2017 Essey Award Honorees:

About The Essey Awards

In 1995, Dick Essey founded the Greater Bay Area Chapter of The ALS Association in honor of his wife, Sheila Essey, and in recognition of the needs of people with ALS and their caregivers. The Essey family is proud to continue to support the mission of The ALS Association, the programs of The Golden West Chapter, as well as fund the annual Sheila Essey Award for significant ALS Research, presented at American Academy of Neurology’s annual meeting.

In 2011, The ALS Association Golden West Chapter named its awards presented at Chapter events “The Essey Awards”, which are given to outstanding individuals and organizations whose contributions and efforts have advanced our Chapter’s mission. Congratulations to this year's Honorees!

The Spotlight Award

Chris Gardner, Staff Writer
&
The Hollywood Reporter

Chris Gardner is an award winning journalist and writer. He currently serves as a staff writer and Rambling Reporter columnist at The Hollywood Reporter where he's worked since 2014. Gardner has also written for People, Daily Variety, Details, Cosmopolitan, Entertainment Weekly, Premiere, Out, The Advocate and MSN/Wonderwall. He has been seen on television on "Today," "Good Morning America," "Entertainment Tonight" and CNN. At the recent 2017 SoCal Journalism Awards, Gardner won best personality profile (film/TV) for "The Last Living Silent Star," a story published in The Hollywood Reporter about the rollercoaster career of Baby Peggy. In 2015, he won best personality profile at the National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards for another THR story, this one about power publicist Nanci Ryder's battle with ALS. Gardner, a graduate of The University of Iowa, lives in Santa Monica, Calif.

The Hollywood Reporter is the entertainment industry's flagship media brand. With in- depth reporting, analysis, unprecedented access, world-class photography and video, and feature exclusives, The Hollywood Reporter is the definitive source for breaking entertainment and business news. THR won a 2016 Webby Award for best online film and video in the entertainment category and the American Society of Magazine Editors National Magazine Award for General Excellence in the Special Interest category in 2015 and 2016 in addition to a 2015 and 2016 ASME National Magazine Award nomination for Magazine of the Year and a Gerald Loeb Award nomination for its Studio Chiefs Roundtable. Additionally, the brand took home 10 SoCal journalism awards in 2015 and seven in 2016, including Entertainment Journalist of the Year. In 2014, The Hollywood Reporter staff won Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards for The Hollywood Reporter in Focus: The Wolf of Wall Street. The Hollywood Reporter and SundanceTV partner to co- produce and broadcast “Close Up With The Hollywood Reporter,” an original non-fiction series featuring panels with potential Emmy and Oscar nominees. In June 2016, The Hollywood Reporter launched a new feature, the THR 100, ranking the 100 most powerful people in Hollywood. THR's platforms include an award-winning weekly magazine, dynamic web and mobile sites, a huge social media footprint, and glittery year-round events. 

Commitment to a Cure Award

Dr. Justin Ichida,
Assistant Professor of Stem Cell Biology & Regenerative Medicine
at The University of Southern California
New York Stem Cell Foundation- Robertson Investigator

Justin Ichida grew up in Hawaii where he developed an interest in science after reading Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park.  After studying molecular biology at UCLA, he investigated the origin of life on early Earth by trying to re-create primitive life in a test tube during his PhD at Harvard. Justin then leveraged what he learned about synthesizing biological systems to identify a way to convert human skin cells into nerve cells.  At USC, Justin's lab now uses this approach to identify therapeutic targets for ALS by studying nerve cells generated from patient skin and blood samples.

The Cornerstone Award

The Tanzman Family
Joy, Debbi, Susan, & Ron

The Tanzman Family, including Joy, Susan, Debbi, and Ron, are the recipients of the 2017 Cornerstone Award for their unwavering support of the ALS community through the Golden West Chapter’s fundraising, awareness and advocacy initiatives over the past fifteen years.