Always Remember Gala
VOICES Always Remember Gala
Thursday, November 19th, 2026
New York Athletic Club
6:00pm - Cocktails
7:00pm to 9:00pm - Dinner
9:00pm to 10:00pm - Dessert Reception
Join us for a memorable evening at VOICES 25th Anniversary Always Remember Gala: Honoring the Past, Shaping the Future, as we mark 25 years since 9/11 and the founding of VOICES.
We are thrilled to welcome back award-winning journalist Brian Williams who will take the helm as our emcee. The 2026 VOICES Leadership Award will be presented to former CIA Director John Brennan, in recognition of a distinguished career in intelligence and national security and lifelong commitment to protecting our nation and preventing future attacks. The evening will include a heartfelt 25th Anniversary Tribute to VOICES Honorees whose support over the years has helped us build a lasting legacy. Broadway star and actor, Rachel Gold will sing a special selection in honor of the occasion.
Your support of the Gala carries our work forward. Proceeds sustain VOICES long-term support for victims' families, responders, survivors, and the next generation. They also help us share the lessons learned from 9/11, so communities are better prepared to respond and recover when tragedy strikes.
Sponsorships, commemorative ads, and tables and tickets are available. Can't join us that evening? You can be part of the night by sponsoring a table or making a donation in honor of someone’s memory.
Emcee
Brian Williams
Veteran Journalist & News Anchor
Brian Williams is a 40 year veteran of television news, and is among the most highly-decorated journalists of his generation. After 28 years at NBC News, he signed off the air for the last time on December 9, 2021. He returned to live television as anchor of Election Night Live on Amazon Prime, a first-of-its-kind global streaming broadcast, covering real-time results of the most consequential election night of the modern era.
Over the course of his career, he covered every major story imaginable: political conventions and Presidential elections, our nation’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, conflict in the Middle East, natural disasters and countless mass-casualty tragedies in the United States and abroad. He travelled to over two dozen countries, many of them aboard Air Force One. He has known and interviewed seven American Presidents.
His work has been richly rewarded, with thirteen Emmy Awards, 11 Edward R. Murrow awards, the DuPont-Columbia award, the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism, and the industry’s highest honor: the George Foster Peabody Award, which he received for his tireless coverage of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. His televised reports from New Orleans were praised by Vanity Fair as “Murrow-worthy.”
During the decade he spent as Anchor and Managing Editor of NBC Nightly News, it was the most-watched news broadcast in the United States — and Williams was viewed by more people on a daily basis than any other broadcaster. At the time of his retirement from NBC News, he was anchor and co-creator of the critically-acclaimed “Eleventh Hour with Brian Williams,” which chronicled the 2016 election and its aftermath, including the January 6th insurrection and the failed attempt to overturn a Presidential election. Stemming from his years of aggressive reporting on Putin and Russia, he took great pride when in May of 2023 his name appeared on a Kremlin-generated list of 500 Americans permanently banned from entering Russia.
Williams joined NBC in 1993 after a dozen years in local news. Two years later, he was named Chief White House Correspondent. In 2007, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Along the way, he became a favorite of late-night talk show audiences, and in 2008 he became the first evening news anchor to host “Saturday Night Live.” In 2014, Williams was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame by fellow member Bruce Springsteen.
Beyond his family, his first love has always been firefighting — and that remains true today. He applied for enrollment in the fire academy at the age of 18, and has served as a volunteer firefighter for many years. He is currently an active-duty member of the fire service in Ocean County, New Jersey, where he serves as a Lieutenant. He has been a member of the Leary Firefighters Foundation Board of Directors for 12 years, where he is proud to advocate for the needs of the nation’s 130,000 volunteer firefighters.
Leadership Honoree
John O. Brennan
Former Director, CIA
Founding Director, National Counterterrorism Center
John O. Brennan served as director of the Central Intelligence Agency from March 2013 until January 2017. From January 2009 to March 2013, Mr. Brennan was Deputy National Security Advisor and Assistant to President Obama for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism.
Mr. Brennan began his government service at the CIA, where he worked from 1980 to 2005. In 2003, he led a multi-agency effort to establish the National Counterterrorism Center and served as the Center’s founding Director. Mr. Brennan graduated from Fordham University in 1977, studied at the American University in Cairo 1975-76, and earned a master’s degree in government from the University of Texas at Austin in 1980. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller, “Undaunted: My Fight Against America’s Enemies at Home and Abroad,” a memoir of his career in public service.
Musical Performance
Rachel Gold
Broadway Actor, Screenwriter and Songwriter
Rachel Gold is a New York based actor, writer, and teacher. She made her Broadway debut in The Phantom of the Opera where she played Christine Daaé. She began in the ensemble but was soon moved up to play the role.
Other credits include Scarlett O’Hara on the international tour of Gone With The Wind (original English language cast), Ariel in The Little Mermaid at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Hodel in Fiddler On The Roof at Broadway at Music Circus, Sophie/First Soprano in Master Class at Arizona Theatre Company, Louise in Gypsy. She graduated with a BFA in musical theatre from the University of Michigan.
25th Anniversary Tribute to VOICES Honorees
In commemoration of the 25th Anniversary of 9/11, and the founding of VOICES, we proudly pay tribute to all our Honorees and Special Guests as part of the evening's celebration:
Richard Ben-Veniste, Chris Berman, Tony Blair, Richard Blumenthal, George Bodenheimer, Jon Bon Jovi, William Bratton, James Clapper, Alex Clarke, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Susan Collins, James Comey, Christopher Del Pozzo, John Duffy, Herm Edwards, Gunnar Esiason, Jeff Fager, John Feal, Fred Fielding, Kathie Lee Gifford, Rudy Giuliani, Jamie Gorelick, Slade Gorton, Mike Greenberg, Alice Greenwald, Lee Hamilton, Robert Hurst, Thomas Kean, Raymond Kelly, Bob Kerrey, John Lehman, Joseph Lieberman, Lara Logan, Joan Lunden, Edie Lutnik, Carolyn Maloney, George Martin, Dave Mason, Robert McDuffie, Tom Michaud, John Miller, Robert Mueller, Kevin Murphy, Norah O’Donnell, David Paine, Leon Panetta, David Petraeus, Jimmy Pitaro, Timothy Roemer, Jeremy Schaap, Chris Shays, Lesley Stahl, James Thompson, Family Vigiano, Thomas Von Essen, Rebecca Ulam Weiner, Brian Williams, Jay Winuk, Kurt Wolfgruber, and Bob Woodruff.
