The William H. and Camille O. Cosby
Philanthropic Award

With the agreement of William H. and Camille O. Cosby, Associated Black Charities has established The William H. and Camille O. Cosby Philanthropic Award to recognize philanthropic participation by an African American or, in selected instances, a non-African American, who, in any given year, most exemplifies the Cosby's philosophy or notion of philanthropy in service of improved education and health and human services to less fortunate African Americans.

The purpose of The William H. and Camille O. Cosby Philanthropic Award is expected to help focus the need of financially capable African Americans, in addition to their traditional giving to religious institutions, to engage in planned, endowment and other forms of tax advantageous giving.

Associated with The William H. and Camille O. Cosby Philanthropic Award will be a cash grant to finance a leading-edge, innovative study or project designed to advance educational progress and understanding of health and human service issues affecting African American participation in American society.

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The 2007 recipient of
The William H. and Camille O. Cosby Philanthropic Award is:
Carla Harris
Managing Director
Global Capital Markets
Morgan Stanley

Carla Harris is a Managing Director in Global Capital Markets at Morgan Stanley. She heads the equity capital markets effort for Consumer, Retail, and East Coast Industrial companies and is responsible for Equity Private Placements. Ms. Harris is responsible for the structuring, marketing, and execution of public and private equity financings and has industry experiences in the technology, media, retail, telecommunications, transportation, industrial, and healthcare sectors. She is currently the chair of the Firm’s Private Placement Commitment Equity Committee.

For more than a decade, Ms. Harris was a senior member of the Equity Syndicate desk and executed such transactions as initial public offerings for UPS, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Ariba, Redback, the General Motors sub-IPO of Delphi Automotive, and the $3.2 Billion common stock transaction for Immunex Corporation, the largest biotechnology follow on offering in U.S. history. Ms. Harris was recently named to Fortune Magazine’s list of “The 50 Most Powerful Black Executives in Corporate America”, and to Fortune’s the “Most Influential List” 2005, to Black Enterprise Magazine’s “Top 50 African Americans on Wall Street”, to Essence Magazine’s list of “The 50 Women Who are Shaping the World”, Ebony’s list of “15 Corporate Women at The Top”, the Network Journal’s 2005 list of “25 Most Outstanding Women in Business” and was named “Woman of the Year 2004” by the Harvard University Black Men’s Forum.

Ms. Harris began her career with Morgan Stanley in the Mergers & Acquisitions department in 1987. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Carla received from Harvard Business School an MBA, Second Year Honors and an AB in economics from Harvard University, Magna Cum Laude. Carla Harris is actively involved in her community and heartily believes that “we are blessed so that we can be a blessing to someone else.” As a result, Carla has funded the Carla Harris Scholarship Fund at Harvard University and at Bishop Kenny High School in Jacksonville, Florida.

She is the Chair of the Board of The New York City Food Bank, Food for Survival, and the Morgan Stanley Foundation and sits on the boards of Harvard Business School Alumni Association, Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO), A Better Chance, Inc., The Apollo Theater Foundation, the St. Charles Borromeo Catholic School, and is an active member of the St. Charles Gospelites of St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church. Ms. Harris is also on the board of the Maya Angelou Research for Minority Health and is a member of the Executive Leadership Council. She has received the Bert King Award from the Harvard Business School African American Alumni Association, the 2005 Women’s Professional Achievement Award from Harvard University, the Pierre Touissant Medallion from the Office of Black Ministry of the Archdiocese of New York, Blazing New Trials award from the Robert A. Toigo Foundation, the Bethune Award from the National Council of Negro Women, the Ron Brown Trailblazer Award from St. John’s University School of Law, the Women of Distinction Award from the Girl Scouts of Greater Essex and Hudson Counties, and the Frederick Douglass Award given by the New York Urban League.

In her other life, Carla is a singer, and has released her second CD, a gospel album entitled, Joy is Waiting, which has been featured on BET Nightly News. Her first CD entitled, “Carla’s First Christmas”, was a bestseller on Amazon.com in New York and in record stores, and was featured on the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather in his “American Dream” segment.