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NEW YORK, NEW YORK (August
30th,
2019) – Dr.
Marilyn A. Fraser, CEO of
the Arthur
Ashe Institute for Urban Health (AAIUH),
announced today the hosts and honorees for SportsBall
2019,
the 25th Annual
Black Tie & Sneakers Gala, to
take place on Wednesday,
October 2ndat
the Grand
Hyatt Hotel in
New York City. Renowned guests representing sports,
philanthropy, business, entertainment, and medicine will
gather to celebrate the legacy of tennis champion and
humanitarian Arthur Ashe. The event benefits the ongoing
community health education programs and research initiatives
of the Arthur
Ashe Institute for Urban Health.
The 2019 honorees will be:
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Sydney C. Butts, MD FACS, chief
of the Division of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive
Surgery at University Hospital of Brooklyn/SUNY
Downstate and Kings County Hospital Center, Vice Chair
of the Department of Otolaryngology at SUNY Downstate,
and an Associate Professor of Otolaryngology at SUNY
Downstate.
-
Stan Smith,
tennis legend, winner
of the U.S. Open in 1971 and Wimbledon in 1972, and
member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
-
Guy Vickers, President
of the PVH Foundation.
-
Cheryl Wills, Emmy-winning
anchor for Spectrum NY1 Live
at Ten, and
host of In
Focus with Cheryl Wills.
This year’s gala will be co-hosted by Ruschell
Boone, Reporter
and Anchor for Spectrum News NY1, and Les
Trent,
Senior Correspondent for Inside
Edition. Dr.
Marilyn A. Fraser,
CEO of the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health, will
preside over the gala.
About the 2019 Co-Hosts:
Ruschell Boone is
a three-time Emmy-nominated and award-winning Reporter and
Anchor for Spectrum News NY1. In 2018, she became a general
assignment reporter for the station’s Live
at Ten newscast. This
year she received two Emmy nominations for her work on the
show, including one for Best General Assignment Reporter. Last
year, Boone’s exclusive live interview with Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez reacting
to the news of her Democratic primary win went viral. The
moment was
featured in the Netflix documentary Knock
Down the House.
Les Trent has
been a New York-based senior correspondent at CBS Television
Distribution's INSIDE
EDITION covering
breaking and feature stories around the world for twenty
years. Prior to joining INSIDE
EDITION,
Trent spent five years as an on-air correspondent for King
World's American
Journal. The
Emmy-nominated Trent also served more than ten years as a
local reporter in San Francisco, California, and Buffalo,
N.Y., where he has been inducted into the Buffalo
Broadcasters Hall of Fame.
About the 2019 Honorees:
Sydney C. Butts,
MD serves as the chief of the Division of Facial Plastic and
Reconstructive Surgery at University Hospital Brooklyn/SUNY
Downstate and Kings County Hospital Center a position she
has held since August 2009. She is currently the Vice Chair
of the Department of Otolaryngology at SUNY Downstate and an
Associate Professor of Otolaryngology at SUNY Downstate.
Dr. Butts’ clinical focus includes the management of cleft
lip and palate anomalies, adult and pediatric maxillofacial
trauma, local/regional flap surgery especially in skin
cancer patients, rhinoplasty, and the management of other
soft tissue lesions that require a reconstructive approach.
To address the needs of children born with congenital facial
anomalies, she has developed several multidisciplinary
initiatives based at SUNY Downstate to help coordinate care
for patients who require challenging surgery and
rehabilitation services beginning in infancy. The impact of
congenital anomalies on children and families is significant
and can be particularly stressful for families with other
social stresses—the population of patients served by
Downstate. To understand these issues more, Dr. Butts
applied for and was awarded the President’s Health
Disparities Grant by SUNY Downstate Medical Center in 2015.
Dr. Butts has written several book chapters and journal
articles, presented research at national academic meetings,
and been a guest faculty and invited lecturer on multiple
reconstructive topics nationally and internationally. She
serves on several national committees of the American
Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, and
the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck
Surgery.
Service, volunteerism and mentoring have also been important
priorities for Dr. Butts whose parents stressed the
importance of helping others and giving back. She has worked
internationally on surgical humanitarian missions to perform
facial plastic and reconstructive surgery in underserved
areas of the world, including Vietnam, Rwanda, and Liberia.
She has mentored many medical students and worked with
several medical student groups to provide guidance about
careers in otolaryngology and residency at Downstate and is
a member of the Diversity task force of the Society of
University Otolaryngologists. Through service organizations
including the Brooklyn Chapter of the Links, she has worked
on fundraising efforts to support healthcare outreach in
Liberia, Haiti, and Uganda.
A graduate of the Yale University School of Medicine, Dr.
Butts completed a residency in otolaryngology at the Albert
Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center,
followed by fellowship training in facial plastic and
reconstructive surgery at SUNY Upstate Medical University in
Syracuse. She is Board certified in otolaryngology and is a
diplomate of the American Board of Facial Plastic and
Reconstructive Surgery.
Stan Smith is
a legend of his sport, not only for the myriad tennis titles
on his resume, but also for the legacy of sportsmanship and
courtesy he has brought to the profession, and which he
continues to exude today.
He dominated tennis in the early 1970s, winning the U.S.
Open in 1971 and Wimbledon in 1972. In his career, he has
won 39 singles titles and represented his country in the
Davis Cup for 10 years, helping to win the coveted
championship seven times. He was the number one player in
the world in 1971 and 1972, and the United States’
top-ranked player in 1969, 1971, 1972, and 1973. He has won
61 doubles crowns during his career, most of those with his
long-time playing partner Bob Lutz. He won the 35-and-over
title at Wimbledon in 1984 and 1985 and at the U.S. Open in
1984, the 55-and over title at the US Open in 2002 and 2004,
and was the coach of the 2000 U.S. Olympic tennis team in
Sydney.
Smith was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of
Fame in 1986 and became the President of the organization in
2011. He was Director of Coaching for the USTA Player
Development Program from 1986-1994 and Associate Director of
Player Development from 1995-1998. He is the Co-Founder and
current Manager of the Smith Stearns Tennis Academy at Sea
Pines Resort and has been the Touring Pro for Sea Pines
since 1971.
Smith is a Trustee of the Heritage Classic Foundation and
serves as its Charity Committee Chairman raising funds for
the community through the RBC Heritage Golf Tournament. He
is the Chairman of Stan Smith Events, working with
corporations to help them entertain their clients around
major sporting events.
Smith and his wife Margie reside in Hilton Head Island,
South Carolina and are actively involved in the Hilton Head
Boys and Girls Club. They have four children and 14
grandchildren.
Guy Vickers is
the President of the PVH Foundation at PVH Corp., based in
New York City. Guy is responsible for expanding the PVH
Foundation through global strategic programming and
philanthropic partnerships valued at over $25M, as well as
building a platform for Community Relations that aligns each
of the PVH businesses and brands (Calvin Klein, Tommy
Hilfiger, and Heritage Brands) on a global basis.
Prior to PVH, Guy led the Tommy Hilfiger Group’s
philanthropic interests as President of the Tommy Hilfiger
Corporate Foundation for over 15 years. Mr. Vickers also
served as Vice President of Community Affairs, overseeing
the company’s involvement with both local and global
communities and non-profit organizations. Working alongside
Tommy Hilfiger, Guy’s leadership was instrumental in
establishing and upholding the three main pillars of the
Foundation: Education, Health, and Youth & Culture.
Born in Douglas, Georgia and raised in Elmira, New York, Guy
resides in New Jersey with his wife, Shawanda, and three
children, Indee, Hanna, and Guy Alexander.
Cheryl Wills is a veteran
anchor for Spectrum News NY1 currently
celebrating her 25th anniversary with the national news
team. She is the primetime anchor for NY1’s Live
at Ten and
the host of the public affairs show In
Focus with Cheryl Wills. In
2018, Cheryl became the first African-American reporter in
NY1’s history to win an Emmy Award.
Wills is the author of three books about her
great-great-great grandfather Sandy Wills who fought in The
Civil War: Die
Free: A Heroic Family Tale,
an illustrated children's book The
Emancipation of Grandpa Sandy Wills, and
a YA book Emancipated:
My Family's Fight for Freedom. Cheryl
has been invited to do readings of her Emancipation Series
to tens of thousands of students across the country.
Wills is a graduate of The Newhouse School of Public
Communications at Syracuse University, with a major in
Broadcast Journalism. She received an Honorary Doctorate
from New York College of Health Professions in May of 2005.
She is a member of the Women’s Forum of New York.
About the SportsBall:
SportsBall 2019 is a celebration with a purpose. Each year,
the Institute honors individuals and organizations that are
making significant contributions to urban communities in the
areas of health, education, medical research, community
service, and philanthropy. The funds raised at SportsBall support
the Institute’s innovative community health education
programs and research initiatives. Arthur Ashe founded the
Institute in 1992, just two months before his death from
AIDS, in response to the disproportionate amount of illness
and death in urban communities from preventable diseases.
Arthur knew that many of these diseases, such as diabetes
and hypertension, were the result of inadequate health care
delivery systems, late detection, and insufficient health
education.
About the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health
In 1992, Arthur Ashe established the Institute in
partnership with SUNY Downstate, moved by the institution's
long history of serving immigrants and low-income Brooklyn
residents, as well as its staff and faculty's research. The
Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health, located in
multi-ethnic Brooklyn, collaborates with community members
to design and conduct neighborhood-based interventions that
address health conditions that disproportionately affect
minorities. Recognizing the complexity of the economic and
social determinants of health, the Institute partners with a
wide variety of grassroots and institutional organizations
to provide after-school science enrichment, outreach
initiatives in trusted venues, and research and advocacy.
Community Health Empowerment guides and unifies all of the
Institute’s work.
For additional information about SportsBall 2019 and the
Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health, go to: www.arthurasheinstitute.org.
For more information about the Arthur
Ashe Institute for Urban Health and
its upcoming SportsBall,
contact James Grant at: james@jamesgrantpr.com.
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