Joan Bertin
Joan Bertin

Hugh M. Hefner Foundation will present its 2018 First Amendment Awards on June 4 at the Newseum in Washington D.C. This year’s Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Joan E. Bertin, longtime executive director of the National Coalition Against Censorship. The other award winners are: Simon Tam, leader of the Asian-American rock band, The Slants, which fought a seven-year battle to defend their right to register the band’s trademark; cultural critic and author of Unwanted Advances: Sexual Paranoia Comes to Campus Laura Kipnis; Allison Stanger, a liberal Professor of International Politics and Economics at Middlebury College who defended the right of conservative social scientist Charles Murray to speak on campus; and Jamie Kalven, an independent journalist who broke the story of the fatal 2014 police shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald in Chicago and subsequently resisted a subpoena demanding he reveal his source. “The HMH Awards honor distinguished individuals whose actions support the First Amendment, and year after year we continue to celebrate renowned and unique cases of citizens going above and beyond to utilize this right,” says Christie Hefner, chairman of the Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Awards.

IPR

Institute for Public Relations is accepting nominations for the 2018 IPR Annual Awards through June 15. The awards will be given out at a dinner to be held on Nov. 28 at New York’s Roosevelt Hotel. Nominations can be submitted at [email protected] for the Alexander Hamilton Medal, given to an individual who has made major lifetime contributions to the practice of PR; the Jack Felton Medal For Lifetime Achievement, awarded for making use of research, measurement and evaluation in corporate communication and public relations practice; and the Pathfinder Award, which recognizes an original program of published scholarly research towards the advancement of PR. For more information and the criteria for each of award, go to IPR’s website.

PCNY

The Publicity Club of New York is holding a luncheon on June 20 that will feature several reporters and editors sharing their insights on the healthcare media beat. Speakers set to appear include Axios healthcare business reporter Bob Herman, Bloomberg News healthcare reporter Zachary Tracer, NBC-News medical and health reporter Lauren Dunn, STAT First Opinion editor Patrick Skerrett and Wall Street Journal consumer health columnist Sumathi Reddy. The luncheon will be held from 12-2 p.m. at Lubin House, Syracuse University, 11 E. 61st St. For more information, or to register, go to https://publicityclub.org/pcny-presents-the-healthcare-media-beat/

Gayle Mestel
Gayle Mestel

Gayle Mestel, CEO of Carlsbad, CA-based CCS/PR, has received the Anthony Vigil Award for Staying Power from the U.S. Small Business Administration. The award, which honors small businesses for their success and longevity, is named for Anthony Vigil, a former deputy district director in the SBA’s San Diego district office who retired after 45 years of service. CCS, which specializes in case study writing services, public relations and customer reference program management, was founded in 1966 by Bob Fisher, a former reporter for the New York Herald Tribune. Mestel has been with the agency for 37 years and has served as its president and CEO since 2010.