We went to the Salute to Excellence in Education Gala at the National Building Museum, organized by the NEA Foundation. We snapped its CEO, Harriet Sanford, NEA president Lily Eskelsen García, Bank of America SVP Brenda Link, NEA Foundation Board chair Crystal Brown and BofA SVP Brian Pearl.
The host: actress and activist Anne-Marie Johnson, who's in a new police procedural series Murder in the First on TNT; she's best known as Althea Tibbs on In the Heat of the Night and from In Living Color. Entertainment included performances by 55 students from Mo Co, NYC and FL.
Beloved children’s author, the late Walter Dean Myers, and his son, award-winning illustrator and writer Christopher Myers, were honored for their lifetime contribution to children’s literature. He's with First National Bank of Omaha EVP Stephen Eulie, who presented the Award for Outstanding Service to Public Education.
39 of the nation’s top educators were honored at the gala, including five finalists who received the Horace Mann Awards for Teaching Excellence and $10k. The gala celebrated the men and women who work in America's public schools; 800 national education leaders attended. Here, NEA Foundation Board member Donna Meacham Blackman with her husband, Blackman Financial Services’ Kirk Blackman.
Liz Ovitz and Alfredo Flores contributed to this issue.
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