Dikembe Mutombo has worked tirelessly to improve the health, education and quality of life for the people in his homeland, the Democratic Republic of Congo. A graduate of Georgetown University, with dual degrees in linguistics and diplomacy, Mutombo played professional basketball for 18 years before retiring from the Houston Rockets in 2009. In 2007 the Dikembe Mutombo Foundation opened the Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital—a 170-bed, $29 million hospital located in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo—in memory of his mother. Closer to home, Mutombo devotes much of his time to charitable causes, which include Hughes Spalding Children’s Hospital Christmas toy drive, Hosea Feed the Hungry, the Atlanta Community Food Bank and making personal appearances at local schools.