USCCB Official To Receive Everett C. Parker Award
WASHINGTON (May 1, 2006)Katherine G. Grincewich, Associate General Counsel, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), a long time advocate of the publics rights in broadcasting, has been selected by the United Church of Christ (UCC) to receive the Everett C. Parker Award for 2006. The presentation will be made at a luncheon ceremony at the National Press Club on September 12.
The Parker Award has been given to individuals for more than 20 years by the UCC Office of Communication. The awards honor the Rev. Dr. Everett C. Parker, founder and director emeritus of the Office of Communication, for his pioneering work in broadcast reform. Recipients are selected nationally. The selection criteria emphasize persons whose work embodies the principles and values of advocating for the public interest through social communications.
According to the UCC, Ms. Grincewich was selected for her dedicated support and effective service in the public interest in broadcasting.
Mark E. Chopko, USCCB General Counsel, commented: Given the historic reality that the broadcast and communications industry wields substantial weight with regulators, her career in support of the public agenda of the Bishops Conference has been extraordinary. She is known to the FCC Commissioners and staff, and to the communications bar and lobbyists in Washington, as an effective advocate.
Katherine Grincewich has worked at the USCCB since 1983. She practices in the areas of intellectual property, telecommunications, and corporate law. She has advocated on behalf of the Catholic bishops and the people they serve before the Federal Communications Commission and Congress to protect the publics right to disseminate and receive information from diverse sources on radio, television, cable television, satellite and the Internet. On behalf of the USCCB, she has advocated retaining reasonable media ownership rules, establishing meaningful public interest obligations of digital television licensees, establishing childrens programming rules, preservation of EBS for educational use, support of the Fairness doctrine, retention of the main studio rule, support for greater transparency in broadcast renewal procedures, support for widespread licensing of low power radio, and support for public comment on alcohol advertisements on television and radio.
As in-house counsel to the USCCB, Ms. Grincewich drafts, negotiates, and interprets contracts for print, digital, video and audio works, and served as counsel to USCCBs former subsidiary, CTNA Telecommunications, which created and distributed religious and educational programming via satellite to dioceses throughout the United States. She previously practiced telecommunications law at Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard and McPherson. She is a member of the D.C. Bar Association, the Arts, Entertainment and Sports Law Section of the D.C. Bar (and was the recipient, with Loretta Polk, Associate General Counsel, National Cable and Telecommunications Association, of the Best Section Community Outreach Project) and the Federal Communications Bar Association.
Ms. Grincewich is a 1981 graduate of the Columbus School of Law of the Catholic University of America and a 1978 graduate of the University of Delaware. She is a member of several honor societies, including Phi Beta Kappa.