Jeanne Shaheen

The New England Council, a major business association that often hosts events with news makers across the region, announced Wednesday that documentarian Ken Burns and retiring Senator Jeanne Shaheen will each be honored this fall as a recipient of the group’s Legacy Award.

The extra special honor, which the council established in 2025, recognizes the ongoing contributions of individuals who were previously named New Englanders of the Year — a recognition the council has been granting since 1964, including to Burns in 2006 and to Shaheen in 2011.

The council noted that Burns, 72, who lives in Walpole, N.H., has been making documentary films for five decades that have snagged dozens of major accolades, including Oscar nominations, Grammys, and Emmys. He was inducted in 2022 into the Television Academy Hall of Fame.

The council noted that Shaheen, 79, a Democrat who lives in Madbury, N.H., made history in 2008 as the first woman to have been elected as a governor and as a US senator. After three six-year terms, she opted not to seek reelection this fall.

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The council said Shaheen has been known on Capitol Hill for “her common-sense leadership, dedication to improving the lives of the middle class, and perhaps most significantly, her ability to work across the aisle to develop bipartisan solutions to some of the most critical issues facing our region and our nation.”

Shaheen called the Legacy Award an “extraordinary honor.”

“In a divided political system, the only way to get things done is by bridging divides even when we have strong disagreements on other issues — and that’s exactly what I’ll stay focused on for the remainder of my term and beyond,” she said in a statement.

The Legacy Awards will be presented on Oct. 29 as part of the council’s annual celebration at the Encore Boston Harbor in Everett, Mass., which is expected to draw attendees from all six New England states.

“Each of our honorees has made valuable contributions to the economic wellbeing and quality of life in our region,” New England Council President & CEO James T. Brett said in a statement. “We are grateful to each of them for their tireless work in our communities, and proud to call them New Englanders.”

In addition to the Legacy Awards, the council will name three more New Englanders of the Year: mental health counselor, philanthropist, and former actress Eliza Dushku Palandjian; Fidelity Investments executive Pamela D. Everhart; and independent Senator Angus King of Maine.

Steven Porter can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @reporterporter.