The Community Voices Freedom’s Voice Conference is an unprecedented assembly of national leaders in health care disparities and civil rights.  Participants will present the latest research on these issues and disparities and best practices for reaching those living in poor urban and rural areas or re-entering life after prison, immigrants, and the homeless.

The three-day conference will conclude with a gala event at the High Museum of Art on April 11, 2008, where Dr. John E. Maupin, Jr., President of Morehouse School of Medicine, and Dr. Henrie M. Treadwell, director of Community Voices, will honor one of our nation’s leading voices, CNN anchor and special correspondent Soledad O’Brien, with the Soledad O’Brien Freedom’s Voice Award.  The award was created to recognize her accomplishments and willingness to be a voice for the voiceless in our society, and her determination to cover stories that might otherwise go untold.  It will be given annually to mid-career professionals who serve as catalysts for social change in their given fields.  In years to come, Ms. O’Brien will guide an advisory committee in naming future recipients for the award who, like her, have worked tirelessly and effectively to expose problems our society has not wanted to face.

This spectacular black-tie event will be hosted by an esteemed advisory board led by Ms. O’Brien, and co-chaired by philanthropist and actor Jane Fonda; Joseph Stewart, Trustee of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and former Vice-President of Corporate Affairs for the Kellogg Company; and CNN Worldwide President Jim Walton.  Invited guests will include local, state, and national officials, business leaders, media and entertainment industry leaders, performing artists, renowned policy experts from the Freedom’s Voice conference, and other opinion and thought leaders. 

During the gala, Community Voices and the Morehouse School of Medicine will also announce their progress towards securing a $5 million endowment for an Endowed Program in Health Policy.  The money, to be raised over the next three years through donor sponsorships of Freedom’s Voice events, will fund a Health Policy Program Chair, two Post-Graduate Fellowships, and future Freedom’s Voice conferences.