Home | About Company | Our Team | Services | Business Areas | Media Events | FAQ | Post-Career | News | Contact Us
 | |||||||||||||||||
|  |
 | |||||||||||||||
 |
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
 |
 |
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
 | ||
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
 |
|
|
Saturday,
September 12, 2009, Pasadena, CA
ESP
CEO Everett Glenn, and EVP Marketing Sheila Gilmore, joined Michael
L. Lomax, Ph.D., President & CEO of the United Negro
College Fund (UNCF), representatives of the 39 member institutions
of the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), and a sparkling array
of stars -- including nine-time Grammy Award winner Natalie
Cole, hip hop hook master Akon, American
Idol runner-up Katherine McPhee, Jesse McCartney, James
Ingram, Boney James, Anika Noni Rose, Mary Mary's Erica Campbell,
Johnny Gill and Grammy-Award winning R&B singer Chrisette
Michele and multi-platinum recording artist Brian
McKnight -- in an all-star salute to Lionel Richie,
a graduate of UNCF member institution Tuskegee University.
The
31st edition of An Evening of Stars, UNCF's annual televised
celebration of excellence in entertainment and education, took
place before a live audience at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.
The show was made possible by Target, the presenting sponsor,
and national corporate sponsors which included McDonald’s,
AT&T, American Airlines, Wachovia, a Wells Fargo Company,
Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc., BET Networks, and WGN. A superstar
cast of presenters include Cedric the Entertainer, Terrence
Howard, Kim Delaney, Tom Joyner, Regina King, Shemar Moore, Romeo,
Bobb'e Thompson, Tracie Thoms and Blair Underwood. Louis
J. Horvitz, one of the industries’s most accomplished and
sought after live television producers/directors, returned for
his 13th year as executive producer and director of the show.
Horvitz is a six-time Emmy Award winner, and has directed the
annual Academy Awards® telecast for 13 years. He
has also helmed the Prime Time Emmy Awards®, and
directed The Kennedy Center Honors® and the American
Film Institute (AFI) Life Achievement Award. In January
of 2009 Horvitz directed The Kids Inaugural We Are the Future
for President Barack Obama and First Lady Michele Obama. In 2010,
Horvitz is slated to direct the 52nd Grammy Awards. |
UNCF
is the nation's largest and most effective minority education organization,
awarding 18% of African American baccalaureate degrees. UNCF plays
a critical role in enabling more than 60,000 students each year
to attend college and get the education they want and deserve. To
close the educational attainment gap between African Americans and
the majority population, UNCF helps promising students attend college
and graduate by: •
Providing operating funds for its 39 member institutions, all of
them small, liberal arts institutions, making it possible for them
to offer their students 21st century academic programs while keeping
their tuitions to less than half the average of other private colleges;
•
Administering 400 scholarship and internship programs, so that even
students from low- and moderate-income families can afford college
tuition, books and room and board; •
Serving as a national advocate for the importance minority higher
education by representing the public policy interests of its students
and member colleges, through its annual television program, An Evening
of Stars, and by using print and electronic media to carry out the
mission implicit in its motto, "A mind is a terrible
thing to waste."®
Richie
accepted UNCF's Award of Excellence for his long and distinguished
career as a singer-songwriter-producer and for his history of supporting
minority education, following previous honorees Lou Rawls, Quincy
Jones, Steve Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Smokey Robinson and Patti
LaBelle.
|
|
|
|
Home | About Company | Our Team | Services | Business Areas | Media Events | FAQ | Post-Career | News | Contact Us |
|
| Copyright,
ENTERTAINMENT & SPORTS PLUS (ESP)
and Explorer
Studios,
Inc. and its related entities. All Rights Reserved. |