The 7th Annual Elly Awards to Honor Carolyn B. Maloney, Daryl Roth, and Mariska Hargitay

The Women's Forum of New York will present The 7th Annual Elly Awards Luncheon benefiting The Education Fund of the Women's Forum on Monday, June 19th at The Plaza Hotel in New York City. The awards, named for the Women's Forum founder Elinor Guggenheimer, will honor outstanding women leaders. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Education Fund of the Women's Forum, which has has helped over 200 women over age 35, whose lives have been disrupted by extreme adversity, complete their college degrees.

The Elly Award Recipients (all in attendance) will be:

• Carolyn B. Maloney, U.S. Representative for New York's 12th congressional district.
• Daryl Roth, producer of over 100 on and off Broadway productions, including seven Pulitzer Prize-winning plays, and winner of 10 Tony Awards.
• Mariska Hargitay, actress, director, producer, advocate, Emmy award-winning star of NBC's Law & Order: SVU and founder of The Joyful Heart Foundation, who will receive a Special Elly Award.

The Elly Award Celebrity Presenters (all in attendance) will be:

• Carole King, celebrated singer-songwriter, member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, best-selling author and activist.
• Jordan Roth, President of Jujamcyn Theaters, Tony Award-winning producer, Founder & CEO of Culturalist.com, and creator of Givenik.com.
• Sheila Nevins, President, HBO Documentary Films.

Cheryl Wills, award-winning NY1 anchor and author, will moderate a conversation on leadership with the honorees following the presentation of the awards.

"The Women's Forum of New York is comprised of the most accomplished and successful women in the city from every professional sector. We know from our own success how critical education is so our Education Fund is one way we 'give back' - helping women over 35 whose lives have been disrupted by extreme adversity complete their education and get their lives back on track. We hope we inspire them, because their dreams, drive and determination certainly inspire us."

- Carolyn Carter, President of the Women's Forum of New York.

"Thirty years ago, the Education Fund embarked on a mission to help women, who had overcome serious hardships in their lives, realize their dream of a college education. Since then, we are proud to have given over $1.25 million in grants to over 200 women to help them return to school, earn their degree and take their place in the world. Our grants have changed their lives, influenced their families and made a difference in their communities."

- Ilene Wachs, President, The Education Fund of the Women's Forum.

The Elly Awards will begin at 11:30 a.m. (press check-in is 11:00 a.m.) at The Plaza Hotel with a reception and VIP arrivals. The Luncheon and Presentation will be from 12:00 to 2:00 p.m.

The 2017 Elly Awards:

Legendary Chair: Lucy Jarvis.

Honorary Chairs: Kay Koplovitz, Rosie Rios, Phillipa Soo.

Chairs: Myra J. Biblowit, Ceci Kurzman, Suzanne Townsen.

Committee: Beverly Beaudoin, Carolyn Carter, Janice Reals Ellig, Emita B. Hill, Ilene Wachs.

GOLD SPONSOR: BNY Mellon.

SILVER SPONSORS: Dede Thompson Bartlett, Citi, Con Edison, FIS, Lucy Jarvis, MetLife, Macy's and Bloomingdale's, Lulu C. Wang, Linda A. Willett, Wilmington Trust.

BRONZE SPONSORS: Accenture, Georgette Bennett and Leonard Polonsky, Annabelle Bexiga and Chris McConnell, Colgate-Palmolive Company, Commonfund, Janice Reals Ellig, Fiduciary Trust Company International, Greenberg Traurig LLP, Veronica Hackett, JPMorgan Chase & Co., KPMG LLP, Barbara Marcus, Pershing, a BNY Mellon company, Muriel F. Siebert Foundation, Susan Skerritt, Time Warner Inc., The Travelers Companies, Inc., U.S. Bank.

FELLOW SPONSORS: Maria R. Morris, Daryl Roth, Ilene Wachs.

The Women's Forum of New York:

The Women's Forum of New York is the city's premier organization of women leaders. The invitation only membership of more than 500 women represents the highest levels of achievement across all professional sectors from finance to fine arts. Started in 1974, the Women's Forum of New York is the founding flagship of the International Women's Forum, a global organization of 6,500 dynamic women leaders in 35 countries and 76 Forums around the world.

The Women's Forum of New York is dedicated to the advancement of women's leadership through programs which enrich members lives personally and professionally, through the Education Fund which enables talented women whose potential has been derailed by extreme adversity to resume their education and through the Corporate Board Initiative which extends and expands the contribution of women leaders through board participation.

The Education Fund is the educational and charitable arm of The Women's Forum of New York, established under a separate corporate governance as a 501(c)3 tax deductible organization. Since 1987, the Fund has provided grants to women over 35 who have both demonstrated high potential and faced extreme adversity, which has disrupted their education and derailed their futures. These women fall outside the scope of most traditional scholarship programs and our grants help them complete their education and get their careers and lives back on track. Funding is provided by member donation and an annual fundraising event, The Elly Awards Luncheon, which honors outstanding women leaders. Over the past 30 years, grants totaling over $1.25 million have helped over 200 women overcome adversity and lift themselves and their children up the economic ladder.

About The 2017 Elly Honorees:

Carolyn B. Maloney is a national leader on women's issues, financial services, national security, and the economy. A champion for domestic and international women's issues, Carolyn authored and passed legislation targeting the "demand" side of sex trafficking; providing annual mammograms for women on Medicare; and increasing funding to process DNA rape kits. She is the House sponsor of the ERA and is working to establish the National Women's History Museum in D.C. As a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and the Ranking House member of the Joint Economic Committee, Carolyn has authored more than 70 measures, including the Credit CARD Act and the 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, and obtained significant funding to build the Second Avenue Subway.

Daryl Roth, award-winning Broadway producer, is a leading innovator in the theatre world, championing the most challenging and thought-provoking work onstage. The producer of over 100 on and off Broadway productions, Daryl has received 27 Tony Award nominations, winning 10 Tony Awards and has produced seven Pulitzer Prize-winning plays: Anna in the Tropics; August: Osage County; Clybourne Park; How I Learned to Drive; Proof; Edward Albee's Three Tall Women; and Wit. Other highlights include the Tony and Olivier Award winning Best Musical Kinky Boots; Nora and Delia Ephron's hit Love, Loss, and What I Wore; and Larry Kramer's seminal play about the AIDS crisis, The Normal Heart. Current Broadway productions include Paula Vogel's new play Indecent; the new musical Groundhog Day; and revivals of Hello, Dolly; Present Laughter; and Sunset Boulevard.

Mariska Hargitay is an actress, director, producer and advocate, who has used her Emmy award-winning role as Olivia Benson on NBC's Law & Order: SVU to shed light on sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse. In 2004, she took her commitment to a higher level by founding The Joyful Heart Foundation, a leading national organization working to transform society's response to this violence, support survivors' healing-and, ultimately, end this violence forever. The current focus of her advocacy is the national untested rape kit backlog. She testified on the topic before the U.S. Congress in 2010, and has since produced I AM EVIDENCE, a documentary film on the topic in partnership with HBO that recently premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.

About The 2017 Elly Presenters:

Carole King is one of the most celebrated singer/songwriters of all time. Since writing her first No. 1 hit, "Will You Love Me Tomorrow," aged 17, more than 1,000 artists have recorded her compositions, resulting in 100 hit singles, including "Up on the Roof," "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman," and "You've Got a Friend." Her 1971 solo album Tapestry has sold more than 25 million copies, remaining the top-selling album by a female artist for a quarter century. Her 2012 memoir A Natural Woman was a bestseller. She was the first woman awarded The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, is a 2015 Kennedy Center honoree and is a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer. The Tony-winning Beautiful: The Carole King Musical is currently playing on Broadway, in the West End and on tour.

Jordan Roth, President of Jujamcyn Theaters, oversees five Broadway theatres, whose productions include the Tony Award-winning Best Musicals The Book of Mormon and Kinky Boots, as well as Groundhog Day, Present Laughter starring Kevin Kline and Disney's upcoming Frozen. Jordan produced the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning Best Play Clybourne Park and this season's Tony nominated revival of Falsettos with Lincoln Center Theater. Jordan founded Givenik.com where theatergoers can buy tickets and 5% of their ticket price goes to the charity of their choice. He writes a column on Deadline Hollywood with Jeremy Gerard and appears frequently on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." He serves on the boards of The Broadway League, Broadway Cares, The Times Square Alliance and Freedom to Marry.

Sheila Nevins is President, HBO Documentary Films, responsible for overseeing the development and production of all documentaries for HBO, HBO2 and Cinemax. She has received 32 Primetime Emmy Awards, 34 News and Documentary Emmys, 42 George Foster Peabody Awards and 26 Academy Awards, the most recent of which was "A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness." During her tenure, she has supervised the production of more than 1,000 documentary programs for HBO, and received many industry awards including the first George Foster Peabody Award ever presented to a cable program for "She's Nobody's Baby," produced with Ms. Magazine. A graduate of Barnard and Yale School of Drama, Sheila is the New York Times bestselling author of You Don't Look Your Age... and Other Fairy Tales.

About The Moderator:

Cheryl Wills is a veteran anchor for Spectrum News NY1, this year celebrating her 25th anniversary with the national news network. Cheryl's exclusive interviews have included UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, Maya Angelou, and her UN Correspondents Association medal-winning report on Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Her awards include the 2017 Rosa Parks Award for Social Justice, the 2017 DR. Martin Luther King Award at The Israeli Consulate, the Carl T. Rowan Leadership in Media Award and the Harold Dow Lifetime Achievement Award. She has striven to highlight the contributions of her great-great-great grandfather Sandy Wills' service in The Civil War, including authoring three books, and was the first journalist invited to speak before the General Assembly of The United Nations about the impact of slavery on her family.