CHILDREN’S PRESSLINE NAMES MARSHA RALLS CEO AND PUBLISHER

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New York, NY – July 22, 2008 – Children’s PressLine, not-for-profit organization that teaches kids eight to 18 to be journalists, today announced that its board of directors has appointed Marsha Ralls as its Chief Executive Officer and Publisher, effective June 26th, 2008. Ms. Ralls brings to Children’s PressLine two decades of leadership in the corporate and nonprofit worlds.

Since 1991, Ralls has served as founder and President of The Ralls Collection, a Washington, DC-based company providing fine art to private, corporate and institutional art collectors. A leading contemporary art expert, advisor and consultant, Ralls was appointed by Mayor Anthony Williams in 2004 to serve on the Board of the DC Commission for the Arts & Humanities and has been reappointed by current Mayor Adrian Fenty, serving as the Executive Board Treasurer. Among her accomplishments, she has worked with the Smithsonian Institution to advance connoisseurship of contemporary art and the National Geographic Society for which she curated an international exhibit shown at the United Nations.

Equally impactful within the not-for-profit sector, Ralls was named National Woman of the Year by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in 2000. Additionally, she serves on the International Board of Directors of the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, an organization that provides entrepreneurial education programs to young people from low income communities. Ralls was named “Entrepreneur of the Year” for her commitment to increasing education and economic opportunities for low-income youth in New York City at the 15th Annual Salute to the Entrepreneurial Spirit this past spring.

“I am so honored to have Marsha join our team,” said Lisa Clampitt, Board Chair and President, Children’s PressLine. “Her dedication, passion and knowledge of youth empowerment programs and journalism will be a phenomenal gift to our organization and its mission.”

In her role as CEO and Publisher, Ralls will help expand the CPL brand and vision, work with the existing CPL team, as well as hire additional key staff to strengthen, grow, and diversify the already impactful work done by the organization.

“Children are 26% of the population but we don’t often hear their voices in news coverage on issues that affect them on a daily basis,” said Ralls. “Children’s PressLine gives our youth the opportunity to represent themselves in the media, providing adults information they need to make more informed decisions about kids. It’s a privilege to be able to help them do so.”

ABOUT CHILDREN’S PRESSLINE:
Children's PressLine is a not-for-profit organization that trains kids aged eight to 18 to be journalists. What sets CPL apart is that our young journalists report and edit stories targeted to adult audiences as well as kids. Major broadcast and print media outlets across the country air and print these stories, including over 400 newspapers nationwide such as the New York Daily News, Metro New York, New York Amsterdam News, Tweens and Teens News and more.

Children’s PressLine is heir to a 26-year-old tradition of integrating youth perspective into mainstream media. A spin-off of Children’s Express – the only youth-produced news organization to win both Emmy and Peabody Awards - CPL seeks to continue empowering the voice of youth, serving as a window to the hearts and minds of this under heard and underserved community. The result is an unquestionably authentic, graceful and mature approach to the search for truth.

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GIVING KIDS A VOICE AND THE POWER TO USE IT

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