Hillary Rodham Clinton, Christy Turlington, Sarah Ferguson, Marlo Thomas, Heather Mills, Lilly Tartikoff, and Others to Be Honored with Redbook's Mothers & Shakers Awards Presented by Chevy TrailBlazer

Hillary Rodham Clinton to Address Guests in Keynote Speech Honoring Women Who Make Change Happen on Monday, September 10th, 2001, at Avery Fisher Hall NEW YORK, Sept. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- On Monday, September 10, 2001, Redbook in conjunction with Chevy TrailBlazer will present its fourth annual Mothers & Shakers awards at Avery Fisher Hall. This year's 12 honorees including Hillary Rodham Clinton, Christy Turlington, Sarah Ferguson, Marlo Thomas, Heather Mills and Lilly Tartikoff, have made extraordinary contributions to health care -- from helping to develop an AIDS vaccine to raising money for a new breast cancer treatment. Hillary Rodham Clinton will give the keynote address. "We are proud to honor these twelve unstoppable women who are making such a difference to healthcare," said Ellen Kunes, Redbook's editor-in-chief. "Redbook recognizes this year's Mothers and Shakers for their dedication to helping the rest of us live longer, healthier lives." "Chevrolet is extremely proud to help recognize these remarkable women for their significant contributions to healthcare," said Cheryl Pilcher, Chevrolet TrailBlazer assistant brand manager. "In the spirit of a true TrailBlazer, these twelve women have displayed the passion and commitment needed to improve the lives of millions of people around the world." This year's Mothers & Shakers recipients include: * Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton -- During the first year of her husband's presidency Hillary Clinton succeeded in focusing national attention on one of the most pressing questions of our time: How do we guarantee adequate medical care for everyone? Now the junior senator from New York State has continued the battle for equal access to medical care. Her legislative initiatives include bills which would make more uninsured children eligible for Medicaid, give patients the right to sue their HMOs, and extend Medicare coverage to prescription drugs. * Regina Benjamin, M.D., M.B.A. -- Benjamin is a nationally recognized health care activist devoted to making healthcare more accessible to the poor. She is a doctor who set up her practice as a rural health clinic and never turned anyone away because they couldn't pay. At 44, she was the first African-American woman to be named a trustee of the American Medical Association, and now sits on the board of Physicians for Human Rights and serves as president-elect of the Alabama Medical Association. * Lilly Tartikoff -- When her husband, TV executive Brandon Tartikoff, was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease and had his life prolonged 16 years with experimental drugs by cutting-edge UCLA cancer researcher Dennis Slamon, M.D., Tartikoff made it her cause to raise money for this doctor's work. Since then she has raised more than $20 million, persuading Revlon chairman Ronald Perelman to help her found the Revlon/UCLA Women's Cancer Research Program in 1989. Now Tartikoff, 48, has joined Today Show host Katie Kouric to create the National Colorectal Cancer Research Alliance and continues to help raise money for Dr. Slamon's good work. * Kathie Grovit-Ferbas, Ph.D. -- Back in 1982, while working as a volunteer in a Manhattan hospital, Kathie had a strong desire to help heal the young men dying of a mysterious illness which we now know as AIDS. Now 36 and a virologist, Grovit-Ferbas leads a research team at the UCLA AIDS Institute that is working on a vaccine with the potential to not only prevent AIDS, but treat it. Since her findings were published last year, she has tested the vaccine on mice and is now recruiting subjects for her first human trials. * Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York -- Sarah Ferguson modeled her U.S. foundation for kids in desperate situations, Chances For Children, on her charity in England, Children in Crisis, which she founded when she witnessed huge numbers of children in Poland who were dying of environmentally-caused cancers. Chances For Children has helped homeless kids as well as the victims of the bombing in Oklahoma City where it built a sheltered backyard play area for a little boy so badly burned he couldn't be out in the sun. Children in Crisis has arranged to have thousands of tents delivered to refugees in Kosovo and has built schools in Sierra Leone for the orphans of parents who've died of AIDS. As U.S. spokesperson for the American Heart Association and for Weight Watchers International, The Duchess of York is a highly visible and vocal advocate for heart health and healthy weight. * Laura Van Tosh -- Laura Van Tosh, 39, had her first breakdown when she was 17 and has been working to give a voice to people with mental illness ever since. She ran one of the first peer-counseling programs for the homeless mentally ill and created a lobbying organization for patients, the Consumer Managed Care Network, to give them a voice in the debate over insurance coverage. A writer, researcher, and frequent government consultant, she contributed to the first-ever Surgeon General's report on Mental Health in 1999. She was recently awarded a grant for her Mental Health Roundtable, a series of brown-bag lunch meetings in Washington where young activists meet and learn from the country's most experienced mental health leaders. * Marlo Thomas -- During the 1960s, Marlo Thomas was national chair of St. Jude Teen-Age Marches, the first nationwide fund-raising program organized by ALSAC, the fund-raising arm of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, the world's leading research and treatment center for kids with catastrophic illnesses. Later, as her acclaim as a Broadway, television and film actress grew, Thomas began to speak publicly, attending fund-raisers and galas, making speeches and appearing on television commercials for the hospital. After her father, entertainer Danny Thomas died in 1991, the Emmy Award winning actress, producer and social activist and her two siblings took over his work supporting St. Jude's. In the late 1990s, Thomas assumed the role of National Outreach Director, traveling tirelessly to fundraise, working with major corporations to bring more recognition and funding to the hospital, ensuring its continued growth and success. * Maureen Britell -- A third-generation Irish catholic, Maureen Britell was raised to believe that abortion was "something vile that only the bad girls do." Then she found herself 20 weeks pregnant with a fetus without a brain. She decided that she could not carry a child that would be stillborn to term. But what turned her into an activist was learning that abortion was not covered under her military pilot husband's federal insurance plan. The Britells sued the government and she became a spokesperson for the National Abortion Federation, telling her story to legislators and testifying against attempts to ban partial-birth abortion. Maureen, now 35, is executive director of Voters for Choice in Washington, D.C. * Heather Mills -- Mills, a former model in London, was being fitted for a new leg after her leg had been amputated as a result of a motorcycle accident when she discovered that old prosthetics were simply being discarded. That prompted her to set up the Heather Mills Trust to provide prostheses, often recycled, for landmine victims around the world. Today, with the help of her fiance, Sir Paul McCartney, Mills is a spokesperson for Adopt-A-Minefield, the nonprofit organization that clears landmines and raises awareness about the global landmine crisis. * Kim Kenney -- Since Kim Kenney took over as director of the Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS) Association of America in 1991, she has helped raise $3.6 million for research and made the organization a major force in Washington. In 1998, thanks to Kenney's relentless probing, a researcher at the Centers for Disease Control blew the whistle on his agency and alerted Congress that more than $12.9 million earmarked for chronic fatigue research had been diverted into other programs. The government launched a series of audits and the money suddenly became available for CFIDS research. * Christy Turlington -- Turlington, a former model, has made it her mission to convince people not to smoke. She started smoking when she was 13 and quit when she was 26, just before she lost her father to lung cancer. Then she was diagnosed with early stage emphysema. She gave up runway modeling, earned a degree from New York University, and now spends much of her time reaching out to schoolchildren about why they need to lead cigarette-free lives. * Mary Chung -- Growing up in Orange County, California, watching her family struggle to fit in, Chung was stunned to learn that Asian-Americans were supposed to be a "model minority" (healthier, better-adjusted and successful). When she was 26, Chung founded the National Asian Women's Health Organization to do something about the "health crisis" masked by the stereotype. Now nine years old, NAWHO has a $2 million budget and works with organizations like the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control to research and address the health concerns of Asian women. The October issue of Redbook, on newsstands September 11, will prominently feature the honorees and their causes and will include a four-page "Shake Things Up" booklet, sponsored by Chevy TrailBlazer and produced in conjunction with America's Promise. Included in the booklet is a guide to simple steps that busy Mothers & Shakers can take to get involved in their communities, and information about how nominations can be made for the "Chevy TrailBlazer Uncompromising Strength Volunteer Recognition Awards" Contest. Redbook magazine, targeted to young married women, is published by Hearst Magazines, a unit of The Hearst Corporation and the world's largest publisher of monthly magazines, with 16 U.S. titles and 102 international editions distributed in more than 100 countries. Of these, Hearst publishes nine monthly magazines in the United Kingdom through its wholly owned subsidiary, The National Magazine Company Limited. The 2002 Chevrolet TrailBlazer is an all-new, completely redesigned, reengineered SUV that delivers unequaled comfort, confidence and durability. The TrailBlazer is manufactured by General Motors (NYSE: GM), the world's largest vehicle manufacturer, designs, which builds and markets cars and trucks worldwide. In 2000, GM earned $5 billion on sales of $183.3 billion excluding special items. It employs about 372,000 people globally. More information on General Motors can be found at http://www.gm.com .