- Lois Braverman,
President & CEO,
Ackerman Institute for
the Family announced
today the honorees and
host for the 11th annual Moving
Families Forward gala to
take place at the JW
Marriott Essex House on Monday,
October 23rd in
New York City.
· Luis
Alberto Urrea, Poet,
Novelist, Essayist, will
be honored with the Moving
Families Forward Award.
· GenSpring
Family Offices,
David J. Herritt,
Managing Director
Northeast Region, will
be honored with the Ackerman
Corporate Partner Award.
Tamsen Fadal, eight-time
Emmy-winning PIX 11 News
Anchor,
will return to host the
evening for the fourth
consecutive year. The
event benefits the vital
programs and ongoing
services for children
and families at the
Ackerman Institute for
the Family.
“I support the Ackerman
Institute for the Family
because Ackerman
therapists know that
when one member of the
family is in distress,
all members of the
family suffer.” says Tamsen
Fadal. “Ackerman
believes that family
members who truly feel
understood by each other
develop a kind of
resilience that allows
them to cope effectively
with the complexities of
this turbulent world.”
“We are thrilled that
Tamsen Fadal is
returning to host our
biggest fundraiser of
the year,” says Lois
Braverman, President &
CEO, Ackerman Institute
for the Family. “By
generously giving of her
time and talent to help
lead our event to
success speaks volumes
about her commitment to
family mental health. I
am grateful to Tamsen
for lending her support
and celebrity in this
way.”
Luis Alberto Urrea is
the best-selling author
of 17 books, including The
Devil's Highway and
The Hummingbird's
Daughter. A finalist
for the Pulitzer Prize
and winner of a 2017
American Academy of Arts
and Letters Award, Urrea
has also won the Lannan
Literary Award, the
Pacific Rim Kiriyama
Prize, an American Book
Award, the Christopher
Award and an Edgar
Award. The Water
Museum, a collection
of short stories, was a
finalist for the 2016
PEN/Faulkner award for
fiction and his novel Into
the Beautiful North is
a current selection of
the NEA's Big Read
program. His books have
been selected by more
than 60 different cities
and colleges for
community reads programs
and he is much in demand
as a speaker, lecturer
and teacher. His newest
novel, The House of
Broken Angels, will
be released by Little,
Brown in March 2018.
Born in Tijuana to a
Mexican father and
American mother, Urrea
is most recognized as a
border writer, though he
says, "I am more
interested in bridges,
not walls." He lives
outside of Chicago and
is a Distinguished
Professor of creative
writing at the
University of
Illinois-Chicago.
“We
are elated that prolific
author and speaker, Luis
Alberto Urrea, has
agreed to accept the
Ackerman Institute’s Moving
Families Forward Award
for his ability to
connect his own
dual-cultural life
narratives to explore
the greater themes of
love, loss, and triumph,
relating to family and
the immigration
experience,” says Lois
Braverman. ”Luis is
an exceptional writer
with an uncanny ability
to carry the story and
uniqueness of each of
his characters’
over-the-border story –
whether recent or
centuries old—and to
bring along the values
and beliefs that
eventually survive in
his characters and their
family relationships.
We all carry our family
history and backgrounds,
that’s what allows us to
move forward, and that’s
what Luis expresses in
his writings so well.
We are delighted to
honor Luis this year.”
GenSpring Family Offices provides
a service that is
pro-active about
bringing families
together, who hold
financially complex
relationships, through
thoughtful planning and
strong core beliefs.
Accepting the Ackerman
Institute’s Moving
Families Forward Award
is GenSpring’s Managing
Director, David
J. Herritt, who
oversees all aspects of
the client experience in
the Northeast region.
“We are delighted to
honor GenSpring Family
Offices for its
understanding of the
many complexities of
family relationships in
the context of financial
management,” says Lois
Braverman. “It
recognizes that
strengthening the
non-financial facets of
family interactions
enhances family cohesion
across generations, a
core belief of the
Ackerman Institute.
GenSpring advisors
possess the skills and
deep understanding of
family dynamics as they
work with families from
around the country. We
are proud of our
partnership and
delighted to be able to
honor Genspring in this
way.”
Moving Families Forward
Gala Co-Chairs are Greg
Rogers and Deborah
Werner, and serving
as Honorary Chairs are Martha
Fling and Alice
K. Netter. This
year’s Gala Planning
Committee members are Vicky
Kahn, Gisella Lemos and Leslie
Roberts. They are
supporters of the
Ackerman Institute for
the Family, and its work
on behalf of the
well-being of children
and families of our
communities.
About Ackerman Institute
for the Family:
Founded in 1960, the
Ackerman Institute for
the Family is one of the
premier institutions for
family therapy and one
of the best-known and
most highly regarded
training facilities for
family therapists in the
United States. The
Institute serves
families from all walks
of life at all stages of
family life.
To purchase tickets to the Moving
Families Forward Gala
call 914-579-1000,
email: AckermanGala@BuckleyHallEvents.com,
or go online at
http://www.ackerman.org/gala-2017/