One of the country's most influential advocates for improving the lives of disadvantaged children, Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Children's Defense Fund, will be honored at UAH with a public reception on Thursday, October 3. Edelman's visit to campus is sponsored by the UAH Office of Diversity. The reception will be held from 2:30 p.m., to 4 p.m., in the University Center Exhibit Hall, and is free and open to the public. Edelman founded the Children's Defense Fund (CDF) more than 40 years ago to provide a lobby for children's issues - specifically education, hunger, health care and protection. Also, as an advocate for CDF, Edelman convinced Congress to overhaul foster care. CDF is headquartered in Washington, D.C.