2025 Inspiration Gala

Partnership with Children invites you to our annual Inspiration Gala, which celebrates the importance of mental health and healing-based arts education in preparing New York City’s children to succeed in school, society, and life.  

This year, we are thrilled to honor individuals who exemplify Partnership with Children’s core values. Leaders and role models in each of their respective fields, our 2025 honorees inspire us with both their professional successes and personal passion and compassion.  

We hope you can join us for this joyous event!   

2025 Inspiration Gala

Thursday, May 29, 2025

Pier Sixty, 60 Chelsea Piers, New York City

6:30pm Cocktails | 7:30pm Dinner Program

Festive Attire

Honorees

In recognition of their outstanding personal and professional accomplishments, we are thrilled to be honoring three outstanding partners who serve as inspirational champions for our young people: 

Stephanie Drescher

Partner, Chief Client and Product Development Officer

Apollo Global Management

Deva Bronson

EVP, Global Head of Brand Assurance

dentsu

PWC is proud to have honored numerous titans across the finance, media, and healthcare industries as well as icons and trailblazers in the arts.  To learn more about our previous honorees and Inspiration Award winners, click here. 

Heroes 

Heather & Jed Finn

Champions 

Danielle & Dan Benardette

EY

IAB

Morgan Stanley

Mentors 

GroupM

Nir Braufman Family Foundation

Helena Willner & Rob Vahradian

Leaders

Cindy Chang & Tom Booker

PWC Board of Directors:

Helena Willner, Board President • Jed Finn, Executive Vice President • David Cohen, Vice President • Alexandra Murray, Vice President • Ramneek Rikhy, Vice President • André Branch, Treasurer • Andy Bettwy, Secretary • Nelly Akoth • Dan Benardette • Tom Booker •  Jill Braufman •  Kalena Griffin Costa • Jonathan Fassberg • Omino Gardezi • Patrick Grandinetti • Nancy Hall • Pinar Kip • Helen Lin • Freddy Rolón • Michael Rost • Pay Wu

Last year, Partnership with Children welcomed 530 guests to our 2024 Inspiration Gala. Thank you to those who joined us in celebration – it was truly a night to remember!

For those wanting to relive the magic, we invite you to enjoy the highlight reel below and visit our gala recap page. 

About PWC:  

Since 1908, Partnership with Children (PWC) has strengthened the emotional, social, and cognitive skills of children in New York City to succeed in school, society, and life. For 117 years, we have provided a safety net to generations of New Yorkers and responded to some of our city’s greatest challenges. Today, our work focuses on the mental health needs of our young people. We place licensed clinical social workers, youth development specialists, and teaching artists in schools to provide young people, grades K-12, growing up in poverty with trauma-informed mental health counseling, community-based programming, and healing-based arts education. Through this approach, our students build the skills necessary to break cycles of poverty and become advocates for their communities. Last year, PWC’s work impacted over 22,000 children and families across 47 NYC public schools. To learn more about our history and the scope of our work click here.