Carol Katzman & Laura Ornest to be Honored by Vista Del Mar

(Los Angeles, CA, January 2020) A philosopher once wrote: “Bless the world with your mind, heal the world with your heart, lift the world with your soul; elevate the world with your life.”

This year’s Women of Excellence honorees are remarkable and accomplished, fueled by a clear and sustained sense of purpose, vision, compassion and dedication to innovative youth and family advocacy. They lead by example. Each award winner has rendered unparalleled support, service and inspiration, thereby elevating the experiences of L.A. children and families most in need, assuring their greater success and growth.

The 2020 Ruth Shuken Humanitarian Award recipient is Carol Katzman, whose 50 years of outstanding service to Vista’s children of all circumstance and ability began as a volunteer and culminated in a momentous term as Vista Board Chair. For more than half a century, she has been a leader in the field of Education at the local and state levels, including her role as a teacher in the Beverly Hills Unified School District, as well as Director of Curriculum, Early Childhood Education Coordinator and Assistant Superintendent of Schools. Carol’s extraordinary career includes much sought-after appointments by the Governor and the State Superintendent of Public Instruction to serve on the State Board of Education, the California Curriculum Commission and the Commission on Teacher Credentialing, where she ultimately served as Chair. She is lauded for her expert work on the No Child Left Behind/California AB 312 Committee. More recently, she devoted her time and resources to her leadership responsibility as Women’s Campaign Chair of the Jewish Federation. Additionally, Carol is the co-author of two published texts, Imagine That, Creative learning experiences, and Economy Size, Teaching economic concepts to kids. Her deep belief in the import and impact of educational excellence as a means to optimize and empower the lives of children, families and communities, continues to be transformative.

Carol and husband of 60 years, Jerry Katzman, were awarded the Distinguished Service Award from the Maple Center in Beverly Hills. Many know Jerry as a brilliant attorney who served as President of the legendary William Morris Agency. The Katzmans are most proud of and inspired by their three children Jeff (Joanna), Jon (Zukhra) and Kari (Jim Kramer) and six thriving grandchildren.

Award-winning television and radio reporter and producer, Laura Ornest will be honored with this year’s esteemed Visionary Award, reflecting her bold and rich contributions to Vista Del Mar and her tireless commitment to destigmatizing the conversation around mental health. Born in Edmonton, Canada, Ornest grew up in Vancouver and Beverly Hills, where she graduated from Beverly Hills High School. She spent a year at the Sorbonne in Paris before earning a BA in French from UCLA.

After graduation, she worked as assistant general manager for the Vancouver Canadians, a triple-A baseball team, and then began her broadcasting career at CKNW, a talk radio station in Vancouver. After a year at CKNW, Ornest in 1983 became the first female TV sportscaster in western Canada when CBC Television hired her to host the 11 p.m. nightly sportscast and a weekend sports show. In 1985, she returned to Los Angeles and became a freelance TV news reporter for Channel 9 and ESPN. She also produced shows for E! network, CNN and CBS before returning to radio, her first love.

For more than two decades, she worked as a local Los Angeles news reporter for AM stations KFWB (980) and KNX (1070), where she earned several Golden Mic and Associated Press awards. She later did on-air feature interviews for Classical KUSC (91.5 FM). A passionate advocate for mental health services, she has served for many years as a board member of Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles and Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services. She recently co-produced “Mapping of the Mind,” a Jewish Women’s Theatre show about mental illness, and is developing a documentary about her late brother Maury Ornest, a prolific artist and journal keeper who suffered from mental illness. She lives in Rustic Canyon with her husband, architect Rick Leslie, in a contemporary home in that he designed. They have a son, Harrison, and a rescue dog, Lacey.

Friends, family and Vista leadership will celebrate both 2020 Women Of Excellence at the awards luncheon taking place on Thursday, March 12, 2020 at 11:30 a.m. at the Beverly Wilshire (a Four Seasons Hotel), located at 9500 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills.

Emmy-award winning newscaster Mark Thompson will host.

Event chairs: Nancy Epstein and Jill Friedman. Chair of the Board and founding event chair is: Laurie Konheim.

Please join us for this much-anticipated inspirational annual fundraiser; for additional information contact:

Devinn Reed at 310-836-1223 x 272, or email:devinnreed@vistadelmar.org,

https://www.vistadelmar.org/WOE2020

Vista Del Mar Child and Family Services, a Four-Star Charity Navigator rated organization, has cared for Los Angeles' most vulnerable children for over 100 years, providing a range of exceptional programs in education, mental health, autism, adoption, residential care, prevention and early intervention. Vista's programs are for children with social, emotional and behavioral challenges, wrapping love and support around the entire family. Vista Del Mar is a national role model in providing these specialized services and therapeutic treatments for children, and is one of Los Angeles' most prominent resources for children of the Autism spectrum.