Introduction to President Danna C. Bell

Good evening.

I am pleased and honored this evening to help introduce tonight's presidential speech. Like many of you, I have noticed with growing sadness that over the years these introductions have devolved into something of a roast, with my job more and more not to honor our president but rather to present the president's peculiarities, habits, and oddities in a way that rather puts them in their place.

However, our president has called upon us to speak to one another through a more civil discourse, and thus, this evening I do not intend to invoke that tired tradition of incivility. The woman I have the honor of presenting to you is a person whose character simply does not allow for the cheap humor you may have come expecting to hear.

She holds a BA from Morgan State University, a master's degree from Howard, and an ABD in social work from the University of Maryland.

She has had an exciting and rewarding career ranging from the assistant director for the state of Maryland's adult and family services program to the Hidden Garden program that supported drug-addicted, HIV-AIDS–infected individuals in Baltimore.

She is president of her neighborhood association, active in church and community affairs, and has scared the wits out of members of the Maryland House of Delegates and Senate.

She enjoys PBS Britcoms, the old Hawaii Five-0, and other vintage TV shows such as The Rockford Files, Columbo, Ironside, and Perry Mason.

All this while being a single mother successfully raising a busy and inquisitive daughter.

And she can dance like a teenager.

I hope you are as impressed with her accomplishments as I am, for I am delighted to introduce to you Danna Bell's mother, Marlyn Jews, who will introduce her daughter.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening everybody.

I want to thank Frank for his kind remarks. I want to thank the Program Committee for giving me this opportunity to share some facts with you about Danna.

First of all and primary, Danna is unique. Why say this? A friend and I were talking about a book but we couldn't remember the title. A voice from another room in my home said, “Ma, you're talking about The Brothers Karamazov.” She was nine years old. At twelve she wrote, choreographed, and directed the parent-teacher's program at her middle school. She entered Miami of Ohio and she represented 000.4 percent of the population. She ran for office and was placed on the Judicial Committee. While being fully employed at Marymount College or the District of Columbia Public Library, she traveled on the weekends to Howard Stern's estate in New York to set up his archives.

I could go on and on about Danna and her uniqueness, but what I want you to remember this evening about her is that she is an intellectual. She is encyclopedic, although she will not go on Jeopardy! for love or money. She is trustworthy and steadfast. She worked to be inclusive in the development of goals and objectives for this society. And she championed those goals and objectives. She has the heart of a lioness, and most of all she is a very, very nice person.

So I present to some and introduce to others my darling daughter, Danna C. Bell.