Pioneering Broadcaster Merri Dee Joins AARP Illinois Executive Council

    WGN Director of Community Relations, Community Activist Appointed to

AARP State Leadership Team



    CHICAGO, Aug. 25 /
EMWNews
/ -- Today, AARP Illinois

announced the appointment of pioneering broadcaster and philanthropist

Merri Dee to its State Executive Council. In this lead volunteer position

Dee will be a member of the organization's seven-member leadership

committee, helping to shape AARP's state agenda.



    "Merri brings a strong background in communications, advocacy and

charitable work to AARP Illinois' Executive Council," said Bob Gallo, State

Director for AARP Illinois. "We're glad to welcome Merri to the AARP

Illinois Executive Council, where our 1.8 million members will no doubt

benefit from her experience, passion and dedication."



    One of the first African-American women to anchor broadcast news in

Illinois, Dee has also been a champion of charitable work, raising millions

of dollars for several children's charities, spearheading crime victims'

rights legislation, and helping increase adoption rates in the state.



    "I'm looking forward to joining AARP's Executive Council in Illinois

and press forward key issues such as affordable healthcare and consumer

rights," Dee said. "AARP is an organization whose ideals and mission I

believe in."



    Dee has spent 41 years working in media and with not for profit

organizations. Her work managing WGN-TV's Children Charities has helped to

raise over $31 million to improve and enrich the lives of thousands of

children and their families. A strong focus of her work with children has

been towards raising awareness of the importance of adoptions.



    An advocate for crime victims, Dee successfully lobbied the State's

General Assembly for the passage of Illinois' first Victims Bill of Rights,

the first of its kind in the United States.



    Dee mixed her successful and influential career as a TV newscaster and

talk radio host with her work as chairperson of the United Negro College

Fund's Telethon, and host of the national Bud Billiken Parade for more than

25 years. Dee has won many national and local awards for her work in media

and philanthropy.



    AARP Illinois Executive Council works with the State Office to set

strategic priorities and objectives. Executive Council members, which serve

on a volunteer basis, are actively engaged and involved in the planned

activities of the state office, and work with members, volunteers and other

organizations throughout the state to help accomplish state and national

initiatives. AARP Illinois' Executive Council currently has six members,

appointed to two-year terms.