Meet the Honorees

Anthony Harmon turns multi-tasking into an art form and seems to never get a moment’s rest, which has led to his newest appointment as Special Assistant to the Secretary/Treasurer with the NYS AFL-CIO.  He previously served as Director of Staff for the United Federation of Teachers from 2017 – 2024.  Prior to his position as Director of Staff, he also served as an Assistant to the UFT President, Director of Parent and Community Outreach, Director of Dial-A-Teacher, the union’s homework help service, Director of the Albert Shanker Scholarship Fund and Chair of the UFT African Heritage Committee; he is always on the go with an abundance of duties and challenges to be met.  In his capacity as the union’s point person on parent and community engagement, Anthony acted as the UFT’s ambassador to many grass-roots parent and civic organizations as well as cultural and faith-based institutions.  Anthony began his teaching career in 1987 at the High School of Graphic Communications Arts in New York City. 

Anthony was appointed as a Commissioner in 2019 to the New York City Civic Engagement Commission, and in July of 2018 Anthony was elected and still serves as a Vice President of the American Federation of Teachers 1.72-million-member organization, and in May of that same year he was elected International Executive Vice President of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, one of the constituency groups of the AFL-CIO.

His many UFT duties keep him very busy, but Anthony still manages to serve in many other capacities, including President of the New York Branch of the NAACP, a delegate to the Central Labor Council, a member of the Board of Directors of New York State United Teachers (NYSUT), a member of the Board for the Greater New York Labor and Religion Coalition, a member of the Board for the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS, immediate President of the New York Chapter of the A. Philip Randolph Institute, and a delegate to the AFL-CIO convention.

Anthony’s enthusiasm and drive make him a model for what a 21^st Century educator and trade unionist can be.

Rob Ackerman is grateful and honored that Working Theater and Artistic Director Mark Plesent produced four world premieres of his plays: Dropping Gumballs on Luke Wilson, directed by Theresa Rebeck at ART/NY; Call Me Waldo, directed by Margarett Perry at Kitchen Theater in Ithaca and Off Broadway; Disconnect, directed by Connie Grappo at Classic Stage Company; and Tabletop, directed by Connie Grappo at Dance Theater Workshop and transferred in a commercial production to American Place Theater, where it won the Drama Desk Award for Best Ensemble Performance. Rob’s other work includes a new romantic comedy, BackTalk, directed by Jeremy Webb and selected by Westport Country Playhouse for its 2025 Script in Hand Series; the 2024 film Stargazer (co-written with Kate Ginna, directed by Alan McIntyre, now streaming on Apple TV+ and Prime Video); Teach for America (commissioned  by ACT in San Francisco, directed by W.D. Keith); the book for Volleygirls (directed by Neil Patrick Stewart, NYMF winner of Best Ensemble Performance, Best in Fest, Most Promising New Musical, and New World Stages Development Award); the play and film Origin of the Species (with Amanda Peet, Jean Louisa Kelly, and Michael Kelly, directed by Andrés Heinz); Loyalty (a Harding story, award winner at the New York Theater Festival, directed by Katie Young); Icarus of Ohio (NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, directed by Fritz Ertl). Rob’s plays have been anthologized by Vintage Books, Dramatists Play Service, Smith and Kraus, and Playscripts, and nurtured at Yaddo, The Lark, Flux Theater Ensemble, and Dorset Theatre Festival. For 25 years, he worked as Prop Master for the SNL Film Unit. Rob grew up in Columbus, Ohio, majored in theater and Spanish at Middlebury, and earned an M.F.A. in stage directing at Northwestern. He and his wife, author Carol Weston, live in New York. He is a proud member of IATSE Local 52 and the Dramatists Guild of America, Inc.