Dr. Marsha Gordon of White Plains, NY, President and CEO of the Business Council of Westchester, will be recognized for her transformative impact on the Westchester business community. Among many other things, this includes her support of youth development and internship initatives; her role in workforce development and job creation; and her understanding that reliable child care is an essential component of Westchester's business growth, as evidenced by its inclusion in the Business Council's 2018 Legislative Agenda. A statewide leader, Dr. Gordon has more than 25 years of community, commerce, and leadership experience. She is a sought-after speaker, panelist and media expert, and is widely considered to be the authority on the business climate in Westchester County and is regularly the "go to" person in legislative and regulatory issues throughout the Hudson Valley. Appointed by NY State Governor Andrew Cuomo, she serves on the executive committee of the Mid-Hudson Regional Economic Council.
Clarfeld is a comprehensive wealth management firm with offices in Tarrytown and New York City. Clarfeld manages more than $6 billion of assets on behalf of clients, who include senior corporate executives, professionals, business owners, and other high net worth individuals and their related entities including trusts and charitable foundations. Clarfeld will be honored for its company-wide commitment to good corporate citizenship and giving back, which has evolved throughout its history starting with its founder and CEO Rob Clarfeld, who shaped the firm's philanthropic efforts in its early days. He often vocalizes that the value of what the firm does is not merely defined by the commitment to clients, but equally measured by the example employees set within the community. This has led to the support of many charitable organizations and noteworthy causes over the years, and the Child Care Council has been a direct beneficiary of these values in action. Clarfeld Managing Directors Korey Kross and Nicholas Pirrotta both serve on the Council's Board of Directors; Pirrotta is Treasurer.
Peter Edelman and Marian Wright Edelman will be recognized together for their lifelong advocacy on behalf of children and familes. As an attorney, policy maker and author, Peter Edelman has fought, on the nation's largest stages, to make our country aware of the link between poverty and race, and the need to make their welfare system more effective and more humane. His two most recent books, Not a Crime to Be Poor: The Criminalization of Poverty in America (2017) and So Rich, So Poor: Why It's So Hard to End Poverty in America (2012), address these issues. Mr. Edelman is the Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Law and Public Policy at Georgetown University Law Center, where he teaches constitutional law and poverty law and is faculty director of the Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality. On the faculty since 1982, he has also served in all three branches of government. During President Clinton's first term he was Counselor to HHS Secretary Donna Shalala and then Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. Professor Edelman has been Associate Dean of the Law Center, Director of the New York Division for Youth, and Vice President of the University of Massachusetts.
Marian Wright Edelman, Founder and President of the Children's Defense Fund (CDF), has been an advocate for disadvantaged Americans for her entire professional life and made a profound impact on issues related to children's rights in the areas of safety, education, health and diginity. A graduate of Spellman College and Yale Law School, Wright Edelman directed the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund office in Jackson, Mississippi and was the first black woman admitted to the Mississippi Bar. It was in Mississippi that she became a lawyer for the Child Development Group and successfully lobbied for the restoration of federal funds for the Mississippi Head Start programs. Later, she lobbied with the CDF to promote the "Leave No Child Behind Campaign," which strived for a fully-funded Head Start program, comprehensive medical coverage and tax credits. Edelman has received over a hundred honorary degrees and many awards including the Albert Schweitzer Humanitarian Prize, the Heinz Award, and a MacArthur Foundation Prize Fellowship. In 2000, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award, and the Robert F. Kennedy Lifetime Achievement Award for her writings.
Event tickets and sponsorships, as well as journal ads in support of the honorees, are available for purchase online at www.childcarewestchester.org. For more information about the 50th Anniversary Celebration, contact Dana Lawless at (914) 761-3456 x127 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
About the Child Care Council of Westchester
The Child Care Council of Westchester is a private, nonprofit resource organization that champions the healthy development of children, families and communities by promoting quality early care and education. A unique, "one stop" agency for child care, the Council offers parents referrals, training, information, technical assistance, reports on the industry, and public education for parents, child care programs, governmental organizations and the business community. Since its inception in 1968, the Council has grown to become the premier authority on child care servicces throughout Westchester County. The Council recently attained Quality Assurance, establishing it as one of the nation's leading Child Care Resource and Referral agencies (CCR&Rs). The national recognition was awarded by Child Care Aware of America.
Contact:
Hillary Millman, In Better Words
(914) 295-0454
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