TV talk show star Tamron Hall and recording artist Vivian Green, shown with WDAS personalty Patty Jackson, are honored with the Legend Award for Excellence in Television: and Trailblazing Woman of Excellence awards.
Photo courtesy:WDAS
During Saturday’s Women of Excellence luncheon, the contributions Black women have made to the Delaware Valley and beyond took center stage.
By Denise Clay-Murray
There aren’t many places where you’d have the Speaker of the Pennsylvania House, an executive from Chase Bank, one of the people responsible for keeping “Your Philadelphia Eagles” off of the injured list, an historic entrepreneur, non-profit leaders, a multitalented local artist, the host of one of the most popular talk shows in daytime television all on one stage.
But on Saturday, daytime host and Temple alumnus Tamron Hall joined Speaker of the House Joanna McClinton, Eagles’ Associate Performance Coach Autumn Lockwood, recording artist Vivian Green, Michelle Lawrence, managing director and head of strategy, growth and operations for Chase Bank, Sereena Quick, the first Black woman to own a Chik-fil-A in Philadelphia and Ashley Christopher, CEO of the HBCU Week Foundation as they were among those honored for their achievements at WDAS-FM’s 10th Annual Women of Excellence Luncheon.
The SUN’s winner of the WDAS Women of Excellence Luncheon, Rasheeda Little-Herring.
Photo: Denise Clay-Murray
The event, which was held at the Sheraton Philadelphia Downtown, also featured performances from R&B artists Christopher Williams and Jane Handcock, is a way of giving women their flowers while showing others what is possible, said Loraine Ballard Morrill, news and community affairs director for IHeart Media.
“In one year since our ninth annual Women of Excellence, you have become even more beautiful, have learned more about yourself and your sisterhood, and have learned to come together to create businesses and open up doors of opportunity,” she said. “Let today be a day of celebration and love.”
With the help of WDAS-FM radio personalities Patty Jackson, Frankie Darcell, and Mimi Brown, Ballard Morrill presented awards to the women, who also received proclamations from Philadelphia City Council’s Majority Leader Katherine Gilmore Richardson.
Hall received the Women of Excellence Legend in Film and TV award from Jackson. As a student at Temple University, Hall was an intern for Jackson at WDAS, and credits that experience and the support she’s received from the women gathered in the ballroom for her success.
“I am so full right now with gratitude,” Hall said. “It’s so weird to be on this side, because I’m looking at you, and I know that you are here every day, rising up on the mornings you didn’t go you don’t want to get up, rising up for your families, rising up in workplaces that don’t appreciate us and pay us less, rising up when you know you have to do more with less and you have to be the most gracious, because the mere rising of a voice sets off alarms that you are angry, that you are bitter, that you are defensive.”
“I know every day you face those things, and yet you come out, and we commune together as sisters, as aunts, as cousins, as friends, as supporters of each other. So, I am standing in awe of this room, because without this room, there is no me on that show,” she said.
Here is a complete list of Saturday’s award winners:
Legend Award for Excellence in Television:
Tamron Hall, “The Tamron Hall Show”
Trailblazing Woman of Excellence
Vivian Green
Honorees:
*Pennsylvania Speaker of the House Joanna McClinton
*Michelle Lawrence, Managing Director, Head of Strategy, Growth and Operations, Chase Bank
*Ashley Christopher, Esq., CEO, HBCU Week Foundation
*Sereena Quick, owner, Chik-fil-A, City Avenue
*Autumn Lockwood, Associate Performance Coach, Philadelphia Eagles
Sheroes:
*Bishop Michelle Anne Simmons, founder and CEO, Why Not Prosper?
*Martice Sutton, founder and executive director, Girls Going Global
*Talehia Booker, founder, The B.O.O.K.E.R Foundation
*Delaware State Rep. Sherry Dorsey Walker
Business Vanguard Honoree:
*Danielle Stanton, founder and administrator, Angels Are Us
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