashbrook Scholars Program join Louis DeJoy and Amb. Aldona Woś at the Triumph of Liberty Gala Dinner – November 8, 2019
Amb. Aldona Woś presents the Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom to Tunne Kelam, member of the European Parliament for Estonia and Estonian National Independence Party founder – November 14, 2018
Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation
The DEJOY\WOS Family Foundation supports the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC), a non-profit educational and human rights organization in the United States. The VOC was authorized by a unanimous Act of Congress in 1993 to educate Americans about the ideology, history and legacy of communism. The VOC was responsible for building the Victims of Communism Memorial in Washington, DC. and is a member of the Platform of European Memory and Conscience. Ambassador Aldona Woś is currently the Vice Chairman of the VOC Board of Trustees.
The DEJOY\WOS Family Foundation made a $2,000,000 leadership pledge to support the Victims of Communism Museum in Washington, DC, which hosted its grand opening on June 8, 2022. See News Release.
The new museum will serve as the free world’s central hub for the remembrance of the more than 100 million people who suffered and died under communist ideology, and the more than 1.5 billion people still living under totalitarian regimes. Ambassador Woś and Mr. DeJoy have been key allies and supporters of VOC since 2006 with Ambassador Woś serving on its board since 2009. Visit https://vocmuseum.org/.
On November 8, 2019, the DEJOY\WOS Family Foundation was a major supporter of the Triumph of Liberty Gala Dinner and Presentation of the Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom, held at Union Station in Washington, D.C. The Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom is awarded each year to those individuals and institutions that have demonstrated a life-long commitment to freedom and democracy and opposition to communism and all other forms of tyranny. The 2019 Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom recipient was His Excellency Joachim Gauck.
As a Lutheran pastor behind the Iron Curtain, Joachim Gauck led weekly prayers for peace that helped initiate popular resistance to the communist regime and eventually gave rise to the protest demonstrations in 1989. A co-founder of the New Forum opposition movement, Gauck was elected to the first free East German parliament in 1990 and oversaw the dissolution of the Ministry of State Security. From 2012 to 2017, he served as the 11th president of the Federal Republic of Germany.
The DEJOY\WOS Family Foundation invited current and alumni students from the Ashbrook Scholars Program to join them at the Gala Dinner. See News Release.
The DEJOY\WOS Family Foundation also supports the VOC Witness Project, a collection of videos that tell the tragic and powerful stories of the victims of communism, past and present―from the Killing Fields of Cambodia to the labor camps of the Soviet Union and the 1989 massacre in Tiananmen Square. Visit https://www.victimsofcommunism.org/witness.
Victims of Communism Meet With President Trump
Ambassador Aldona Woś (far left) with President Donald Trump and a delegation of victims of communism in the White House Oval Office. – November 7, 2019 PHOTO CREDIT: Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian
On November 7, 2019, Ambassador Aldona Woś and a delegation of victims of communism, organized by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, visited President Trump in the Oval Office as the White House commemorated the National Day for the Victims of Communism.
“I want to express our ‘thank you’ to President Trump for honoring the memory of 100 million people who died and were persecuted under the communist regimes, under the failed ideology of communism,” Woś said.
Ambassador Woś lived in Poland when it was under communist rule and now serves as vice chairman of the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships. Wos previously served as U.S. Ambassador to Estonia under President George W. Bush, and is currently the Vice Chairman of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation Board of Trustees.
See News Release.
U.S. Senator Richard Burr
The Burr Center for Legislative Studies
at Wake Forest University
The DEJOY\WOS Family Foundation is a founding supporter of The Burr Center for Legislative Studies at Wake Forest University. In appreciation of U.S. Senator Richard Burr’s achievements, character and honorable representation of his district, state and alma mater, Wake Forest University has created an educational program focused on an underappreciated segment of democracy ― the intensive process of lawmaking.
The Burr Center for Legislative Studies takes students through the entire life cycle of legislation, which runs from idea generation to subcommittee and committee consideration to full-chamber passage to administrative rule-making. As the repository for all of Senator Burr’s official records, documents and memorabilia associated with his entire Congressional career, the Center will cultivate a profound inquiry into the process of government. This is an area of academia that few institutions pursue, but it is well suited to Wake Forest’s instructional model, which fosters faculty-student collaboration and makes students active participants in their learning.
See News Release for more information.
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Dr. Aldona Wos, Louis DeJoy, General Mark Milley, Dr. Peter Feaver November 12, 2021
From left: Dr. Aldona Woś, Condoleezza Rice, Amy Zegart, and Louis DeJoy – May 3, 2018
Duke University – Program in American Grand Strategy
The DEJOY\WOS Family Foundation has proudly supported, since 2014, the Duke University Program in American Grand Strategy, an interdisciplinary initiative across Duke University that creates and shares new knowledge in the grand strategy field. The program’s mission is to prepare the next generation of strategists by studying past generations and interacting with current strategic leaders. The program is building a research community of faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates who are committed to deepening their understanding of America’s role in the world – past, present and future.
In May 2023, the DEJOY\WOS Family Foundation entered into a 3-year pledge agreement (2023-2025) with Duke University in continued support for the Program in American Grand Strategy. These contributions will provide funding for program enhancement such as increasing international staff rides, expanding domestic trips, maintaining an extensive speaker series and research expansion.
On May 3, 2018 former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Duke University, at an event sponsored by the American Grand Strategy Program, to discuss her new book and to offer her take on current international hot topics, including North Korea and the Iran Nuclear Deal.
Rice was the first African-American woman to serve as secretary of state from 2005-2009. She was joined on stage by Amy Zegart, co-director of the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University, as they discussed their book entitled “Political Risk: How Businesses and Organizations Can Anticipate Global Insecurity.” See Duke’s Events Gallery.
George W. Bush Foundation/The Bush Center
The DEJOY\WOS Family Foundation proudly supports the George W. Bush Presidential Center since 2009. The Bush Center is home to the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, which is operated by the National Archives and Records Administration, and The George W. Bush Institute, the nonpartisan, public policy arm of the Bush Center.
In 2024, the DEJOY\WOS Family Foundation pledged its continued support with a 5-year commitment to the Bush Library.
The Bush Center is located on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, and also includes a 15-acre park, a full-service restaurant, Café 43, and a museum store.
The Center focuses on developing leaders, advancing policy, and taking action to solve today’s most pressing challenges―initiatives aligned with the DeJoy\Wos Family Foundation. See News Release.
Dr. Aldona Woś moderated a panel discussion with Dr. Steven E. Sokol at the CAA 2018 Fall Conference in New York City – November 7, 2018
Dr. Aldona Woś (front left) pictured with Council Mission delegates, spouses, and her husband Louis DeJoy and their son Andrew DeJoy in Tallinn, Estonia during their 2018 Council Mission – September 24, 2018
Council of American Ambassadors
The DEJOY\WOS Family Foundation provides annual support to the Council of American Ambassadors (CAA)—the association of non-career United States ambassadors. CAA supports the role of the American ambassador and the country team in carrying out U.S. foreign policy at embassies around the world.
CAA also supports the Department of State and its Chiefs of Mission, sponsors Fellowships to develop young leaders for careers in public diplomacy and international affairs, and conducts semiannual conferences for the membership on current international issues.
Dr. Aldona Woś served as the United States Ambassador to the Republic of Estonia from 2004-2006 and is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Council of American Ambassadors.
CAA 2018 Fall Conference:
The Council of American Ambassadors conducts semiannual conferences focused on international affairs. The 2018 Fall Conference was held in New York City on November 6-7, 2018. Dr. Aldona Woś moderated a panel discussion with Dr. Steven E. Sokol – President of The American Council on Germany and former President and CEO of the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh. See News Release.
2018 Mission to Estonia, Lithuania & Poland:
In September 2018, CAA delegates, including Dr. Aldona Woś, conducted a 10-day Council Mission to Estonia, Lithuania and Poland. The mission started in Tallinn where they met with Estonia’s Minister of Defense Juri Luik.
Delegates continued to Vilnius, Lithuania where they met with Minister of National Defense Raimundas Karoblis and Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Darius Skusevicius.
The Council Mission concluded in Warsaw, Poland where delegates met with Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and former Prime Minister and Leader of the Law and Justice Party Jaroslaw Kaczynski. Delegates also met with Vice Minister for National Defense Tomasz Szatkowski, followed by a meeting with Secretary of State Piotr Naimski.
Jesse Helms Center president, John Dodd, delivers remarks at a 30th Anniversary Lecture Series event held at Grandover Resort in Greensboro, NC on November 14, 2018
Jesse Helms Center
The DEJOY\WOS Family Foundation provides funding for the Center, established in 1988 to promote our nation’s founding principles that Jesse Helms advanced throughout his career as a five-term U.S. Senator from North Carolina. The vision of the center is to become one of our nation’s leading advocates of free enterprise and traditional American values through education, public policy promotion and historical preservation.
On November 14, 2018, the Jesse Helms Center Foundation held a reception, dinner and one of its Lecture Series, celebrating its 30th Anniversary, at the Grandover Resort in Greensboro, North Carolina. The DEJOY\WOS Family Foundation was a gold sponsor of the event.
Vice President’s Residence Foundation
The DEJOY\WOS Family Foundation is a proud benefactor of the Vice President’s Residence Foundation, a charitable organization established in 1991 to help raise money to promote and support the historical preservation and furnishing of the official residence of the Vice President of the United States, located at the Naval Observatory. Built in 1893, the private residence at Number One Observatory Circle features Queen Anne-style architecture and is just 2.5 miles from the White House.
See News Release