Honorees
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We are pleased to recognize these individuals
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Dr. Roscoe C. Brown, Jr., Director of the Center for Urban Education Policy and University Professor at the Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York, is past President of Bronx Community College of CUNY, and was formerly Director of the Institute of Afro-American Affairs at New York University. He holds a doctorate from New York University, and has served on faculty at West Virginia State College and as a full professor at New York University's School of Education. |
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A native of Washington, D.C., Dr. Brown is a graduate of Paul Laurence Dunbar High School and received his Bachelor's degree from Springfield College in Massachusetts. As Director of the Center for Urban Education Policy at the Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York, Dr. Brown's work focuses on the role of school-based management and parental involvement in school reform. A specialist in educational measurement, Dr. Brown has served as a consultant for the Educational Testing Service (ETS) and as a member of the New York State Education Department's College Proficiency Examination Committee, and continues service on the Technical Advisory Committee for the New Jersey State Educational Assessment Program. Dr. Brown serves as Chairman of the New York City Regional Education Center for Economic Development, has served as a member of the national boards of Boys and Girls Clubs of America and the American Council on Education, and the boards of the YMCA of Greater New York and the Fund for the City of New York. He currently serves on the boards of the New York Botanical Garden, the New York City Partnership, the Museum of the City of New York, the Phipps Community Development Corporation, the City Parks Foundation, Libraries for the Future, and the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute. He is Chairman of the boards of directors of the Greater Harlem Nursing Home, the Urban Issues Group (a "think-tank" of African-American scholars), and the Sports Foundation. He is Vice Chairman of the Arthur Ashe Athletic Association and of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS, chairs the National Scholarship Selection Committee of the Jackie Robinson Foundation, and is Past President of One Hundred Black Men, Inc. (an influential group of civic-minded African-American New Yorkers). A member of the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation, Dr. Brown has served on the New York State Governor's Advisory Committee for Black Affairs, the New York State Human Rights Advisory Council, and the New York State Attorney General's Ethical Standards Committee. He was appointed by Governor Mario Cuomo to the New York State Job Training and Partnership Council, the New York State Health, Fitness and Sports Council, and the New York State Special Advisory Commission on Minority Enrollment in Medical Schools. Dr. Brown has received numerous awards and honors for scholarly and community activities, among them the NAACP Freedom Award, the Congressional Award for Service to the African-American Community, and the Distinguished Alumnus Awards from his alma-maters - New York University and Springfield College. He has been inducted into the National Association for Sports and Physical Education Hall of Fame, and has received honorary doctorates from Springfield College, the University of the State of New York, and the Regents of the State of New York. Dr. Brown was recently bestowed the honor of "New York City Treasure", during the city's Centennial celebration observance by the Museum of the City of New York. As Director of the Center for Urban Education Policy, Dr. Brown has produced the guide, Preparing Parents for School-Based Management, What Makes the Difference?: A Study of the Achievement Characteristics of New York City Public Schools, and Education Vouchers: Can Public Education Meet the Challenge? Dr. Brown's prior publications include the widely-read reference work The Negro Almanac, Classical Studies in Physical Activity: New Perspectives of Man in Action, The Black Experience, and more than 60 articles which have appeared in such scholarly journals as the Annals of Political and Social Science, Black Issues in Higher Education, the Journal of Negro Education, and Negro Digest. He prepared the very popular "Black Culture Quiz", of which nearly a half million copies have been distributed.
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The Garden of Dreams Foundation |
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Garden of Dreams is a 501c3 non-profit charity that works closely with all areas of Madison Square Garden, including the New York Knicks, Rangers, Liberty, MSG Media, MSG Entertainment and Fuse “to make dreams come true for kids in crisis”. In the two years since its inception, Garden of Dreams has worked tirelessly to fulfill its mission by creating unique and unforgettable events and activities -often involving unprecedented access to Madison Square Garden celebrities, events and venues -that have brightened the lives of thousands and thousands of special children and their families. |
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Dr. Gerald Deas While some people wear a monogram to let us know who they are, Dr. Gerald Whitehead Deas adds an extra letter to his name. What we see is IDEAS. This is his way of enjoining us to think logically and put our best ideas into action. Physician, poet, patient advocate, playwright, media personality, political activist, public health crusader—Gerald W. Deas, MD, MPH, MA, is all of |
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these, and more. He has battled major companies and organized whole communities to protect the public’s health. Born and raised in Brooklyn, Dr. Deas attended Boys High School and later Brooklyn College, earning a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in biochemistry. Drafted into the Army during the Korean War, he helped to identify the remains of fallen comrades. Out of this gruesome experience, he developed a lifelong hatred of war and its aftermath. Years later, after witnessing how violence in our neighborhoods was claiming the lives of so many youths, Dr. Deas and other physicians at Downstate and Kings County Hospital Center organized Doctors Against Murder (DAM) to encourage young people to reject violence. In those years, few African-Americans enrolled in medical school, but Dr. Deas’s talents were soon evident to the faculty as well as to his fellow students, who elected him class president. After graduation, he performed both his internship and residency training in internal medicine at Kings County Hospital. In addition to joining the faculty of preventive medicine at Downstate, he served as an attending physician at Jamaica Hospital and at Mary Immaculate Hospital in Queens for 35 years. Dr. Deas is adept at networking and using the media to foster public health awareness. His successful struggle in the 1970s against Argo Starch Company is legendary. After discovering that laundry starch was being sold in grocery aisles as a snack, causing black women to become anemic, Dr. Deas forced Argo to repackage its product in powdered form and to add a warning label, “Not Recommended for Food Use.” In recognition of this service, the Food and Drug Administration awarded him a special commendation. The first black medical columnist for the New York Daily News, Dr. Deas was medical correspondent for television’s McCreary Report for 10 years, hosting the segment called “House Calls.” He also hosted a weekly radio show on WLIB. He continues to write regularly for the Amsterdam News and other local papers. As director of health education communication at Downstate and host of “Health Center,” the cable TV show produced on campus, Dr. Deas alerts the public about such health hazards as food dyes and additives in sugary drinks that can trigger asthma attacks and behavioral problems in children. Dr. Deas also uses the transforming power of poetry and music to convey his message. Pulitzer-Prize winning poet Gwendolyn Brooks has praised his poems as “rich with creative excitement.” Often they contain warnings about common health dangers (“Mr. Mean Nicotine” and “Sodium Confesses”), or reminders for patients to take their medications (“Cautionary Tale of Hattie Brown”). His lament about a child suffering from sickle cell disease (“A Black Child Who Can’t Smile”) was at one time a March of Dimes theme song. He also has written numerous musicals and plays that continue to be performed Off-Broadway. Much more could be said about this “old-fashioned country doctor,” as he has been described by the New York Times, who has worked so hard to spread public awareness about sarcoidosis and other hidden diseases, and was making house calls until the age of 70. Although he has received a great many honorifics and awards, he prefers not to frame them but to give them away to young people. “They’re the ones who need the encouragement,” he says. Dr. Deas credits his wife, Beverly, to whom he has been happily married for more that 45 years, for helping him through thick and thin. She supported him during eight years of medical training, managed his private practice, often accompanied him on late night house calls, typed and edited his work for the media—and accomplished all this while also raising three children. |
