Tony Award-winning actress Phylicia Rashad was named to be the inaugural holder of the Denzel Washington Chair in Theatre at Fordham University in The Bronx, New York. Rashad is perhaps best known for her role as Claire Huxtable on the long-running television comedy, The Cosby Show. Rashad is a magna cum laude graduate of Howard University.
The chair and a scholarship fund for theater students was made possible by a $2,225,000 donation to Fordham from alumnus Denzel Washington, a two-time winner of an Academy Award.
What a wonderful and generous scholarship and chair from Mr. Washington with Ms. Rashad as its first holder. Mr. Washington also generously supports the Boy & Girls Clubs. However, direct support for elementary, middle and high school education is needed by under-resourced and under-served students to even get to Fordham. University theater training will never be a reality for many students if they don’t first get through high school.