Lupus Foundation Of America's Fourth Annual Star-Studded Gala

Main Category: Lupus
Article Date: 20 Apr 2007 - 7:00 PDT

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Actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner will serve as Master of Ceremonies when the Lupus Foundation of America honors U.S. Senator Richard Durbin, (D-IL), actors Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, and Lisa Price, founder of the Carol's Daughter Cosmetics, and H. Thomas Watkins, President & CEO of Human Genome Sciences, for their efforts to bring national attention and resources to the fight against lupus. The awards will be presented on May 9 in Washington, DC during the LFA's Fourth Annual Awards Gala at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.

2006 Academy Award Winner for Best Supporting Actress, Jennifer Hudson, will be the featured entertainer for the 2007 LFA Awards Gala. Ms. Hudson, who was a finalist in 2005 on the Fox TV Network hit series, American Idol, won her Academy Award for her role in the recent hit movie, Dreamgirls.

Congressman John Dingell (D-MI) and Debbie Dingell, and Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) and Dr. Annette Shelby are the 2007 Honorary Chairs for the gala, which last year raised $1.5 million for lupus research and education programs. Senator Robert Bennett (R-UT), Congressman Kendrick Meek (D-FL) and Leslie Meek, Esq. are the Honorary Co-Chairs.

The founders of Aspreva Pharmaceutical Company, recipients of the Corporate Leadership Award in 2006, will serve as event chairs for the 2007 gala. Richard Glickman, Chairman and CEO; Noel Hall, President and Director; and Michael Hayden, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Medical Advisor, will lead a gala committee of more than two dozen individual and corporate philanthropists to raise funds for LFA programs that will advance the search for the causes and cure for lupus and for safer and more effective treatments. More than 600 people are expected to attend the gala.

What is Lupus? Lupus is a chronic disease in which the immune system attacks the body's own healthy tissue and organs causing inflammation and damage to various parts of the body which can result in debilitating pain, organ failure, and death. More than 1.5 million Americans and at least five million people worldwide have lupus. The disease strikes mostly young women in the prime of their lives, and disproportionately strikes young women of color, especially African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, and Asians, a health disparity that remains unexplained.

The Lupus Foundation of America is the nation's leading nonprofit health agency dedicated to lupus. The LFA conducts programs of research, education and support to find the causes and cure for lupus, improve the diagnosis and treatment of lupus, increase awareness of lupus among the public and health professionals, and support individuals and families affected by the disease.

www.lupus.org

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