Pauletta Washington honored

There was no debating the glamour of the Harvard Foundation’s black-tie, red-carpet premiere of “The Great Debaters,” starring and directed by Denzel Washington, at the Harvard Film Archive at the Carpenter Center. Close to 200 students, faculty, and staff attended the Dec. 18 premiere, which was followed by a lively question-and-answer session with Washington and his wife, Pauletta, a Juilliard-trained pianist and vocalist.

At the end of the evening’s program, S. Allen Counter, director of the Harvard Foundation, presented the Harvard Foundation Humanitarian Medal to Pauletta Washington for her philanthropic support of needy students through the Pauletta and Denzel Washington Family Gifted Scholars Program in Neuroscience, which encourages and supports college students interested in medicine. The program was followed by a reception for the Washingtons at the Sert Gallery of the Carpenter Center.