Founder and President of the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF), has been an advocate for disadvantaged Americans throughout her professional life. Under her leadership CDF has become the nation’s strongest voice for children and families. The mission of the Children’s Defense Fund’s Leave No Child Behind® is to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start, and a Moral Start in life as well as a successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities. A graduate of Spelman College and Yale Law School, Mrs. Edelman was the first black woman admitted to the Mississippi Bar. In 1968, she moved to Washington, D.C., as counsel for the Poor People’s Campaign organized by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. She subsequently founded the Washington Research Project, a public interest law firm and the parent body of the Children’s Defense Fund. Mrs. Edelman has received numerous honorary degrees and awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom (the nation’s highest civilian award) and the Robert F. Kennedy Lifetime Achievement Award. Her writings include: \_Families in Peril: An Agenda for Social Change; The Measure of Our Success: A Letter to My Children and Yours; I’m Your Child, God: Prayers for Our Children; I Can Make a Difference: A Treasury to Inspire Our Children;\_ and \_The Sea Is So Wide and My Boat Is So Small: Charting a Course for the Next Generation.\_