Men To Watch Awards 2026 honors Anthony Berryhill

Anthony Berryhill grew up in New Orleans' Lower 9th Ward — one of the most underserved and violent communities in America, later destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. As a first-generation, low-income student with no roadmap and no connections, he did what no one taught him to do: he reverse engineered the system. That methodology got him into Stanford, earned him a full doctoral fellowship at Yale, and placed him on Harvard's instructional staff. More importantly, it has become the foundation of a global social mobility movement.

The founder of Elite College Hacker, for over 20 years Anthony has been doing what the admissions industrial complex refuses to do — giving students who look like him access to the exact same tools, strategies, and insider knowledge that wealthy families pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for. His students have earned admission to schools such as Harvard, MIT, Yale, Stanford Medical, Berkeley, the London School of Economics, and Chicago’s Booth MBA.

His impact extends far beyond admissions. As a three-time national champion debate coach with a lifetime 76% national prelims winning record, he has built championship teams from near-scratch in underserved communities across three states, producing 18 state champions and top-20 finishes at national championships for the last six consecutive years. For example, in 2025 he flew down to Louisiana to coach his alma mater for its State Debate Championship debating AI— and they came home as overall state debate champions.

In the corporate world, Anthony transformed learning and development at two of the world's most respected firms. At GLG he redesigned the entire new-hire training program, reducing time-to-productivity by 75% — a model so effective it was adopted as the global standard across APAC and EMEA and featured on The Muse. At PIMCO he served as VP as an executive corporate officer who used learning pathways with advanced project management and IT skills to develop programs for ten global business units.

Anthony currently serves on Harvard's instructional staff where he teaches courses on negotiation, public policy, and research. He has also been nominated for the National Speech and Debate Association's Hall of Fame Legends — the highest honor in his field. An Oxford World Leaders Summit Global Equity Champion and 2026 Forttuna Global 100 Game Changer, Anthony ‘s life work has centered on making access to elite college and corporate leadership experiences accessible to all.

From the 9th Ward to the world's most prestigious institutions — Anthony Berryhill didn't just find his way in. He's building the door so others can walk through it too.