SPECIAL OCCASIONS

The Center's 16th Annual Honorarium — Celebrate Community
Friday, NOVEMBER 5 • Caesars palace

We look forward to celebrating with you at our 16th Annual Honorarium, again to be held in a luxurious ultra lounge setting at Caesars Palace. A silent auction and VIP reception will precede the main event. Food stations will be positioned around the perimeter to offer a variety of enticing edibles for your enjoyment all night.

See below for ticket sales, the biographies of our honorees (Roger Thomas, Gwen Migitia, Arlene Cooper and Jane Heenan), and downloads of our sponsorship forms.

BUY TICKETS
Cick the desired ticket type below and enter a quantity on the following screen. We use PayPal to process all online ticket sales.

Ticket $150
• General Admission to the Honorarium

VIP Ticket $250
• Includes VIP Reception
• Special Reserved Seating Section

SPONSORSHIPS
Cick the desired link below to download a PDF viewable in Adobe Acrobat or similar PDF viewer.

RAINBOW CIRCLE SPONSORSHIP
• This document outlines all Rainbow Circle levels and benefits

2010 HONORARIUM PACKET
• This packet includes all forms to be completed for sponsorships, silent auction donations and program ads

HONOREE BIOS

Man of the Year — Roger Thomas is Executive Vice President Design for Wynn Design and Development. He created the interiors of Wynn Las Vegas and Encore at Wynn Las Vegas, which opened December 2008. He led the interior design of Wynn Macau, which opened to the public September 5, 2006, and is currently directing the interior design of Encore at Wynn Macau. While a recognized leader in interior design for the hospitality industry, Roger also designed corporate offices and aircraft interiors for Mirage Resorts Inc., as well as the private residences of Steve Wynn, then chairman of Mirage Resorts. An avid supporter of the arts, Roger is the founder of the Bank of America Nevada Fine Art Collection, the largest art collection in a financial institution in Nevada. He served on the boards of the Nevada Museum of Fine Arts, Neon Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada Institute for Contemporary Art, Nevada Ballet Theater and the Wheelwright Museum Santa Fe, New Mexico. He was a Trustee of the Las Vegas Art Museum and is currently a member of the Las Vegas Performing Arts Center Foundation Board. Born in Salt Lake City, he has lived most of his life in Las Vegas, where he still makes his home.

Woman of the Year — Gwen Migita As the lead executive for Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility at Harrah’s Entertainment, Gwen Migita is a key executive who drives the development and execution of environmental strategy. She leads the organization and management of an enterprise-wide Green Steering Committee and serves as the corporate leader of forty property Green Teams. Gwen also manages external partnerships and communications strategies of Harrah’s environmental brand; CodeGreen. In her capacity as CSR leader, Gwen directs corporate charitable giving, community relations, and HERO (Harrah’s Entertainment Reaching Out) employee volunteer programs for the organization’s 70,000 employees at forty properties and 15 jurisdictions throughout the United States. She also serves as the financial manager for a combined eight departments in Corporate Communications and Government Relations. Prior to her current role, Gwen was the Executive Development Director, advisor, and Chief of Staff to the senior executive of Communications and Government Relations. In this role, Gwen managed compliance, financials and supported senior management initiatives. During her tenure she successfully managed organizational growth through the Harrah’s-Caesars integration and served as the Chief of Staff for Harrah’s ballot referendum campaign in Rhode Island. Gwen joined Harrah’s in 2004 as the Manager of Market Research where she directed consumer research for a variety of corporate and property initiatives. Prior to Harrah’s, she spent six years with QMark Research & Polling, starting as Research Director. Gwen drove the corporate expansion to the West Pacific for the research and advertising divisions of Starr Seigle Communications. In that role, Gwen worked with various multinational corporations such as Citibank, Kraft Foods and Anheuser-Busch, and as a research subcontractor to the U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Navy, U.S. Census Bureau and the Guam Housing and Urban Renewal Authority. Gwen came to Las Vegas in 2002 where she was promoted to QMark’s Executive Vice President of Research.
As a native of Hawaii, Gwen served as a charter member and former board of director of Rotary Clubs in Hawaii and on Guam, focusing on youth programs and vocational development for the community. She previously served as the President of the American Marketing Association – Las Vegas Chapter and garnered a national merit award for membership development. She is an Executive MBA graduate of University of Nevada Las Vegas and received her BA from the University of Washington with a concentration in marketing. She also studied business at the University of Portland, and then abroad in Salzburg, Austria, where she focused on political science and philosophy.
Gwen is an executive board member of the Las Vegas Water Conservation Coalition, Vice Chair of Green Chips, and Human Rights Campaign Las Vegas Steering Committee Co-Chair and National Board of Governor. She serves as the key executive who manages the corporate relationship and knowledge transfer for Harrah’s membership with Business for Social Responsibility and Conservation International. She was previously the treasurer of the LGBT Center of Southern Nevada and Victory Fund National Campaign Board Member. She recently received the Top 40 Under 40 award from In Business Magazine in Las Vegas.

Volunteer of the Year — Arlene Cooper hails from Memphis, Tenn. She came to Las Vegas in 1990. In her 20 years in our community, she has been the quintessential volunteer for many organizations including, but not limited to: Imperial Royal Sovereign Court of the Desert Empire, Inc.; Sin Sity Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence; Nevada Gay Rodeo Association; Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada; Southern Nevada Association of Pride, Inc.; QVegas Foundation; Special Olympics; and ReachOut (a day care program for children affected by and infected with HIV). She has also served as a foster parent for hard to place HIV-positive children. One thing that can surely be said about Arlene is that she never says no and is always there to lend a hand.

Equality Award — Jane Heenan has worked as a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in private practice since 2000, and has taught in the Department of Human Behavior at the College of Southern Nevada since 2001.  Hir social advocacy in support of transgender and other gender non-conforming persons began in the late 1990s as ze pressed for inclusion of “gender identity and expression” in AB311 (adding “sexual orientation” to Nevada employment non-discrimination statutes). Ze has been a part of successful efforts to introduce the first trans-inclusive legislation in Nevada, AB184 (an employment non-discrimination bill); to create the first trans-specific advocacy organization, Equality Nevada; and to provide transgender persons with the right to change the gender marker on driver licenses prior to genital surgery.  Jane lives with hir partner of over 19 years, and their family includes four dogs: three Basset Hounds and one honorary Basset (actually, a Cocker Spaniel).

Editor's note: "Ze" and "hir," used in Jane's profile above, are just two of several gender-neutral pronouns preferred by many in the transgender community.