Harris Wofford, who helped launch the Peace Corps and led the Corporation for National and Community Service, will be presented the Presidential Citizens Medal in a White House ceremony Friday, The Huffington Post writes.

Mr. Wofford, a Pennsylvania Democrat who served in the Kennedy administration and the U.S. Senate, worked to pass the legislation that created the national-service corporation and was its chief executive from 1995 to 2001.

The Citizens Medal recognizes Americans for exemplary deeds of service to the country or their fellow citizens. Also among this year’s 18 honorees are the late Jeanne Manford, who founded the advocacy group Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, and six teachers killed in December’s massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., reports the New York Daily News.