The National Organization for Women and

The NOW Foundation

Present

The 2003 Gala inaugurating

Honoring:

Helen Thomas

Commonly referred to as "The First Lady of the Press," former White House Bureau Chief Helen Thomas is a trailblazer, breaking through barriers for women reporters while covering every President since John F. Kennedy. For 57 years, Helen also served as White House correspondent for United Press International (UPI). She recently left this post and joined Hearst Newspapers as a syndicated columnist.

Thomas was the only woman print journalist traveling with President Nixon to China during his breakthrough trip in January 1972. She has the distinction of having traveled around the world several times with Presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush.

Recently Thomas grilled White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer on the Bush administration's pre-emptive war in Iraq and its danger to innocent civilians.

Margaret Cho

Cho started performing stand-up at age 16 in a comedy club above the bookstore her parents ran. Soon after, she won a comedy contest where first prize was opening for Jerry Seinfeld. Cho moved to Los Angeles in the early '90s and hit the college circuit, where she immediately became the most booked act in the market and garnered a nomination for Campus Comedian of the Year. She performed over 300 concerts within 2 years and subsequently won the American Comedy Award for Female Comedian in 1994. Arsenio Hall introduced her to late night audiences, Bob Hope put her on a prime time special and, seemingly overnight, Cho became a national celebrity.

Her ground-breaking and controversial, yet short-lived ABC sitcom, All-American Girl, soon followed. About the sitcom, Cho had to say: "There were just so many people involved in that show, and so much importance put on the fact that it was an ethnic show. It's hard to pin down what "ethnic" is without appearing to be racist. And then, for fear of being too "ethnic," it got so watered down for television that by the end, it was completely lacking in the essence of what I am and what I do."

Rebecca Walker

An author and activist, Rebecca Walker publishes widely and is the co-founder of the Third Wave Foundation, the only national, activist, philanthropic organization for young women aged 15-30.

After college, she founded Third Wave Direct Action Corporation, a national non-profit organization devoted to cultivating young women's leadership and activism. In their first summer, Third Wave initiated an historic emergency youth drive that registered over 20,000 new voters in inner cities across the United States. In 1998, this organization became the Third Wave Foundation.

Her message of positive activism is delivered through her speaking, organizing, and writing. She began writing in high school, and in college became a contributing editor to Ms. Magazine, discussing the issues of reproductive freedom, domestic violence, and sexuality. She has been published in many magazines, and is widely anthologized.

Dr. Mae Jemison

Mae C. Jemison blasted into orbit aboard the space shuttle Endeavour, September 12, 1992, the first woman of color to go into space. Now, founder and president of two technology companies, the space flight was just one of a series of accomplishments for this dynamic woman.

Born in Decatur, Ala. and raised in Chicago, she entered Stanford University as a scholarship student at age 16. After graduating with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and fulfilling requirements for an A.B. in African and Afro-American studies, she earned her doctorate in medicine at Cornell University Medical College.

As the science mission specialist on the STS-47 Spacelab J flight, a U.S./Japan joint mission, she conducted experiments in life sciences, material sciences, and co-investigated the Bone Cell Research experiment. After serving six years as a NASA astronaut, Dr. Jemison resigned from NASA in March 1993 to start The Jemison Group, Inc., to focus on the beneficial integration of science and technology into daily life.

In 1994, Dr. Jemison founded The Earth We Share, an annual international science camp where students, ages 12 to 16, work together to solve current global dilemmas.

As former professor of Environmental Studies at Dartmouth College, and director of the Jemison Institute for Advancing Technology in Developing Countries, Dr. Jemison is currently an A.D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University.

GayPASG Note: My spouse, Richard John Harrison, and I went to Washington the morning of the 10^th of July so that we could attend NOW's National Conference and their Foundation’s events. The NOW National Conference was July 11-13, and we were concerned about adding this additional day to the trip but were delighted that we did attend this inaugurating 2003 Gala event of The Intrepid Awards. Each of the Honorees has made an outstanding contribution and it was an inspiring event. John Crowell Campbell