RPL Managing Partner Helen D. “Heidi” Reavis to be Honored with 2016 Civic Spirit Award
Helen D. “Heidi” Reavis to be Honored at Women’s City Club of New York 2016 Civic Spirit Awards Dinner
RPL Managing Partner, Emmy Award®-Winning Executive Producer Celebrated as Social Justice Champion
April 13, 2016, New York, NY—Today, the Women’s City Club of New York (WCC) announced Helen D. “Heidi” Reavis, Esq., Managing Partner and Principal at Reavis Parent Lehrer LLP, among the Honorees of the 2016 Civic Spirit Award. In addition to her outstanding law practice in employment, media, intellectual property and other practice areas, Ms. Reavis is an Emmy Award®-Winning Executive Producer who, with her husband, Steven M. Engel, use media to shed light on legal issues of global concern. Other honorees of the 2016 Award are Jessica Neuwirth, Esq., Jennifer Buffett, Pamela Shifman and Maria Cuomo Cole. The 2016 Centennial Civic Spirit Awards Dinner will take place on Thursday, April 21, 2016 at the University Club in New York City.
“To be recognized by the Women’s City Club of New York alongside change makers like Ms. Neuwirth, Ms. Buffett, Ms. Shifman and Ms. Cuomo Cole is a tremendous honor,” said Ms. Reavis. “For over a century, WCC has embodied the dedication and tenacity needed to achieve access, equity and justice for New York’s women, girls and their communities. I am proud to be a part of its legacy.”
Ms. Reavis has served as Counsel to and Chair of the Board of the WCC and has actively supported its work for over a decade, following in the footsteps of her mother, the late Thetis A. Reavis. In addition to her service with WCC, Ms. Reavis is Counsel to and has served on the Board and Executive Committee of Women Make Movies and is a Member of the Women’s Forum.
Ms. Reavis and her husband Steven M. Engel produced the Emmy Award®-winning documentary film, A Walk to Beautiful, on the subject of obstetric fistula, a life-threatening and often fatal childbirth injury suffered by women and girls in developing countries who have little or no access to medical care. A Walk to Beautiful was featured or won awards at over 35 film festivals around the world, won the coveted Best Feature Documentary Award from the International Documentary Association, was among the feature films considered for Academy Award nomination, and won an Emmy Award® for the television version of the film. A Walk to Beautiful was featured in a screening before Members of the U.S. House of Representatives to galvanize policy change, resulting in an effort by Congressperson Carolyn Maloney to secure Congressional funding and U.S. support for global maternal health care.
The Women’s City Club of New York is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, multi-issue activist organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for all New Yorkers. To promote responsive government, the WCC shapes public policy through education, issues analysis, advocacy and civic participation.
-30-