NEW YORK, NY, October 01, 2020 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Marquis Who's Who, the world's premier publisher of biographical profiles, is proud to present Sandra Elaine Kitt with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. An accomplished listee, Ms. Kitt celebrates many years' experience in her professional network, and has been noted for achievements, leadership qualities, and the credentials and successes she has accrued in her field. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Having led a diverse, successful career for more than five decades, Ms. Kitt formerly spent 30 years as the managing director of the Richard S. Perkin Collection in Astronomy and Astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History's Hayden Planetarium in New York City from 1973 to 2003. She also spent 19 years as a freelance graphic designer between 1970 and 1990. She was commissioned by Dr. Isaac Asimov to illustrate two books, "Asimov's Guide to Halley's Comet" 1985, and "Beginnings" 1987. Among other noteworthy roles, Ms. Kitt taught courses as an adjunct professor of fiction writing and publishing at County College of Morris in Dover, New Jersey, and has been a frequent lecturer at New York University, the Pennsylvania State University, Sarah Lawrence College, and Columbia University. From 2009-2020, she lent her expertise as a library assistant in the Christoph Keller, Jr. Library at the General Theological Seminary in New York City.
An award-winning author, Ms. Kitt is best known as the first African American to publish with Harlequin Enterprises, a Toronto-based publishing company that exclusively publishes romance and women's fiction series. She was also one of the only African Americans to write and publish romance novels for 10 straight years, until the 1990s. After releasing her first two books in 1984, "Rites of Spring" and "Adam and Eva," she has since authored roughly 30 more books, with her newest, "Winner Takes All," the first in a trilogy, due out in 2021. Notably, "Adam and Eva" was Harlequin's first African American romance by an African American author. Meanwhile, Ms. Kitt's 1995 book, titled "The Color of Love," is her most acclaimed novel. A bestselling book for 26 years, it was also optioned by HBO and Lifetime. Ms. Kitt has appeared on the Black Board Bestseller's List in Essence Magazine, and several of her books have been recognized with various other awards and accolades.
Ms. Kitt's remarkable success afforded her opportunities to attend and present at conferences in India and serve as an invited speaker at the 2019 Romance Writers Conference. While working at the Hayden Planetarium, she was asked to write the last script to be used in the very last public show in 1995, which was then narrated by the late Walter Cronkite. As an artist, Ms. Kitt had the pleasure of designing two cards for the United Nations International Children's Fund, which were then sold at their annual holiday card fundraiser.
Active with several charitable organizations over the years, Ms. Kitt recently served on the advisory board for Coalition for the Homeless' First Step program in New York from 2002 to 2014. She was also influential on the advisory board of the multicultural committee and as a member of the outreach committee for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. As a commitment to the hospital, Ms. Kitt also wrote a book titled "For All We Know," about a young African American pre-teen patient who had pediatric AIDS. Published through Harlequin in 2010, the book's proceeds were donated to the hospital. Harlequin also contributed a donation.
After graduating from high school, Ms. Kitt received an associate degree at Bronx Community College in New York in 1968. She was then accepted to City College of New York, where she acquired both a bachelor's and master's degree in fine art in 1970 and 1975, respectively.
Ms. Kitt has been actively engaged with various professional organizations relative to her field, including Novelists Inc., Romance Writers of America, and the Authors Guild. She is also a member and past president of the New York chapter of the Special Libraries Association, which is an international consortium of librarians from all over the world. As a part of the association, Ms. Kitt was selected by the State Department to serve on a small panel of experts, where she had the opportunity to network with librarians in the Soviet Union and other librarians from the U.S. Ms. Kitt, living in Munich, Germany in 2009, was hired by the European Southern Observatory to assist with a bibliographic project for the facility library.
Honored for her accomplishments, Ms. Kitt received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Romantic Times. She also received a Lifetime Achievement Award and a Service Award from the New York chapter of Romance Writers of America. Among other recognitions, she received a Zora Neale Hurston Literature Award and a Romantic Times Pioneer Award. A celebrated Marquis listee, Ms. Kitt has been cited in the 57th, 58th and 60th editions of Who's Who in America and the 23rd, 25th and 27th editions of Who's Who of American Women.
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Since 1899, when A. N. Marquis printed the First Edition of Who's Who in America®, Marquis Who's Who® has chronicled the lives of the most accomplished individuals and innovators from every significant field of endeavor, including politics, business, medicine, law, education, art, religion and entertainment. Today, Who's Who in America® remains an essential biographical source for thousands of researchers, journalists, librarians and executive search firms around the world. Marquis® now publishes many Who's Who titles, including Who's Who in America®, Who's Who in the World®, Who's Who in American Law®, Who's Who in Medicine and Healthcare®, Who's Who in Science and Engineering®, and Who's Who in Asia®. Marquis® publications may be visited at the official Marquis Who's Who® website at www.marquiswhoswho.com.
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