Photo by John Huba
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Impact Awards 2005 Honorees
By The Editors, January & February 2005
Ten people who improved the world we live in
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Richard Gere
AIDS Activist
On a bright fall afternoon in Manhattan, Richard Gere takes a break from
promoting his latest film, Shall We Dance?—in which he plays a man
who finds new passion and purpose in life when he learns to waltz (from
Jennifer Lopez no less)—to ponder the deeper meaning of his own life. At
55, the actor, who became an icon playing irresistible seducers in American
Gigolo and Pretty Woman and won a Golden Globe in 2003 for his role
as the tap-dancing con artist Billy Flynn in the hit movie musical
Chicago, doesn't have to do anything to preserve his place in
history. But he feels a greater calling, a universal responsibility to end
suffering in the world. More on Richard Gere >>
Linda Saif
SARS Researcher
For more than 25 years, microbiologist Linda Saif quietly worked in one of
medicine's less fashionable areas—the infectious diseases of farm
animals. Then people in Hong Kong started dying from a mystery illness called
SARS, and Dr. Saif's singular expertise proved suddenly invaluable. SARS
was triggered by a coronavirus, a type of bug that usually causes only cold
symptoms in humans but can be deadly in animals. As one of the world's
leading authorities on animal coronaviruses, Dr. Saif and her Ohio State
University animal-virus lab suddenly found themselves at ground zero in the
battle for lives. Dr. Saif herself acted as a lead consultant to the World
Health Organization, and her lab became part of an international network of
labs organized to fight the disease. More than 900 died in the epidemic, but it
could have been worse. "A lot of people said, years ago, that we were on
the verge of conquering infectious disease, but now we can see that emerging
diseases are coming at us at a fast and furious rate," Dr. Saif says.
"Our only hope is doing more research."—David Dudley
William Donaldson
Wall Street Watchdog
After watching corporate behemoths like Enron and WorldCom implode because of
corrupt accounting, gutting thousands of people's 401(k) savings, few
investors felt secure. That started to change when President Bush appointed
William Donaldson head of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2003.
"At this stage in my life, I felt I could be truly independent," says
Donaldson of his decision, at age 71, to accept the job. "I can take on
the complex problems and I have the freedom to try to do what's
right." The ex-Marine and former chairman of the New York Stock Exchange
didn't waste a minute in making bold, controversial moves, adding almost
1,000 new employees to the SEC payroll and adopting nine new initiatives to
tighten oversight of mutual funds. "Chairman Donaldson is a forceful
advocate for the interests of investors," says Paul Schott Stevens,
president of the Investment Company Institute, the trade association for the
mutual fund industry. It's reassuring to know there's an ex-Marine
fighting to protect our retirement cash.—Ron Geraci
Jane Seymour
Children's Advocate
Yes, she still has long chestnut-colored hair and that come-hither look that
made her such a beloved heroine in the '90s TV show Dr. Quinn, Medicine
Woman. But make no mistake, beneath Jane Seymour's sultry exterior beats
the heart of a stalwart child advocate who works tirelessly to help abused and
vulnerable kids. As international ambassador for Childhelp USA, an organization
dedicated to the prevention and treatment of child abuse, Seymour, 53, travels
around the world raising awareness and money. "My number-one priority in
life is children," says the mother of four and stepmother of two. "I
realize that I've been given many gifts, not least of which is my ability
to communicate on behalf of people who don't have a voice." To that
end, in 2004 Seymour renewed her commitment to the American Red Cross Measles
Initiative, which vaccinates children in Africa against the deadly disease. Two
years ago, when Seymour traveled to Kenya as part of the initiative, the result
was 14 million children vaccinated in one week. "I believe that children
are our most endangered species," Seymour says. "We can eradicate
measles from the continent of Africa with a program that costs less than $1 a
child." No Hollywood diva she, Seymour reminds us that the power of
celebrity—coupled with compassion and dedication—can yield
incredible results.—Elizabeth Enright
Princess Yasmin Aga Khan
Alzheimer's Crusader
For years, Princess Yasmin Aga Khan had known that something was desperately
wrong with her mother, actress Rita Hayworth. In 1981, doctors gave a
name—Alzheimer's—to the Hollywood legend's memory loss and
sudden rages, but they couldn't help her daughter slow the disease's
steady progression. "At first I felt a sense of relief—here was a
medical explanation," Khan says. "But now what?" Khan, whose
father was the wealthy Prince Aly Khan, abandoned a singing career to become
her mother's sole caretaker in the final years of her illness. She also
threw herself into the search for a cure, joining the nascent Alzheimer's
Association, lobbying Congress for increased federal funding, and, in 1984,
holding the first Rita Hayworth fundraising gala. In 2004, her two annual
fundraisers in New York and Chicago generated $3 million in donations. "I
always have hope, and we are making progress," says Khan, who is now
honorary vice-chairman of the Alzheimer's Association in the U.S. and
president of the UK-based umbrella organization Alzheimer's Disease
International. "I don't know if a cure will be found in my lifetime,
but I will be involved for my life. It's my mission."—David
Dudley
Antonia Hernández
Civil Rights Leader
As the oldest of seven children of poor Mexican immigrants, Antonia
Hernández always knew she wanted to dedicate her life to helping those
less fortunate. Even before she could drive, she would walk the picket lines in
support of California's farm workers. Then she spent two decades working to
protect the rights of the nation's 35 million Latinos: as president and
chief counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund
(MALDEF) from 1985 to 2003, she worked to create voting districts that
equitably represented Latinos, opposed the nominations of federal judges with
poor civil-rights records, and successfully defeated a California state measure
that would have denied health and education benefits to undocumented
immigrants. "I'm a do-gooder," acknowledges
Hernández."What I truly want is for every person to have the
opportunity to fulfill his or her potential." Today, as the new president
and CEO of the California Community Foundation, the nation's ninth-largest
community foundation, overseeing more than $650 million in assets, her role is
to marry the resources of generous donors with causes such as health and
education. While the focus has narrowed, the overall goal is the same: to
improve the lives of poor people. "Being able to create an opportunity for
people of wealth to share their resources with those in need is
wonderful," Hernández says. "We're creating a community in
which we're all interdependent. It's what makes this country so
great."—Elizabeth Enright
Alice Coles
Community Builder
Until 2003, most of the 114 residents of Bayview, Virginia, lived in the kind
of abject poverty that is difficult to grasp: two- and three-room shacks with
no running water and no heat, and the constant threat of fires from faulty
electrical wiring. In the last year, most of those people have moved into
modern housing, thanks largely to the efforts of Alice Coles, 53. In 1994, this
single mother of two learned that the state of Virginia was planning to build a
maximum-security prison on land that her ancestors had farmed for more than 300
years. "We decided to fight it," Coles recalls, "because we
didn't have anywhere to go and we didn't have anything to lose."
Coles, who at the time was making $5,000 a year handpicking the meat out of
crabs, educated herself about how the Department of Corrections worked and
traveled to Richmond to testify against building a prison less than a mile from
where her children attended school. "I didn't have two pennies to rub
together, but I told them about our dedication to our land and our children.
And they listened." Flush from that victory, Coles organized her neighbors
and began applying for federal and state housing grants to turn the eyesore
that was her community into a jewel. Today, 42 of a planned 132 homes are
built, as are a greenhouse and a community technology center. "We have to
look within ourselves for that one gift God has given us and use it,"
Coles says. "We just need to look around and see how we can make this
world a better place to live."—Gabrielle Redford
George Wein
Jazz Impresario
In 1950, at age 24, singer-pianist George Wein discovered his true calling.
That's when he set up a tiny club in Boston with $5,000 in savings and
began booking jazz musicians on a weekly basis. Four years later, he launched
the Newport Jazz Festival, which is credited with popularizing music that,
until then, had mostly been heard in smoky nightclubs around the country. Along
the way, Wein helped friends like Duke Ellington and Miles Davis develop global
followings. In 2004, the Newport festival celebrated its 50th birthday with an
acclaimed return to the music's roots. As founder and CEO of Festival
Productions, Wein oversees a dozen festivals staged in numerous cities around
the world, including a stop in Tokyo, launched in 2004; the flagship JVC Jazz
Festival in New York City; and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, a
national treasure. "I can never retire," says the 79-year-old jazz
impresario, allowing fans of live music everywhere to heave a collective sigh
of relief. —Richard Gehr
Tom Brokaw
Veteran Newsman
When Tom Brokaw stepped down in December as anchor and managing editor of NBC
Nightly News, it signaled not just the end of his 21-year stint as the
handsomely chiseled face of his network's news division; it also marked the
end of an era. "When I came up in the business, the world was seen through
the prism of white middle-aged guys on the Eastern seaboard," Brokaw says.
The trusted newsman helped change all that, scoring a string of exclusive
interviews with such high-profile world leaders as Mikhail Gorbachev and the
Dalai Lama, and reporting directly from the scene in hot spots across the
globe. He was the only evening news anchor in Berlin the night the Berlin Wall
fell and the first to report from the site of the Oklahoma City bombing. Now,
cut loose from the rigors of a daily program, the newsman says he's eager
to get on with his non-TV life. "Walter and Betsy Cronkite are role models
for [my wife] Meredith and me," Brokaw says. "The energy they cast
across a wide spectrum of interests inspires me." Brokaw's own
interests post retirement include a visit to New Zealand and possibly even a
new book. "I'm ready to try some new things," he says.
"That's what life is all about."—Cable Neuhaus
Gloria White-Hammond
Doctor, Pastor, Missionary
When they married, Gloria White-Hammond and her husband considered becoming
missionaries in Africa. Events—and children—intervened, and the two
stayed in Boston, founding Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church and
ministering to their flock and needy neighbors. But the lean, elegant
pediatrician still had a burden for Africa, and she periodically found her way
there on humanitarian missions. In 2001, she traveled to Sudan to help redeem
more than 2,000 women and girls taken as slaves during that country's civil
war. The stories she heard there—of beatings, killings, and almost
unimaginable sexual abuse—sickened her. But so did the grinding, dead-end
lives the women were returning to. "You bring them back to their
communities," White-Hammond says, "but then what?" The
doctor's answer to that question was to provide, in 2004, diesel-powered
mills to relieve the women's traditional, all-day task of grinding
grain—and to support a new school for girls, called My Sister's
Keeper School. Her next stop: bloody Darfur in western Sudan, to learn what
women there need.—Meg Guroff
Credits
Photo Credits
Richard Gere: John Huba; Linda Saif: Daniela Stallinger; William Donaldson:
Brian Velenchenko; Jane Seymour: Matthias Clamer; Princess Yasmin Aga Khan:
Emily Shur; Antonia Hernández: Emily Shur; George Wein: Brian
Velenchenko; Alice Coles: Daniela Stallinger; Tom Brokaw: Evan Agostini/Getty Images; Gloria White-Hammond: Emily Shur
Hair & Makeup Credits
Jane Seymour: Hair by David Shannon for Cloutier, makeup by Lisa Neilson;
Princess Yasmin Aga Khan: Hair and makeup by Andie Makoe-Byrne
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