Past Event – October 26th, 2010

Symposium: Honoring the Success of Greek American Women in the News Media: An In-Depth Look at Their Contributions to Both Ethnic and National Media and Their Personal Journeys on the Road to Success

The Association of Greek American Professional Women (A.G.A.P.W.) cordially invites you to attend their upcoming symposium, HONORING THE SUCCESS OF GREEK AMERICAN WOMEN IN THE NEWS MEDIA: An In-Depth Look at Their Contributions to Both Ethnic and National Media and Their Personal Journeys on the Road to Success. This event will feature a panel of several special guest speakers from the media and a tribute to the legendary Tina Santorineou, a pioneer voice in the Greek American community.

You hear their voices on the radio, see their faces on the television screen and read their words on the pages of newspapers and magazines; but their accomplishments stretch far beyond their careers. Greek American women have made their mark in the news media for generations; now let’s recognize their individual and collective success that has inspired countless members of the community and beyond.

At this symposium, AGAPW will honor legendary Ms.Tina Santorineou for dedicating her life to our community. Ms. Santorineou began co-hosting “The Sound of Greece” on AM Radio in 1972 with Theodosis Athas. Over the years she became the producer, director and voice of the program as well as the heart, soul and mind of the entire production. Ms. Santorineou was on the air and in our homes for 22 years.

Along with Ms. Santorineou, this symposium will feature a number of distinguished guest speakers:

Alexis Christoforous, CBS News Business Correspondent
Joannie Danielides, President and Founder, Danielides Communications, Inc.
Anemona Hartocollis, New York Times Health Reporter and author of “Seven Days of Possibilities: One Teacher, 24 Kids, and the “Music That Changed Their Lives Forever”
Penny Manis, CNN Anderson Cooper 360, Senior Producer
Introductory remarks will be made by former network producerDorie Klissas, who is currently the media director at NYU Langone Medical Center
Accomplished young journalist Eleni Kostopoulos will moderate the discussion

This is a complimentary event sponsored by the law firm Hughes Hubbard & Reed. RSVP is required. Please join us on Tuesday, October 26 at Hughes Hubbard & Reed, One Battery Park Plaza, New York, NY, 10004 from 6:00-9:00 p.m. There will be a reception from 6:00-7:00 p.m. to be followed by a panel discussion from 7:00-9:00 p.m. Hors d’oeuvres and refreshments will be served.

Bios:

Alexis Christoforous is a CBS News Anchor and Correspondent covering business and consumer news for CBS Television Network and CBS affiliate stations. Her reports are seen daily on over 200 CBS affiliate stations including WCBS in New York and KCBS in Los Angeles. She can also be heard on CBS Radio and NewsRadio 880. She is a contributing correspondent for CBS’ "The Early Show" and "CBS Evening News Weekend". She can also be seen as a fill-in anchor for WCBS-TV in New York. Prior to her position at CBS, Ms. Christoforous was Anchor for the nationally syndicated television program, "MarketWatch Weekend", which aired exclusively on CBS stations. Ms. Christoforous began her "business news" career at Bloomberg Television and Radio in 1994 where she anchored the national PBS program "Bloomberg Morning News" and was Bloomberg’s first reporter to report live from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Her business reports were seen on over two hundred affiliate television stations and heard on WBBR-AM radio in New York. Ms. Christoforous has covered the stock market bull run of the early 1990s and the subsequent internet bubble burst of 2000. She reported on the economic impact of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the wave of Wall Street scandals including Enron and Worldcom and most recently, the 2008-2009 recession. In addition to her business reporting, Ms. Christoforous does many celebrity interviews including: Ringo Starr, Tony Bennett and Francis Ford Coppola. Ms. Christoforous is very active in her community. She continues to give her time to charity events and participates annually in the "Feast with Famous Faces" which raises money for the Children’s League of the Hard of Hearing. She is also close to her Greek roots, participating in many Greek-based charities, including the Hellenic Times Scholarship Fund and HANAC. A native New Yorker, Ms. Christoforous is a graduate of Performing Arts High School where she studied theatre and is still an avid supporter of the arts. She went on to graduate cum laude from New York University with a degree in English and Journalism. She frequently lectures at her alma mater. Ms. Christoforous, her husband and three children, reside in Manhattan.

Joannie C. Danielideshas been honored for her extraordinary achievements as an outstanding woman in the communications industry. As a Matrix Award honoree from New York Women in Communications, she was recognized as a woman who has changed the world with her talent and commitment. With an emphasis on style, she brings out the unique qualities in her clients. Whether an individual, a company, or an organization, Ms. Danielides distinguishes each client’s own persona and highlights it through the media. Her personal style is unmistakable, both bold and sophisticated; she clearly demonstrates her ability to empower others by promoting their own professional experience. As a veteran public relations executive, she is recognized for her savvy handling of pressured situations in high-level meetings and special events, as well as handling political issues. Ms. Danielides has always worked to promote dynamic women in a variety of industries from entertainment to the corporate world. She has designed public image campaigns for career-oriented and community-minded women of distinction using her well-recognized specialty for image-making. For the city of New York, she served as Donna Hanover’s press secretary for 8 years. She has also worked closely with talented women such as Emmy-award winning actress Susan Lucci, and award winning broadcast journalist Deborah Roberts. Ms. Danielides’ clients include NYU College of Nursing, The James A. Michener Museum, Mystery Writers of America and Lands’ End to name a few. Her forte in image-making has been a decisive tool as she has designed public image campaigns for launching and branding new businesses in a variety of industries from healthcare to finance. Ms. Danielides created Public Service Announcements to promote nurse practitioners and breast cancer awareness as well as collaborated on aggressive advertising campaigns. In 1998, she received the Media Award from the American Academy of Nursing for securing a 60 Minutes feature called, "The Nurse Will See You Now." Ms. Danielides has also been honored by New York Women’s Agenda with a STAR award. She graduated with honors from Finch College and holds a Masters Degree in Art History (visit website: www.danielidescomm.com).

Anemona Hartocollis has been covering New York City health issues since 2008. She came to The Times in 1997 and covered education until 2002, writing about policy issues like whether parents in Greenwich Village should be allowed to pay for a public-school teacher out of their own pockets and the rise of the testing movement as a measure of school success. From 2002 until 2005, Ms. Hartocollis wrote the “Coping” column in the Sunday City section, a weekly column about the quirky characters, customs and rhythms of life in New York City at a particular point in history. She began covering courts for The New York Times in October 2005, and wrote front-page articles about the trial of accused Gambino crime family leader John Gotti, which ended in a hung jury, and the trial of 18 “grannies” acquitted (“They came, they shuffled, they conquered.”) of disorderly conduct during a demonstration against the war in Iraq, as well as features about subjects like the art of summation and why defendants feel compelled to talk to police and prosecutors even when they should not. Before coming to the Times, Ms. Hartocollis had been a reporter and feature writer for the Daily News in New York, New York Newsday, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Detroit News, The Staten Island Advance and Flatbush Life, a chain of weekly papers in Brooklyn. She has freelanced for Martha Stewart Living and Life magazines. Ms. Hartocollis was born on Nov. 3, 1955, in Lausanne, Switzerland and grew up in Topeka, Ks. She received her bachelor’s degree cum laude in comparative literature from Harvard University in 1977. She has won the Newswomen’s Club of New York Front Page Award (twice); the New York State AP Writing Contest, first place for continuing coverage of education (1996), first place features (1992), third place features (1995) and second place in-depth reporting 2009; the Society of Silurians investigative reporting award; and the Deadline Club of New York award, among others. Ms. Hartocollis is the author of “Seven Days of Possibilities: One Teacher, 24 Kids, and the Music That Changed Their Lives Forever” (Public Affairs, 2004), about a young music teacher in the Bronx, which began as a series of articles in The Times. She lives with her husband and three children in West Harlem.

Dorie Klissas is a distinguished journalist specializing in health and medicine who has worked in network television for nearly twenty years. She currently is the Director of Media Relations at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City. From 2006–2008, she was the chief medical producer of the “CBS Evening News with Katie Couric,” writing and producing stories for anchor Katie Couric and medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook. Dorie earned a producer credit for a “CBS Evening News” program that won a 2008 Edward R. Murrow award for Best Newscast. From 1994 to 2006, Dorie was a producer of NBC’s “Today” show, where she covered breaking news and wrote numerous award-winning medical series. She produced Katie Couric’s memorable interviews with the late actor Christopher Reeve and received a Gracie Allen Award and an Emmy nomination for her story on World Trade Center burn victim Lauren Manning. In addition, Dorie is a veteran producer of seven Olympics, including the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah and the 1998 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea. As a City Producer for Matt Lauer’s “Where in the World?” trips, she traveled to Morocco, Athens and Mykonos. Dorie also spent some time in front of the camera as a reporter for KARK-TV, NBC’s affiliate in Little Rock Arkansas. She also was a reporter for the Financial News Network from 1988 to 1990, and had previously worked as a banking analyst for First Boston Corporation. For several years, she anchored and produced “Let’s Talk,” a bi-weekly interview show on the Manhattan Neighborhood Network that focused on news, sports, business and the arts. Dorie earned a B.A. in European History from Harvard University, where she was on the varsity tennis team, and later studied at the Graduate School of International Affairs in Geneva as a Rotary Foundation Scholar. She achieved a national tennis ranking of #101 in the United States Tennis Association and a #9 ranking in the Eastern Tennis Association. She also worked as an intern in the Press Office at the Greek Embassy in Washington, DC and as an intern in the Scheduling office of Michael S. Dukakis in Boston. She started her television career as an intern for Bud Collins at the US Open Tennis Championships in New York.

Eleni Kostopoulosis a 2008 journalism graduate of SUNY New Paltz. While a student, Eleni served as Editor-in-Chief of The New Paltz Oracle, a campus-wide and village-wide weekly newspaper. Prior to that she held other positions in the Oracle, including News Editor, Copy Editor and Staff Writer. She worked as an editorial intern for the Feature’s department of Conde Nast’s Modern Bride and Elegant Bride magazines. Most recently she worked as a full-time reporter at The National Herald for a period of two years. There she made her mark by reporting on notable members of the Greek American community, serving as editor for several special annual inserts including, "Greek American Weddings" and "Food and Wine", and interviewing political figures including New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and Mayor of NYC Michael Bloomberg. Eleni is currently preparing for the next chapter in her journalistic career.

Penny Manis is the Senior Producer for AC360, a primetime CNN program which is simulcast to both a domestic and an international audience. She has covered various breaking news and world events for the network including US Presidential Elections, Haiti Earthquake 2010, Middle Eastern conflicts, EU Summits, Europe’s Transition to the Euro, Istanbul Bombings 2003, Venezuelan riots 2003, Athens Olympics 2004, and OPEC meetings. Manis was part of the coverage team that earned CNN a George Foster Peabody award for its Katrina coverage, an Alfred I. duPont Award for its reporting of the tsunami, and an Emmy for AC360 investigative report: Highway Robbery? Manis joined CNN 15 years ago as an Associate Producer for CNN’s Washington, DC bureau where she covered stories relating to US-Latin American relations. She then transferred to CNN’s Atlanta Headquarters to become an Editorial Producer, booking and producing Newsmakers across all of the network’s programs. She has also worked overseas in CNN’s London offices where she selected and produced stories for her network’s European and Middle Eastern audiences. Prior to her current role, Manis was a Supervising Producer for CNN International Newsgathering and managed overseas coverage for CNN’s Domestic Programs and reported directly to the Executive Vice President of the network. Manis holds a BA degree in International Relations and Mass Communications from The American University in Washington, D.C. She has studied abroad at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and is fluent in both Greek and Spanish, in addition to her native English language.