Max Cleland is Honoree and Keynoter for EFE's 2003 Awards Dinner and Benefit

Northern Trust and Mark Heyrman to Receive Awards

Former U.S. Sen. Max Cleland (D-Ga.) will keynote "An Evening for Equality," EFE's 2003 Awards Dinner and Benefit, Tuesday, Sept. 16, at the Renaissance Chicago Hotel. He will also be the recipient of this year's prestigious Civic Leadership Award honoring his lifelong career of achievements in public service. Honorary chairs for the event are Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and Sen. Peter Fitzgerald (R-Ill.).

Other honorees include Northern Trust, which will be presented with the Corporate Excellence Award, and Mark Heyrman, Clinical Professor of Law, University of Chicago Law School, who will receive the Pro Bono Award. Three of EFE's clients will also be honored with the Advocacy Award. Each of these clients demonstrates EFE's successful work on behalf of and in partnership with people with disabilities: Christopher Brown, Melissa Blair and Doretta Medalis. Keynote Speaker and Civic Leadership Award Recipient Max Cleland

Cleland's story is one of courage, inner strength and inspiration. In 1970, he won a seat in the Georgia Senate, only two years after losing his right arm and both legs to a grenade explosion in Vietnam and mere months after being released from rehabilitation hospitals. He had earned both the Bronze Star and Silver Star for gallantry in action. At age 28, he became the youngest member in that legislative body and began a 33-year career in public service.

In 1975, Cleland was hired to work for the U.S. Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, and two years later President Jimmy Carter appointed him as the youngest-ever Veterans Affairs Administrator. In 1982, Cleland continued his trend of early achievement when Georgia voters made him the youngest Secretary of State in the state's history.

Elected to the U.S. Senate in 1996, Cleland became known on the national scene for his work to improve health care for all Americans, strengthen homeland defense, enhance education and lower the cost of prescription drugs for seniors.

Born in 1942 in Atlanta and raised in Lithonia, Ga., Cleland's political ambitions emerged when he was a history major at Stetson University in Florida. His participation in the Washington Semester Program at the American University in Washington, D.C., was the stimulus he needed to become involved in politics. During college, he was a member of the Army ROTC, and upon graduation, he joined the Army and earned a master's degree in American history from Emory University.

Cleland holds honorary doctorate degrees from both Stetson and Emory Universities and is the author of two books, Strong at the Broken Places, a memoir documenting his recovery and rise in politics, and Going for the Max! 12 Principles for Living Life to the Fullest, a collection of quotations and personal revelations inspiring readers to turn weakness into strength and fear into courage.

Northern Trust is being honored for its exemplary work in broadly impacting the quality of life for people with disabilities in Illinois through inclusion in the workplace and implementation of best practices. It has actively participated in many employment fairs that emphasize hiring people with disabilities and has partnered with such organizations as the Jewish Vocational Service and the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. Northern Trust has also taken an innovative approach to educating all employees on workplace diversity and integration with "brown bag" lunchtime seminars.

In his position at the U. of C. Law School, Mark Heyrman has directed the Mental Health Advocacy Project of the Edwin F. Mandel Legal Aid Clinic for almost a quarter of a century. In 1980, he served as Executive Director of the Governor's commission to Revise the Mental Health Code of Illinois, and, in 1999, he became Chairman of EFE's Guardianship Reform Project Task Force to develop a model for reforming the guardianship system in Illinois. =

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