24 Gala Hero

The Lab School Annual Gala

Each year since 1985, The Lab School of Washington has held an Annual Gala to celebrate notable achievers with learning differences. 

24 Gala Info

Become a Sponsor Today!

The Lab School of Washington’s 39th Annual Gala Honoring Outstanding Achievers with Learning Differences will take place on Saturday March 16, 2024. Join us on the Reservoir Campus for an evening of cocktails, music, and celebration! Browse and bid on items at the silent auction, enjoy delicious hors d'oeuvres and dinner, and mingle with other guests and friends of The Lab School. The evening's programming will also include an address from our Honorees about their experiences overcoming their learning differences and music and dancing with a live band. 

Buy tickets, donate auction items, and more!

Capital City Orchestra
The Central City Orchestra will once again provide entertainment for the evening. 

If you have any questions about the event, please contact Lab School Event Coordinator Sophie Biggar at (202) 944-2206 or sophie.biggar@labschool.org
  
All proceeds from the Gala will go towards financial aid and teacher salaries at Lab. We welcome donations now through the link below or you can reach out to Director of Annual Giving Nia Graham at (202) 944-2203 or nia.graham@labschool.org for information about ticket prices and sponsorship opportunities. 
  

Donate to the Gala

 


History of the Annual Gala

The First Gala
Lab School Founder Sally Smith introduces Tom Cruise and Cher, two of the first honorees recognized by The Lab School.

In 1985, The Lab School of Washington hosted the First Annual Gala Honoring Outstanding Achievers with Learning Differences. This event celebrated notable people with learning  differences who achieved great success in their respective fields. Every year since, The Lab School has celebrated outstanding achievers from a broad range of professions: from artists to athletes, politicians to paleontologists, executives to educators, and more. The one thing that each of these honorees have in common is that they, like our students at Lab, have turned their learning differences into advantages.

Each year, the awardees also have the opportunity to visit The Lab School campus for "Gala Day." After touring the school and talking with the students, Gala Day ends with an assembly in front of the whole school where the awardees answer questions from the students and speak about their own struggles growing up with learning differences. It is a great opportunity for our students to see that anything is possible and that greatness is theirs for the taking!

Gala Panel 16
During Gala Day, honorees speak directly to Lab students at an assembly on campus. 

Here is a handful of the Outstanding Achievers who have been honored by The Lab School of Washington

Rauschenberg Gala

Robert Rauschenberg, 1985

Artist

Anne Bancroft

Ann Bancroft, 1986

Arctic Explorer

Wendy Wasserstein

Wendy Wasserstein, 1991

Prize-winning Playwright

96 Gala Jones

James Earl Jones, 1996

Actor

James Carville

James Carville, 2000

Political Consultant

Barbara Corcoran

Barbara Corcoran, 2003

Founder and Chairman, The Corcoran Group

Elijah Cummings

Rep. Elijah Cummings, 2014

US Representative, Maryland

Roy Schwartz

Roy Schwartz, 2019

Co-Founder and President of Axios Media, Inc.

1985 
G. Chris Andersen, Investment Banker 
Cher, Actress, Singer 
Tom Cruise, Actor 
Caitlyn Jenner, Olympic Decathlon Champion 
Robert Rauschenberg, Artist 
Richard C. Strauss, Real Estate Financier 
1986 
Harry Anderson, Comedian, Actor, Magician 
Ann Bancroft, Arctic Explorer 
Frank Dunkle, Head-US Fish and Wildlife Service 
Greg Louganis, Olympic Diving Champion 
Henry Winkler, Producer, Director, Actor 
1987 
Marina Bulgari, Jewelry Designer - Marina B 
Chuck Close, Artist 
Richard Cohen, Syndicated Columnist 
Mark Torrance, Corporate Executive 
Margaret Whitton, Actress 
Roger W. Wilkins, Scholar, Author, Professor 
1988 
Tracey Gold, Actress 
Malcolm Goodridge, III, Vice President, AMEX 
Magic Johnson, Basketball Star 
Thomas H. Kean, Governor of New Jersey 
Emily Fisher Landau, Foundation President 
Daniel Stern, Actor 
1989
Harry Belafonte, Singer, Actor, Humanitarian 
Gaston Caperton, Governor of West Virginia 
William J. Doyle, Antiques Expert, Auctioneer 
Fred W. Friendly, Broadcast Journalist, Scholar 
Dexter Manley, Football Star  
Paul Orfalea, CEO, Kinko's 
1990 
Donald S. Coffey, PhD, Distinguished Professor, Johns Hopkins University Medical School 
Marc Flanagan, Producer, Writer 
John Horner, PhD, Paleontologist 
Hugh Newell Jacobsen, Architect 
1991 
Susan Butcher, Iditarod Dog Sled Race Winner 
Charles Guggenheim, Academy Award winning Documentary Film Maker 
Wendy Wasserstein, Prize-winning Playwright 
Wallace Westfeldt, Television Producer 
1992 
Sir John Swan, Premier of Bermuda 
1993 
Elaine Heumann Gurian, Deputy Director, US Holocaust Memorial Museum 
Florence Haseltine, MD, PhD, Director, NIH Center for Population Research 
J. Seward Johnson, Jr, Sculptor 
Victor Villasenor, Author 
1994 
Richard Avedon, Photographer 
Fannie Flagg, Actress, Author, Comedienne 
General Joseph Hoar, Chief of US Central Command 
Raymond Smith, CEO, Bell Atlantic 
1995 
Robert Benton, Director, Writer 
David Copperfield, Illusionist/Humanitarian Award 
Fred J. Epstein, MD, Pediatric Neurosurgeon 
Neil Smith, Football Star 
1996
James Earl Jones, Actor 
Nell Minow, Lawyer, Corporate Turnaround Specialist, Author 
Robert Nixon, Film maker, Conservationist 
Daniel O'Brien, Olympic Decathlon Champion 
1997 
Carolyn McCarthy, Democratic Congresswoman, New York 
Jonathan Pendragon, Magician, Illusionist 
Steven M. Stanley, PhD, Paleobiologist 
1998 
John McDaniel, CEO Helix/Medlantic Healthcare 
Dianne Pilgrim, Director, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum 
Vince Vaughn, Actor 
David Yurman, Jewelry Designer 
1999
Billy Blanks, World Martial Arts Champion, Tae-bo Creator 
Don Coryell, Head Coach, San Diego Chargers (Ret.) College Football Hall of Fame 
Sam Gejdenson, Democratic Congressman, Connecticut 
2000 
James Carville, Political Consultant 
Kelly McGillis, Actress 
Clarence Page, Pulitzer Prize winning Journalist 
Don Winkler, Chair and CEO, Ford Credit 
2001  
David Boies, Attorney 
Zoe Caldwell, Tony Award winning Actress 
John Chambers, CEO, Cisco Systems 
Victoria MacKenzie-Childs, Creative Artist 
2002 
Ben Carson, MD, Director, Division of Pediatric Neurosurgery, Johns Hopkins 
John F. Sandner, President & CEO, RB&H Financial Services; Special Policy Advisor & Former Chairman, Chicago Mercantile Exchange 
Jim Shea, Jr, Olympic Gold Medalist, Skeleton 
Billy Bob Thornton, Actor, Writer, Director 
2003 
Barbara Corcoran, Founder & Chairman, The Corcoran Group - Real Estate 
Brooks Edwards, MD, Medical Director, Cardiac Transplantation, The Mayo Clinic 
David Neeleman, Chairman & CEO, JetBlue Airlines 
Jerry Pinkney, Caldecott Award Winning Children's Book Illustrator 
2004
Adrianne Noe, PhD, Director, National Museum of Health and Medicine-Armed Forces Institute of Pathology 
Tom Rothman, Chairman, Fox Filmed Entertainment 
Paul Sereno, PhD, Paleontologist and Explorer, National Geographic Society 
Anthony A. Williams, Mayor, The District of Columbia 
2005
Mark Batshaw, MD, Chief Academic Officer and Professor of Pediatrics, Children's National Medical Center 
Danny Glover, Actor, Director, Activist 
Kendrick Meek, Democratic Congressman, Florida 
Charles Schwab, Founder, Chairman & CEO, The Charles Schwab Corporation 
2006
Jim Molinaro, Washington Redskins  
Nicholas Negroponte, Founder & Chairman, One Laptop per Child 
Christopher B. Nelson, President, St. John's College, Annapolis 
Lindsay Wagner, Emmy Award Winning Actress 
2007 
Ari Emanuel, Founder & Director, The Endeavor Agency 
Patricia Polacco, Children's Book Author and Illustrator 
John Shima, 5 Time World Champion Skeet Shooter 
Robert Wiedmaier, Chef & Proprietor, Marcel's and Brasserie Beck 
2008 
Robert Allbritton, CEO Allbritton Communications, Founder, Politico 
Joe Pantoliano, Emmy Award Winning Actor 
Richard Rogers, Pritzker Prize winning Architect 
2009 
Lara Flynn Boyle, TV & Film Actress 
William Milliken, Founder & Vice Chair - Communities in Schools 
Jonathan Mooney, Author, Learning Outside the Lines & The Short Bus 
2010 
Consuelo Castillo Kickbusch, Army Veteran, Author & Public Speaker 
John Muir Laws, Naturalist, Artist, Illustrator, Educator 
2011 
Erin Brockovich, Consumer advocate 
Gavin Newsom, Lt. Governor of California 
Michael Oren, Israel's Ambassador to the United States 
Paul Rabil, Professional Lacrosse MVP 
Philip Schultz, Pulitzer Prize winning  poet and author of My Dyslexia 
2012 
Peter Fisher, Senior Managing Director, BlackRock 
Ben Foss, Inventor, Author, Founder of Headstrong Nation 
Willard Wigan, Microsculptor 
2013
Tiffany Coletti Titolo, Managing Director, Translation, LLC 
Dannel Malloy, Governor of Connecticut 
2014
Elijah Cummings, US Representative, Maryland 
Richard Ford, Pulitzer Prize winning Author 
Vin Roberti, Chairman, Roberti + White 
Karina Smirnoff, Professional Dancer - Dancing with the Stars 
2015 
Dean Bragonier, Entrepreneur, Founder of NoticeAbility 
Louis "Bo" Polk, Jr, Business Executive, Venture Capitalist, Entrepreneur 
Sally Taylor, Musician and Artist, Founder of Consenses 
Justin Theroux, Actor, Writer, Director 
2016
David Arquette, Actor, Director, Screenwriter 
Jacqueline Woodson, National Book Award winning author 
Domingo Zapata, Contemporary Artist 
2017 
Marilyn Bartlett, PhD, Attorney and Special Education Advocate 
Gary Cohn, Director of National Economic Council 
Ari Gejdenson, Founder and President, Mindful Restaurants 
Betty McCollum, Republican Congresswoman, Minnesota 
Mitra Taheri, PhD, Scientist, Engineer, Professor, Temple University 
2018 
Nancy Brinker, Founder Susan G. Komen and Race for the Cure 
Lloyd Everitt, British Television and Stage Actor and Writer 
2019
Platon, Portrait Photographer 
Roy Schwartz, Co-Founder and President of Axios Media Inc. 
2021
LeDerick Horne, Author, Poet, Advocate  
2022 
Jon Stocks, Physical Education Teacher, Coach 
2023 
Caela Carter, Educator, Writer 
Megan Cavanagh, Actress 

All titles are at time of the award