Univision’s Teresa Rodriguez to host NAHJ Hall of Fame Gala at UNITY ’08 convention

Media contact: Iván Román, NAHJ Executive Director, (202) 662-7178 e-mail: iroman@nahj.org

Washington, D.C. – NAHJ is proud to announce that fitness pioneer Augie Nieto will be honored with the 2008 President’s Award during the 2008 Hall of Fame Gala, which will be hosted by Univision anchor Teresa Rodríguez.

As previously announced, two of today’s most respected media diversity champions – NAHJ founders Juan Gonzalez and Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez – and 19th century journalism pioneer Francisco P. Ramirez will be inducted into the NAHJ Hall of Fame.

This year’s NAHJ Hall of Fame Gala starts at 7 p.m. on Friday, July 25th in the Chicago Ballroom of the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers, 301 East North Water Street, Chicago, Illinois during the UNITY ‘08 convention.

NAHJ President Rafael Olmeda said he selected Augie Nieto for the President’s Award because he is giving Latinos living with a difficult disease – ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease - a champion they can admire.

“Driven by my own personal experience within my family, I learned about Augie's Quest and of your relentless pursuit to find a cure for ALS,” Olmeda wrote to Augie. “The story of ALS has many faces, from Lou Gehrig to Stephen Hawking, Morrie Schwartz to Catfish Hunter, actor Lane Smith to former Vice President Henry Wallace. Today, when people talk about ALS, they often turn to the story of a Latino, your story.”

Augie’s story of improving people’s health has many layers. If you’ve ever been to the gym, you were probably already familiar with Augie. In 1977, at the age of 19, Augustine L. Nieto II bought rights to the Lifecycle exercise bike. He later co-founded Lifecycle, Inc. The company now called Life Fitness, Inc. repeatedly multiplied in size and throughout the next 20 years grew to be the largest manufacturer of fitness equipment in the world. Augie is now chairman of Octane Fitness.

In March, 2005, Augie was diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, at the age of 47. It is a progressive neuromuscular disease that weakens and eventually destroys motor neurons, preventing control of a person’s muscles. When he was diagnosed, Augie, the fitness buff, was devastated. But later in 2005 he rebounded and with his wife Lynne created Augie’s Quest in partnership with the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

Augie’s Quest, MDA’s research initiative, is an aggressive, cure-driven project focused on treatments and a cure for ALS. In less than two years, Augie’s Quest has raised over $14 million for ALS research, and made scientific advances toward finding the cause of the disease. In addition to Augie’s post as chairman of the ALS Therapy Development Institute’s board, he and Lynne serve as co-chairpersons of MDA’s ALS Division.

“You can either celebrate what you can do or mourn what you can’t,” Augie Nieto told the Today show’s Natalie Morales in an interview that aired last year. “You have a choice, and I believe what we’re doing is making a difference.”

Augie will not be able to make it to the Hall of Fame Gala. On his behalf, Pete Morgan will accept the award. Morgan is Senior Vice President for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

Veteran journalist Teresa Rodriguez will host the Hall of Fame Gala as mistress of ceremonies during the UNITY ’08 convention – the industry’s largest gathering of journalists. Rodriguez is the main co-anchor and correspondent for the award-winning news-magazine show Aquí y Ahora on Univision, the leading Spanish-language network in the United States. She is also a founding member of NAHJ, which celebrated 25 years in 2007.

Rodriguez has won 11 Emmy awards, eight for news-oriented specials and three for investigative and feature reporting. In 1992, she was a reporter for the George Foster Peabody Award-winning WTVJ news team that was recognized for exceptional coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew. She was also chosen as one of Hispanic magazine's Top Latinas in the field of Journalism in 2005.

The 2008 NAHJ Hall of Fame inductees are: New York Daily News Columnist Juan González, University of Texas at Austin Professor Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, Ph.D. and Francisco P. Ramírez, editor of El Clamor Público, Los Angeles’ first Spanish-language newspaper.

For more information about the NAHJ Hall of Fame Gala and about the UNITY’08 Convention taking place from July 23-27, 2008 in Chicago, please visit www.nahj.org.

To learn more about the 2008 Hall of Fame inductees, click here.

Hall of Fame sponsors to date include State Farm Insurance.

Incorporated in 1984, NAHJ's mission is to increase the percentage of Latinos working in our nation's newsrooms and to improve news coverage of the Latino community. NAHJ is the nation's largest professional organization for Latino journalists with more than 2,100 members working in English and Spanish-language print, photo, broadcast and online media. NAHJ is a 501 (c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit organization. For more information, visit www.nahj.org.