Jane Alexander, a six-time Tony Award nominee and a Tony winner in 1969, has since become even more than an influential actress.  From 1993 to 1997, Ms. Alexander was the head of the National Endowment for the Arts, the largest national funder of the arts in the United States.  In 2005, Alexander won her first Emmy Award. 

The text of Ms. Alexander's speech can be viewed here with Microsoft Word.