Valerie Harper Joins RESULTS on Capitol Hill!


May 8, 2013
by Allison Grossman

On April 16 and 17, 2013, RESULTS Board member and actress Valerie Harper traveled to Washington, DC, for Muhammad Yunus’s Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony. Despite her recent diagnosis of inoperable brain cancer, Valerie was full of energy and committed to using her time in Washington to talk with key members of Congress about critical U.S. leadership to tackle the root causes of poverty around the world.

Valerie and RESULTS Executive Director Joanne Carter spent April 16 meeting with six members of the House of Representatives. They started the morning meeting with Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA), and then met with Valerie’s long-time friend and RESULTS ally Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL). Valerie and Joanne then met with State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee member Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) and later met with Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT). In the afternoon, Valerie and Joanne met with Representative Eliot Engel (D-NY), ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and then ended the day meeting her friend Representative Jim Moran (D-VA). The morning before the Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony on April 17, Valerie met with Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

Valerie spoke about a range of global poverty issues, particularly the need for strong U.S. support for the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in 2014; the value of U.S. leadership on child malnutrition; and the importance of the U.S. prioritizing the fight against global tuberculosis. On an especially personal note, Valerie also spoke to the need for lung cancer research, which she battled in 2009. Valerie and Joanne were accompanied by a full film crew that captured their meetings as part of a documentary that NBC is developing about Valerie’s life.

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