2013 Emcee, Auctioneer and Celebrity Escorts

Kyra Phillips, Emcee

Kyra Phillips is an award-winning journalist who anchors “Raising America with Kyra Phillips.” This daytime interactive broadcast focuses on news stories told through a parental lens and how they impact the modern American family. Phillips joined CNN in 1999, moved to HLN in August 2012 and led the network’s 2012 election coverage. She is based at the network’s world headquarters in Atlanta. Phillips completed four tours of reporting in Iraq, writing not only about the war, but how it has affected life for the Iraqi people. Her war coverage secured her the Atlanta Press Club’s National Reporter of the Year for 2007. In January 2002, Phillips spent a month in Antarctica, working on a documentary about the science and danger on Earth’s most frigid continent. Phillips traced the steps of the famous explorer, Sir Ernest Shackleton. Before joining CNN in October 1999, Phillips served as an investigative reporter in the Special Assignment Unit for KCBS-TV in Los Angeles. Phillips has won five Emmy awards, two Edward R. Murrow awards for investigative reporting, and in 1997 the Associated Press named her Reporter of the Year. Since 1992, she has been a Big Sister with national Big Brothers/Big Sisters of America mentoring program. She participates on the board of The Brain Tumor Foundation for Children. Phillips earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Southern California.

Larry LaRocco, Auctioneer

The Honorable Larry LaRocco is a principal of LaRocco & Associates, Inc., a government relations and public affairs firm based in Boise, Idaho, and Washington, D.C. In 1990, LaRocco won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives from the 1st District of Idaho. LaRocco served two terms in Congress, where he sat on the Banking and Interior committees. After Congress, LaRocco was a managing director at the American Bankers Association, where he headed two affiliate trade groups in securities and insurance. In 2000, he launched LaRocco & Associates with his son. From 2003 to 2006, he was president of Fleishman-Hillard Government Relations in Washington, D.C. LaRocco has served as president of the U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress and in 2008 ran for the open U.S. Senate seat in Idaho. He received a B.A. degree from the University of Portland and attended The Stanford University Institute of TV & Radio. He got his M.S. from Boston University in 1969, and also studied at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. After his studies, he served in the U.S. Army as a captain in military intelligence.

Lesli Foster

Lesli Foster is an Emmy award-winning journalist at WUSA 9 in Washington, D.C., who co-anchors 9NEWS NOW at 5pm and is the solo anchor on 9NEWS NOW at 6pm. Lesli joined WUSA 9 in 2001 and has covered everything from the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the Pentagon to the 40th anniversary of the March on Washington. Lesli is a featured journalist in the book “Women Journalists at Ground Zero.” Before joining 9 NEWS NOW, Lesli was a reporter for WBAL-TV, where she was named Best TV-News Personality by Baltimore’s City Paper. A graduate of Howard University, Lesli gives her time to many causes and organizations throughout the Washington area. Lesli lives in Maryland with her husband and daughter

Beverly Johnson

Beverly Johnson is the first African-American supermodel. Her stunning features and superstardom landed her on the cover of Vogue magazine in 1974, making world history as the first black model to grace the cover and forever changing the beauty ideal in the fashion world. Beverly’s remarkable career, which spans three decades, is a showcase of accomplishment: from model to mom then actress, author, activist, businesswoman, TV personality, and — finally — icon. Beverly appeared on more than 500 magazine covers. Her success during the ‘70s and ‘80s transcended race as Beverly became a household name. Beverly worked the runway for such designers as Yves St. Laurent, Valentino, Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren and Halston.

John Roberts

John Roberts joined Fox News Channel as a senior national correspondent based in the Atlanta bureau in January of 2011. Before joining FNC, Roberts co-anchored CNN’s “American Morning.” Previously, he served as CNN’s senior national correspondent and anchor of “This Week at War.” Roberts has provided live coverage during numerous breaking news and political events, including presidential debates, the Democratic and Republican national conventions and the war in Iraq. Before joining CNN in 2006, he spent more than 14 years with CBS News, during which he was the chief White House correspondent, chief medical correspondent and anchor of the weekend editions of the “CBS Evening News” and “CBS Morning News.”