Isadore Rosenfeld Award for Impact on Public Opinion
WASHINGTON—March 22, 2006—Sam Donaldson, veteran ABC News co-anchor, White House correspondent and investigative journalist, has received the 2006 Research!America Isadore Rosenfeld Award for Impact on Public Opinion. The award recognizes his years of advocacy and his achievements in raising awareness and shaping public opinion about medical and health research, particularly cancer research.
Donaldson was honored March 21, 2006, at the 10th Annual Research!America Advocacy Awards gala at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, DC. Judy Woodruff, broadcast journalist and Research!America board member, served as master of ceremonies.
"Sam Donaldson is one of our nation's most prominent, effective and determined advocates for cancer research," said Mary Woolley, president of Research!America. "The Research!America board of directors joins me in thanking him for his contributions as an advocate."
Since being diagnosed with melanoma in 1995, Donaldson has discussed his successful battle with cancer at countless events and in numerous media interviews. He has advocated the importance of research to find new ways to prevent, diagnose and treat melanoma, the most serious type of skin cancer. He used his public role to urge increased federal support for cancer research and broader access to cancer care. Donaldson is a 38-year ABC News veteran and the recipient of the National Press Foundation's 1998 Broadcaster of the Year award and numerous Emmy Awards.
Award benefactor Isadore Rosenfeld, MD, of Weill Cornell Medical Center, is widely recognized as one of the country's pre-eminent physicians. He is health editor for PARADE magazine, the author of numerous health-related books, a renowned media spokesperson and a Research!America emeritus director.
Recipients of Research!America's Advocacy Awards are individuals and organizations that have helped created policies that support research, helped bring America's scientists the resources they need, and helped millions of Americans see the returns of medical and health research in finding new preventions.
Other 2006 Research!America Advocacy Award winners are former First Lady Nancy Reagan; U.S. Reps. Michael Castle (DE) and Diana DeGette (CO); Linda Aiken, PhD, RN, director of the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research and Claire M. Fagin Leadership Professor of Nursing and Professor of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing; Gordon Gund, co-founder and chairman, The Foundation Fighting Blindness and CEO of Gund Investment Corporation; and the Center for the Advancement of Health.
Research!America is the nation's largest not-for-profit public education and advocacy alliance working to make medical and health research-including research to prevent disease, disability and injury and to promote health-a much higher national priority. The 2006 Advocacy Awards represent Research!America's 10th year of recognizing the accomplishments of leading advocates for medical and health research.
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