ALFREDA ROBINSON

Recipient Of The Dorothy Height Champion For Civil Rights Award

Alfreda Robinson served as the 77th President of the National Bar Association (NBA), the oldest and largest national organization of primarily Black lawyers, judges, professors, and students. Her Bar Year 2019-2020 theme was Moving Forward Boldly, and she focused on Black Women and Gender Equity. Dean Robinson created the first NBA Black Women’s Equity Day national observance, for which she received a Proclamation from The Mayor of the District of Columbia and District of Columbia City Council. Furthermore, Alfreda obtained a $500,000 Amazon donation for a proposed Global Women’s Institute - the largest, single donation in NBA and NBI history. She is a member of the National Bar Institute (NBI) Board of Governors and NBA Board of Governors.

Alfreda Robinson is Associate Dean for Trial Advocacy and Co-Director of the Litigation and Dispute Resolution Program at George Washington University Law School. She is Faculty Co-Lead of the GW Equity Institute Initiative Showcase. The Showcase will include her presentation of the Power Reimagined Women Law Students Project.

In July 2022, Dean was inducted into the prestigious National Bar Association Hall of Fame. She has received the NBA’s highest honor, the C. Frances Strafford Award, and 16 other marks of distinction. Robinson has held over 60 NBA leadership posts, including 10 times chairing or co-chairing the highly influential NBA Judicial Selection Standing Committee. In July 2022 as well, Past President Robinson was given the Presidential Exemplary Service Award for her successful national work supporting the nomination and confirmation of U.S. Associate Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. In April, the GW Black Law Students Association established the Dean Robinson Oral Advocacy Annual Award in her honor.

Robinson earned B.A and M.A. degrees from the University of Chicago, and a J.D. degree from GW Law.

She teaches Pretrial Practice and Professional Responsibility. Her scholarship/research projects focus on gender/race equity, judicial selection, reparations and litigation.

DR. RUTH SHABER

Dr. Ruth Shaber had a 25 year medical career at Kaiser Permanente, where she held many different executive positions, including Director of Women’s Health, Director and Founder of the Women’s Health Research Institute and Medical Director of the Care Management Institute. In these roles, Ruth developed her expertise in evidence-based medicine and the translation of medical research to the healthcare delivery system.

In 2014, Ruth created the Tara Health Foundation with the intention of applying these same principles of evidence-based practice and building the science of philanthropy and impact investing. After reading Impact Investing: Transforming How We Make Money While Making a Difference, Ruth was inspired to deploy the full potential of the foundation’s philanthropic capital, committing 100% of its assets to its core mission of identifying and supporting innovative solutions that improve the health and well-being of women and girls. This commitment means all of Tara Health’s investments — including grants, public equities and private investments — are aligned with its mission.

Since the Tara Health Foundation was founded in 2014, it has deployed over $55 million in grants and impact investments maintaining a 100% mission-aligned portfolio.

In 2017, Ruth co-founded Rhia Ventures, a 501(c)(3) with the mission to create a vibrant US market for sexual, reproductive, and maternal health that produces equitable outcomes for all. One of the activities at Rhia Ventures is to make direct investments in early- and growth-stage companies that are driving innovation, access, and equity in reproductive and maternal health, through its wholly owned venture fund, RH Capital Corporation.

In 2021, Ruth Shaber co-wrote The XX Edge: Unlocking Higher Returns and Lower Risk with Patience Marime-Ball, founder of Women of the World Endowment. The book delivers the pivotal message that wealthier and healthier personal and global outcomes are the result when women participate in financial decision making across all aspects of the economy. The book details compelling data, case stories, “what-if” scenarios, and actionable recommendations.

The book was released on June 21 with 100 percent of the sale proceeds going back to the Women of the World Endowment and Tara Health Foundation so both organizations can continue their work on centralizing women as solution-drivers for today’s accelerating challenges.

TIFFANY SMITH-ANOA’I

Recipient of The Loreen Arbus Champion for Disabilities Award

“My personal and professional north star is to foster an inclusive environment for people with disabilities, whether visible or invisible and provide an equal opportunity for success and to be compensated fairly.”

In her role as Executive VP, Entertainment Diversity & Inclusion, West Coast, Paramount Global, Tiffany leads entertainment-focused diversity and inclusion initiatives across CBS Entertainment, Showtime, Media Networks and Paramount Pictures. She also oversees the company’s creative development programs, talent initiatives and outreach to agencies, multicultural coalitions, guilds and other key inclusion stakeholders.

Prior to her current Paramount Global position, Smith-Anoa’i was Executive Vice President, Entertainment Diversity, Inclusion & Communications for CBS Entertainment. An innovator in both entertainment publicity and diversity, Tiffany was promoted to that position in 2016 and charged with shepherding the entertainment division’s diversity and inclusion initiatives and supporting communication efforts. She developed new programs to recruit, nurture and hire inclusive talent to work in front of and behind the camera and helped launch several notable careers. In 2015, Tiffany was appointed Senior Vice President of Entertainment Diversity & Communications after serving, since 2009, as Vice President, Entertainment Diversity & Communications, CBS Entertainment. In these roles, Smith-Anoa’i created and launched “Paramount On Tour,” a community outreach program in which executives visit schools to educate and encourage students interested in entertainment careers; expanded the writer selection process for “The CBS Diversity Sketch Comedy Showcase”; implemented an annual symposium with casting directors to strategize on best practices to diversify the casting process; joined forces with the Ruderman Family Foundation as the first Network to sign the Foundation’s pledge to improve the portrayal of disabilities in entertainment, and increase the number of roles that cast actors with disabilities; partnered with GLAAD to host learning workshops; Lights! Camera! Access! to host Career Exploration Summits, ReelAbilities Film Festival; and works with the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media to encourage a variety of acting and industry roles for women.

Smith-Anoa’i’s community service and charity work includes the Human Rights Campaign, #SeeHer, ADCOLOR, Easterseals Disability Challenge, Young Storytellers, The Unusual Suspects and Jack and Jill of America, Incorporated. She serves as a board member for ColorComm, BIG SUNDAY, The Muslim Public Affairs Council and on the business advisory board for the National Hispanic Media Coalition. She is also a Board of Trustee member for The Archer School for Girls. In 2019 Smith-Anoa’i received the Adweek + ADCOLOR Champions Award for her commitment to growing and promoting diversity and inclusion within and outside the walls of CBS Entertainment.

Smith-Anoa’i maintains a close relationship with her alma mater, Howard University, where she graduated with honors from the School of Communications. In 2013, Howard University presented her with the “Global Visionary Award” for Outstanding Leadership in Diversity and Communications.

When The National Organization on Disability was founded in 1982, it was the first organization in the United States to represent every person with a disability, regardless of particular needs or circumstances. To have a disability is to belong to a large extended community — one out of every four Americans fits the description — that includes immense diversity, but also common threads of shared experience. Our mission has always been to break down the barriers that fence people off from the wider community. Today, we focus the whole of our energy on eliminating the most wasteful and isolating of all those barriers: the artificial gulf that keeps tens of millions of people out of the productive workforce. We envision a world where all people with disabilities enjoy full opportunity for employment, enterprise and earnings, and employers know how to make the most of our talents.

NOD is the national leader in helping businesses tap the disability labor force. We don’t just analyze, advise, and assess; we make the journey with companies. Our strength derives from our mission and history, from the extent and quality of the services we offer employers, from our personal experiences of disability and how it plays out in the community and the workforce, and from the leadership we mobilize to ensure that people with disabilities can achieve the dignity, fulfillment, and financial independence that comes from productive employment.

We are a partner to business, education, service providers, government, philanthropy, and, most of all, to the tens of millions of Americans with disabilities eager to work and ready to take a full and equal role in our national progress.

For us, and for the donors and foundations who generously support us, the labor market is not just an exchange place for employers and employees. It is the gateway to individual accomplishment and independence. We have focused our entire mission on achieving equity in the workforce, because that is where ability contributes to national prosperity, to business success, and, most importantly, to personal satisfaction and growth.

For NOD, every unused talent is a promise unkept, a hope defeated—because in the labor market, as in every aspect of life…it’s ability that counts!

Grace Vandecruze

Grace Vandecruze is the Founder and Managing Director at Grace Global Capital LLC. a consulting firm providing M&A financial advisory, restructuring, and valuation to insurance companies and financial regulators since 2006. Prior to forming Grace Global Capital, Ms. Vandecruze served as Managing Director at Swiss Re, where she was responsible for the firm’s regulatory advisory practice in the insurance and financial services industries from 1999 to 2006. Ms. Vandecruze has extensive expertise in mergers and acquisitions and capital raisings, most notably she provided expert testimony on the valuation of Conseco during the largest bankruptcy in the history of the insurance industry. Ms. Vandecruze has provided IPO advisory in the largest public offerings of insurance companies, throughout her career, Ms. Vandecruze has executed over $25 billion in M&A and financing transactions. Ms. Vandecruze brings a unique combination of C-suite experience in banking, M&A, capital markets and accounting.

Prior to joining Swiss Re, Ms. Vandecruze was a Vice President at Head & Company, the first global private equity firm specializing in the insurance industry and an Associate in the Financial Institutions Group at Merrill Lynch. Ms. Vandecruze is a CPA who began her career as an auditor in public accounting with EY. Ms. Vandecruze earned an MBA in Finance from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania where she currently serves on the Wharton Graduate Executive Board. Ms. Vandecruze holds a BBA in Accounting from Pace University. Ms. Vandecruze has served on the board of PIMCO Closed End Funds, The Doctors Company, Link Logistics REIT (The Blackstone Group) and Resolution Holdings. Ms. Vandecruze is a licensed Certified Public Accounting in New York and is a member of the AICPA and the New York State Society of CPAs.

Ms. Vandecruze often serves as a keynote speaker at insurance conferences, including InsureTech Connect, National Association of Insurance Commissioners, M Financial Annual Marketing Meeting and The Baker Tilly Insurance Conference, and is widely quoted in the financial press including Wharton Business Radio, Innovator’s Edge, Property Casualty 360, AMBest, American Banker, SNL Financial and the Insurance Journal. Ms. Vandecruze was selected as one of the “Directors to Watch” by Directors & Boards magazine, “Woman to Watch” by Business Insurance magazine, and she was recently awarded “Corporate Woman of the Year” by Pace University. She is a licensed sailor and has participated in climbing expeditions to Bhutan, Annapurna, Kilimanjaro, Elbrus and Everest Base Camp.

Ms. Vandecruze has been featured in the books: “Be Happy at Work, 100 Women Who Love their Jobs and Why” by Joanne Gordon and “Doing it Ourselves: Success Stories of African American Women in Business” by Donna Ballard. In addition, Ms. Vandecruze recently authored the international best seller book, Homeless to Millionaire: 6 Keys to UPLIFT Your Financial Abundance

As a mountaineer, Ms. Vandecruze has climbed over 25 mountain peaks on three continents. Her life changed drastically when a fire destroyed her home and she and her family lived in a homeless shelter in NY for five months. The experience ignited her passion for financial wellness. As an immigrant, Ms. Vandecruze survived multiple financial and personal setbacks. She inspires global audiences through her journey of courage, resilience and strength to climb above life’s circumstances. As she has climbed out of homelessness to Mt. Everest and on the ladder to wealth and abundance, her mission is to transform the financial climate of women, unleash their money power and build sustainable wealth platforms. Women are writing new life stories and her guidance will ensure that their financial chapters are the most powerful. Ms. Vandecruze is the proud author of the international best seller book, Homeless to Millionaire: 6 Keys to UPLIFT Your Financial Abundance.

VictimsFirst, comprised of over 20 years of previous victims/survivors of mass shootings, is, at its core, a human rights organization. The nonprofit educates communities and advocates for victims and survivors of mass casualty crime at the most horrific -- and most vulnerable -- times of their lives.

VF responds immediately to mass casualty crimes by engaging directly with families of the deceased and those wounded both physically and emotionally to provide crucial resources, including immediate financial help. VF assists communities in understanding those needs so victims/ survivors can keep their privacy and dignity while receiving services, comfort, and financial support without being re-victimized.

Vote Mama supports democratic moms down the ballot— because when we elect moms, we pass policies that support women and working families.

Vote Mama is founded and led by Liuba Grechen Shirley, Former Congressional candidate and the first woman in history to successfully petition the FEC to use Campaign Funds for Childcare.

Vote Mama’s Theory of Change:

Step One: Elect - Vote Mama PAC endorses, funds, and mentors progressive moms running for the country. Since our launch, Vote Mama PAC has supported over 350 moms run for office in 31 states.

Step Two: Mobilize - Vote Mama Lobby builds a coalition of nationwide grassroot and pass family- and women-centered policies.

Step Three: Legislate - Vote Mama Foundation is the leading source of research and analysis on the political participation of moms. Once mamas get into office, Vote Mama Foundation enables them to pass family- and women-centered policies.

The Women’s Business Development Center (WBDC) is a nationally recognized leader in the field of women’s business development and economic empowerment founded in1986.

The WBDC’s mission is to support and accelerate business development and growth, targeting women and serving all diverse business owners, in order to strengthen their participation in, and impact on, the economy.

We envision a diverse world where all business owners have an equitable opportunity to compete and succeed in the marketplace and achieve economic independence.

We value our knowledgeable, prepared, and diverse staff; a culture that is results-oriented, supportive, and progressive; innovation, responsiveness, and relevancy; advocacy for public policies supporting women and other diverse communities; and respect for, and accountability to, all stakeholders.