As part of Rosacea Awareness Month, Cynthia Nixon (best known for her role as Miranda Hobbes in HBO’s celebrated series, Sex and the City) is starring in an Online Public Service Announcement that shines the spotlight on this little-known skin condition.

Curious about rosacea? Here are a few things Cynthia wants rosacea sufferers to know:

• Rosacea can be triggered by certain foods, drinks and activities. Cynthia has modified her diet and daily routine to help manage her rosacea.
• Cynthia started noticing that something was going on with her skin in her early forties, and found out it was rosacea from her dermatologist. Rosacea tends to appear after age 30 and because of its chronic nature, it can last a lifetime.
• Rosacea can be difficult to recognize and is often mistaken for acne, but unlike acne, it is not believed that bacteria is involved.
• While there is no cure for rosacea and the cause is unknown, it can be treated and managed with the help of a dermatologist.

Visit www.ROSACEAFACTS.com to learn more about rosacea, take the self-screening quiz and to connect with a dermatologist in your area.

This public service announcement was created in partnership with the National Rosacea Society and sponsored by Galderma Laboratories, L.P.

According to the National Institutes for Health, 25% to 40% of people over 65 already have some degree of hearing loss. The number of Americans affected by hearing loss is also expected to shoot up—from about 36 million Americans today to 78 million by the year 2030.

Because of these stats, The NYEE has released a new Public Service Announcement featuring world-renowned trumpeter and composer Chris Botti and composer, singer, author, actor, and activist Sting. The PSA was created to raise awareness about hearing loss, particularly among baby boomers and urges viewers to visit http://iLikeMyHearing.org, a new educational website about hearing health. Hearing loss can impact our relationships, work, leisure pursuits and even safety. That’s why all adults should take control of their hearing health as soon as possible.

Find out more about hearing health by visiting http://iLikeMyHearing.org where you can also learn about the NYEE’s Favorite Sounds Sweepstakes. Visitors can choose to “like” the page by recording their own favorite sounds, and by doing so enter the sweepstakes. The sweepstakes prize is the $5,000-value opportunity for the winner and ten friends to share dinner with Chris Botti at The New York Eye and Ear Infirmary’s November 15 fundraising gala.

You can also check out the new PSA featuring Chris Botti with voice-over narration by Sting below:

What could be better than the thrill of competition? How about winning much-needed grants for your college or university? That is exactly what students from 48 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) will be doing this spring! All across the nation, teams from HBCUs are making final preparations to vie for academic glory at the nation’s only HBCU academic competition: The Honda Campus All-Star Challenge (HCASC).

HCASC supports Historically Black Colleges and Universities through a friendly academic competition, taking place over two exciting days. This event, which will take place April 1-2, is one of Honda’s major philanthropic initiatives supporting education, and helps young people pursue their dreams!

What is the Honda Campus All-Star Challenge? HCASC is one of Honda’s largest and longest running philanthropic initiatives in the United States. Since 1989, Honda has awarded more than $6 million dollars in grants to the participating HBCUs. The 23^rd annual HCASC will take place in Los Angeles, CA from March 30 – April 3, 2012, with April 1-2 dedicated to the competition. This year’s “Great 48” includes HBCUs from all over the country. The final two teams will compete for the National Champion title and the grand prize of $50,000 for the winning team to bring back to their school!

How can you get involved?

• Support these bright young minds by sharing information about the 23rd annual Honda Campus All-Star Challenge with your family, friends, and Twitter followers!
• Do you think you could win the big prize? Test your own knowledge by playing the HCASC online game. Encourage your friends and family to play along as well, by following the below URL: http://www.hcasc.com/onlinegames/gamelogin.asp
• “Like” the Honda Campus All-Star Challenge on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.

For more information about the Honda Campus All-Star Challenge please visit www.hcasc.com.

Self Check is part of E-Verify, a Department of Homeland Security program administered by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in partnership with the Social Security Administration. E-Verify is used by many employers to verify the employment eligibility of their new employees.

So how can job hunters benefit from Self Check? Below are few ways:

- Self Check takes the mystery out of the employment eligibility confirmation process. Workers are able to identify whether there are any inaccuracies in their records before they seek employment. Self Check also tells you how to resolve these issues prior to taking a job.

- Self Check enables U.S. workers to use the same information that employers enter into E-Verify and check it against the same databases that E-Verify checks. Wouldn’t you like to know whether you would be work authorized by E-Verify before your new boss does?

- Self Check is fast, easy, and free!

For more information on Self Check, please visit www.uscis.gov/selfcheck or follow USCIS on Twitter (@uscis.) You can also learn more by checking out the informative new Public Service Announcement below:

Fact: Prescription drugs are the most commonly abused drugs among 12-13 year olds. Many of these pills can be found in your medicine cabinet and around your house.

Fact: More than 50% of prescription drug abusers got them from family and friends. Proper drug disposal protects your loved ones from misuse.

National Association of Boards of Pharmacy Foundation and their AWARxE Consumer Protection Program are taking a stand against prescription drug abuse by spreading awareness of this issue and sharing information on proper prescription drug disposal. Founded in 1904, the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) is the impartial professional organization that supports the state boards of pharmacy in protecting public health.

In an effort to help stop this growing problem, the DEA is hosting a Take-Back Day on April 28, 2012. If you have any unused prescription drugs in your home, you can drop them off at the designated collection site in your community on April 28. The DEA coordinates with the local law enforcement and community partners to provide thousands of sites across the country, many of them at police departments, so that the unwanted drugs are disposed of safely and legally. Sites will accept pills, both prescription and nonprescription, for disposal.

How can you get involved?

• Share information about the April 28 DEA Take-Back Day with your friends and family, Twitter followers, and Facebook friends.
• “Like” AWARxE on Facebook and encourage your friends and family to do the same: www.facebook.com/AWARxE

The best and most effective way to help fight this problem is by spreading awareness. Together, we can stop the misuse of prescription drugs. To find out more about prevention and the April 28 DEA Take-Back Day, please visit www.AWARERX.ORG.

This past month, The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards singled out America’s most outstanding youth volunteers to reward their good work and hold them up as examples for all of us — kids and adults alike.

What are these awards? Created in 1995, The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards represents the United States’ largest youth recognition program based solely on volunteer service, and is a truly remarkable program! Each year, the program’s judges select two State Honorees and a handful of Distinguished Finalists in each state and the District of Columbia. The 234 Distinguished Finalists receive bronze medallions, and the 102 State Honorees each receive $1,000, an engraved silver medallion and an all-expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C. where they tour the capital’s landmarks, attend a gala awards ceremony, and visit congressional representatives on Capitol Hill.

On May 7^th, while in D.C., 10 of this year’s State Honorees will be named National Honorees. These honorees will receive additional $5,000 awards, gold medallions, crystal trophies and $5,000 grants from The Prudential Foundation for nonprofit charitable organizations of their choice. This wonderful trip is designed to not only thank the students for all their hard work, but to also recognize their efforts and encourage others to follow in their footsteps.

How can you show your support for these bright young minds?

1. Find your state’s honorees here and share their stories with your family, friends, and Twitter followers, encouraging all of us to take notice and follow their path of volunteerism.
2. Cheer on your hometown hero and share the live webcast of the May 7^th event with your family, friends, and readers.  You and your readers can secure your spots for this free webcast event here: http://www.visualwebcaster.com/event.asp?id=8544

For more information visit www.spirit.prudential.com. And be sure to follow the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards on Twitter and like them on Facebook.

A new year means new resolutions, and for many those resolutions will include getting a better handle on managing their finances in 2012. The National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC) has launched an innovative, new online financial resource tool for consumers called MyMoneyCheckUp™.

MyMoneyCheckUp™ is a completely FREE online tool available on the NFCC website, www.DebtAdvice.org, or at www.MyMoneyCheckUp.org, and is designed to provide an assessment of a consumer’s overall financial health and behavior in four designated areas of personal finance including:

• Budgeting and credit management;
• Saving and investing;
• Planning for retirement;  and
• Managing home equity.

This new tool was created to align with the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Education Core Competencies, and is an example of a successful collaboration between community-based nonprofit organizations, academic institutions, and the public and private sectors.

The Only Comprehensive Web-based Financial Self-Assessment Tool Available

• Provides individual evaluations for each financial management track: Budgeting, Borrowing, Saving, Housing, and Retirement.

• Allows for easy online access and availability. The tool can be utilized by the same user multiple times to evaluate the long-term effectiveness of the counseling and education provided.

The NFCC invites you to test MyMoneyCheckUp for yourself. Visit MyMoneyCheckUp.org today! It is our hope that consumers who are ready to take control of their financial well-being can now easily do so… for free!

For more information visit www.DebtAdvice.org. And be sure to follow the NFCC on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

February 16^th marks the launch of the Code Purple Event during Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in New York City. The event will spread awareness and raise funds to distribute this product to every soul living in an environment where Malaria is a risk factor. The fundraising event will feature unique collections from the aforementioned designers, as well as special musical guest performances, a live auction, raffles, and giveaways.

Check out this video to learn more:

How can you get activated?

• Win a Ticket to The Code Purple Event:  If you are in the NYC area, head on down to Mood Fabrics starting on January 16^th, located at 225 West 37th Street New York, NY, and take a picture with your Mood bag. BE OUR STAR and STEP in front of the Code Purple Event Step-and-Repeat.  Then log onto Code Purple’s Facebook Page, post your picture to the Wall, and immediately tell us why you are inspired by this campaign and should be at the event on February 16^th in NYC! Winner must provide their own transportation to and from the event.
• Wear Your Support: If you can’t make it to the event, you can show support by picking up your hoodie at www.INGactivewear.com or make a donation at www.codepurpleevent.com.  For every hoodie purchased through ING Activewear’s website, ING Activewear will contribute by donating another hoodie to be sent to Africa to better someone’s life.

Join Code Purple Event in their mission of Covering, Protecting, and Saving Lives. Get ACTIVATED today!

As research continues to advance our understanding of cancer, there’s now a new way for doctors to take better aim in the care of their cancer patients, using evidence-based molecular profiling to help determine which cancer therapies are more likely to be effective and which therapies are likely to be ineffective.

A new evidence-based molecular profiling system – called Caris Target Now™ – is bringing about dramatic changes in the personalization of cancer care.

No two cancers are alike and cancer treatment plans shouldn’t be either. Treatment that works well for one person may be ineffective for another, because each patient’s cancer has different genetics.  Caris Target Now™ makes it possible to detect those differences, match a tumor’s genetics with specific drugs more likely to be effective, and flag therapies with less chance of working.

Personalized cancer treatment like this can increase quality of life, uncover treatments previously not considered, and cut healthcare costs.

One multicenter study conducted by Caris Life Sciences, and published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, showed that Caris Target Now™ molecular profiling increased progression free survival from various cancers, including late-stage cancer, in 27 percent of 86 patients studied who had their therapy selected this way, versus the previous therapy on which they had progressed.

Interested in more information?   Watch as Sandeep K. Reddy, MD, oncology expert and clinical associate professor of medicine, Geffen/UCLA School of Medicine, discusses Caris Target Now™, and as Sandra Fehrman, a cancer patient, explains how this technology helped to extend and enhance her life, in this  moving video.

For more information about the role of molecular profiling in cancer therapy selection visit www.mycancer.com.

Imagine being someone who lives with a very rare and potentially life-threatening genetic condition that that occurs in about 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 50,000 people. Hereditary Angioedema (HAE) causes attacks of painful, debilitating, and disfiguring swelling that make its victims virtually unrecognizable.  Until recently, anabolic steroids—which can cause unwanted short- and long-term side effects—were the only treatment choice available. In the new “Looking at HAE from the Outside In” Public Service Announcement (PSA) Campaign, the U.S. Hereditary Angioedema Association (HAEA) is empowering patients with the knowledge that there is a new era for HAE treatment and patients now have a choice.

Anabolic steroids, as the only FDA-approved treatment for HAE, did help patients manage their symptoms, but they are not considered suitable for children.  And many patients–especially women–have expressed concerns about steroid-related side effects such as weight gain, facial hair growth, mood changes, and menstrual irregularities.  Anabolic steroids may also cause liver toxicity and elevated cholesterol levels, which may be associated with increased risk for heart attack and stroke.

Because of these risks, the HAEA has released a new public service announcement that brings the symptoms of HAE to life in a way never before seen.  Using cutting-edge special effects technology, the viewer sees the bodies of HAE patients morph from swollen to normal, amplifying what it feels like to have an HAE attack using authentic patient words and images. The PSA educates viewers about the potential risks associated with anabolic steroids and empowers HAE patients to enter a new era for HAE treatment – patients now have a choice. I invite you to check out this new, informative video PSA below:

This PSA campaign is the latest in the HAEA’s efforts to promote education and empowerment as the cornerstones of broader awareness of HAE and improved patient outcomes. If you think you or a loved one may be living with Hereditary Angioedema, please visit www.haea.org for more information on physician referrals, available treatment options and more.