Dikembe Mutombo

NBA Legend Dikembe Mutombo was born in the capital city of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Mutombo is the seventh of ten children born to Samuel and the late Biamba Marie Mutombo. He arrived in the United States in 1987 on an academic scholarship to attend Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. In his second year at Georgetown, Coach John Thompson invited the 7'2" Mutombo to try out for the university's renowned basketball team. After joining the team, Mutombo re-directed his pre-med ambitions and graduated from Georgetown with dual degrees in Linguistics and Diplomacy. Mutombo is fluent in nine languages, including five African languages. Dikembe Mutombo is the first Youth Emissary for the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and he also served on the Advisory Board for the Fogarty International Center at the National Institutes of Health and presently serves on the boards of UNICEF, National Constitution Center and Opportunity International. In 2009, Mutombo was appointed as the NBA’s first Global Ambassador.

Honors and awards:
• World Economic Forum - Young Global Leader
• Wilt Chamberlain Award - Operation Smile
• Honorary Degree, Doctor of Humane Letters – SUNY/Cortland
• NAACP Phoenix Award
• The Henry Iba Citizen Athlete Award
• The President's Service Award (2000) - President William Clinton
• J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award - NBA
• Ernie Davis Humanitarian Award
• The Samuel J. Halsey Award - Georgetown University
• Constituency for Africa's Trailblazer Award.
• Laureus World Sports Award
• 2010 B.C. Forbes Peopling of America Award
• 2010 Miracle Corners of the World award
• John Thompson, Jr. Legacy of a Dream Award
• Honorary Degree, Doctor of Humane Letters – Georgetown University