Debra Lee, Pamela Abdy Honored at 2024 BBBSLA Gala

Massive Brothers Massive Sisters of Better Los Angeles hosted their annual gala on the iconic Worldwide Ballroom on the Beverly Hilton on Thursday evening.

“The Massive Evening Out” Gala honored mentors from the BBBSLA with a specific highlight on their Girls In Leisure Mentorship Program, a joint effort between BBBSLA and The Hollywood Reporter to match high-ranking feminine leisure executives with highschool junior ladies from underserved communities within the better Los Angeles space. 

“Mentorship has all the time been crucial to me. I used to be raised that in the event you had been capable of accomplish one thing, you give again, and the best way I’ve all the time chosen to provide again is to assist others come ahead,” former BET CEO Debra Lee informed THR moments earlier than receiving her Defender of Potential award. 

The evening’s festivities started as Stacey Sher, the storied producer of movies like Erin Brockovich, Django Unchained and Pulp Fiction, delivered an emotional speech in recognition of her “chosen sister” Pamela Abdy (who was a part of THR‘s WIE mentorship program as a mentor) for her continued assist and steering for younger ladies in media. In line with the night’s theme of household and mentorship, Sher drew a throughline between herself and Abdy, whom she had employed as an intern at Jersey Movies, and her former boss Sherry Lansing, the legendary former CEO of Paramount Footage. 

Whereas receiving the Sherry Lansing Award, Abdy echoed Sher’s sentiments on the significance of sustaining a lineage of ladies by means of the previous, current and way forward for the business. “Stacey is fearless, caring and giving, and collectively we’ve skilled every little thing from producing motion pictures to motherhood,” mentioned Abdy.

She then went on to reward Lansing, garnering enthusiastic applause from the group. “Sherry all the time taught us that it’s straightforward to be there for folks when there are hits, however it’s the misses that depend essentially the most, and it’s the way you deal with your workforce and expertise that issues when a movie comes up wanting expectations,” Abdy continued, recalling her time at Paramount with Lansing. “Failure will not be ultimate, and it’s not deadly.”

She concluded her speech by saying a brand new collaboration between BBBSLA and Warner Bros. Discovery — a pilot mentorship program that may launch within the spring semester of 2025 and can concentrate on creating profession pathways for L.A. youth by connecting highschool college students with mentors within the leisure business. 

As one Warner Bros. CEO stepped down from the stage, one other stepped up. Channing Dungey, chairwoman of Warner Bros. Tv Studios and the primary Black American president of a serious broadcast tv community, delivered the Defender of Potential award to Lee, attributing her personal success and place within the business leisure to Lee’s trailblazing efforts.

“When she stepped into that function, she didn’t simply break limitations, she shattered them,” Dungey mentioned about Lee’s greater than decade-long tenure at BET. “She paved the best way for future generations of ladies of coloration in media, myself included, proving that management and excellence can’t be outlined by conventional limits.”

Not solely was Lee profitable in her personal proper, but in addition she supported the success of these following in her footsteps by founding Main Girls Outlined. The group focuses on aiding Black feminine executives by offering “a secure place to not solely community however assist each other within the company battles we face in our careers,” Dungey mentioned. Lee additionally based the Monarchs Collective with the first goal “to alter the complexion of boardrooms.”

The previous CEO insisted she nonetheless has religion within the leisure enterprise regardless of the challenges it has confronted in recent times. “I nonetheless dwell by the outdated proverb of giving drugs with sugar or instructing with leisure,” she mentioned. 

Choose Michael D. Carter of the Los Angeles Superior Courtroom was additionally honored with the Legacy Impression Award for his 30-year involvement with BBBSLA.

The last word mission of Massive Brothers Massive Sisters of Better Los Angeles is to foster one-to-one assist for at-risk and underserved youth, offering them with constructive mentorship and steering. “The Massive Evening Out” gala raised over $600,000 for the trigger.