The two social entrepreneurs amongst group including Spike Lee, Dan Wieden and George Lopez honored in AD Industry Awards Dinner
DALLAS, September 20, 2011 — Marcus Graham Project (MGP) co-founders, Lincoln Stephens and Kenji Summers (Community manager at BBH ZAG) were honored this past weekend as 2011 ADCOLOR® Award recipients. Stephens is a recipient of the ADCOLOR® Change Agent Award, while Summers is the recipient of ADCOLOR® Rising Star Award.
“I feel extremely honored and humbled to have been selected for this award,” said Lincoln Stephens, MGP program director and co-founder. “When I quit the advertising industry four years ago with few resources and no money to begin the Marcus Graham Project, I had no clue it would grow so fast or affect so many lives. I only knew that I had to do my part to increase diversity in the industry. I’m thankful to be amongst those honored by ADCOLOR.”
This year’s recipients were honored in Los Angeles at the Beverly Hilton on September 16 and 17 during the ADCOLOR Industry Conference & Awards.
The mission of MGP is to develop a pipeline of talent in all aspects of the media and creative fields, while providing career exposure and experience particularly to underrepresented professionals and aspirants.
Since it began four years ago, MGP has growth into a diverse system of programs designed to engage the advertising and marketing community, and develop a sustainable infrastructure for mentorship and dialogue.
One of MGP’s most unique programs is its iCr8 Summer Boot Camp. The program challenges ethnically diverse young professionals from around the nation to operate their own advertising agency for 10 weeks during summer. The participants work with real clients and mentors to gain real-world exposure and experience. Although the boot camp doesn’t guarantee participants job placement, in past years, Stephens has aided participants in securing jobs with Ohio State University, Wieden+Kennedy, RAPP and The Richards Group.
In addition to honoring Stephens & Summers, ADCOLOR also honored George Lopez; Spike Lee; Senior Chairman, Founder and Publisher of Black Enterprise, Earl G. Graves; and Chief Executive Officer of Wieden+Kennedy Dan Wieden. For a full list of this year’s honorees please visit http://2011.adcolor.org/honorees.
The ADCOLOR® Awards
“ADCOLOR’s very important work is supporting diversity and inclusion in our industry, and so we look forward to an incredible group of honorees, and a gathering of our industry’s leaders from across the nation, as we prepare to come together in Los Angeles for the big event,” said James Edmund Datri, president and CEO, American Advertising Federation, a founding member of The ADCOLOR Industry Coalition.
The ADCOLOR® Awards are an initiative of the ADCOLOR Industry Coalition launched to honor professionals of color, diversity champions and companies who work together to further diversity and inclusion efforts in the advertising, marketing and media industries.
The ADCOLOR Industry Coalition is supported by the ADVERTISING Club of New York, the American Advertising Federation (AAF), the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As), Arnold Worldwide, Omnicom Group, RAPP, CNN, Deutsch, Gotham and Wieden+Kennedy.
About The Marcus Graham Project
The Marcus Graham Project (MGP) is a national network of diverse professionals who have purposed themselves in developing the next generation of thought leadership within the advertising, media and marketing industry.
The vision of The MGP is to provide long-term access to information, technology, financial and people resources that will strategically develop a viable pool of talent and leadership within the industry. The Marcus Graham Project is a 501 (c) 3 organization. Additional information about MGP can be found at www.marcusgrahamproject.org.
