'21 Leaders for the 21st Century, USA' 2024

THE GLOBAL WOMEN’S NEWS SOURCE

Congratulations to all 21 Leaders for the 21st Century and a very special to

Michelle S. Ballan, PhD

Professor and Associate Dean for Research, School of Social Welfare Director, Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and related Disabilities (LEND) Program Stony Brook University

recipient of The Loreen Arbus Champion for Disabilities Award You are so very deserving!

Amazing work, Lori!

You are the heartbeat of Women’s eNews!

“Great leaders don’t tell you what to do, they show you how it’s done.”

–Alessandro Berselli

LOREEN ARBUS

Honorary Gala Chair

Loreen Arbus is currently the President of The Loreen Arbus Foundation, The Goldenson-Arbus Foundation, and Loreen Arbus Productions, Inc. Through these organizations and in her personal endeavors, Ms. Arbus is a tireless advocate for women and girls; a champion for one of the world’s larg¬est minorities, people with disabilities; and is passionate about encouraging equal opportunities in television, film, communications, and the arts.

A high-profile professional and pioneer in her field, Ms. Arbus is a sought-af¬ter speaker at national and international conferences. Among her many appearances, she has spoken at TEDxWomen. The author of six non-fiction books, she has also written countless articles for many national publications, and was twice nominated for an Emmy® Award. She co-wrote the first book on AIDs, Everything You Need to Know About AIDs, with Dr. Mathilde Krim.

She holds the trailblazing distinction of being the first woman to head pro¬gramming for a U.S. network, a feat accomplished twice

(both at Showtime and Cable Health Network/Lifetime). In addition to helping establish these two cornerstones of cable television, she launched Loreen Arbus Produc¬tions, Inc., an independent television production company with an emphasis on non-fiction programming.

Loreen served as Honorary Gala Chair of the Women’s eNews 21 Leaders for the 21st Century Awards gala in 2019, 2020, and 2021. She is a past 21 Leaders honoree and returns as Honorary Gala Chair of the 21 Leaders for the 21st Century Awards Gala in 2022. For the gala, each year Loreen pres¬ents The Loreen Arbus Champion for Disabilities Award, which pays tribute to a pioneer in the disability community.

In 2020, Women’s eNews established The Loreen Arbus Accessibility is Fundamental Program. This inaugural fellowship has been created to train women with disabilities as professional journalists so that they may write, research and report on the most crucial issues impacting the disabilities community.

Deborah

Deborah Santana

Honorary Gala Co-Chair

Deborah Santana is an author, business manager, and activist for peace and social justice. Her non-profit, Do A Little, serves women and girls in the areas of health, education, and happiness. With a passion to provide edu¬cational opportunities for girls and women, Ms. Santana collaborates with organizations that work to prevent and heal relationship and sexual violence, improve the lives of America’s abused and neglected children, and a world¬wide community of artists and allies who work for empowerment, opportu¬nity, and visibility for women artists.

In 2005, she published her memoir: Space Between the Stars that told of her experiences growing up as a bi-racial child, and her coming of age.

Ms. Santana has produced five short documentary films, four with Em¬my-award winning director Barbara Rick: Road to Ingwavuma, Girls of Dara¬ja, School of My Dreams, and Powerful Beyond Measure. These films highlight the work of non-profit

partners in South Africa, and the Daraja Academy, a free secondary boarding school for girls in Kenya.

She has served as a trustee for ANSA (Artists for a New South Africa), the Smithsonian Institution, is a member of the Smithsonian American Wom¬en’s History Initiative Advisory Committee and a longtime supporter of Marian Wright Edelman’s Children’s Defense Fund. Deborah is mother to three beloved adult children: Salvador Santana, a songwriter, band leader, and instrumental artist, Stella Santana, a singer/songwriter/performer, and Angelica Santana, a poet, archivist and film producer.

Ms. Santana holds a Master of Arts in Philosophy and Religion with a Con¬centration in Women’s Spirituality.

A leadership donor of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Amer¬ican History and Culture, she works for the rights and freedom of women and people of color.

Stacey Tisdale Board Chair, Women’s eNews

Stacey Tisdale, a more than 20-year veteran TV broadcast financial journalist, and financial behavior expert, is one of the first women, and the first African-American, to report from the New York Stock Exchange,in her role as a reporter/anchor for Dow Jones’ Emmy award-winning Wall Street Journal Television.

As founder and CEO of multi-media content provider, Mind Money Media Inc., international speaker, contributor and expert for some of the leading media outlets in the world – including Time Magazine, Good Morning America, the Breakfast Club, and AJ Impact – Stacey uses her personal finance and media platforms to educate her audiences about all aspects of our complex relationship with money, as well as the ways in which socioeconomics, gender,

race, age, orientation, and culture, play out in our financial experiences and careers. She also co-hosts the monthly social media personal finance event, Wealth Wednesdays, with IHeartMedia, Power 105.1 Breakfast Club host, Angela Yee.

In addition, she has created a personal finance curriculum for college students on behalf of the White House, and conducted research for the United States Congress on the financial behavior of professional athletes.

Stacey also creates financial education and life skills programs for professional sports teams and corporations including the WNBA”s Washington Mystics, the NFL Super Bowl champion, New York Giants, and the female employees of Microsoft.

Lori Sokol

Executive Director & Editor-in-Chief

Lori Sokol, Ph.D., assumed the role of Executive Director and Editor-in-Chief of Women’s eNews in July, 2016. She previously served as it’s Board Chair in 2012-2013. Dr. Sokol was the Founder and President of Sokol Media, LLC, publisher of magazines that advocate for diversity, inclusion and sustainability in the workplace. Striving to empower individu¬als to triumph over gender-related societal limits so they can reach their full potential unhindered, her articles have been published in such major market publications as the NY Times, Slate.com, Ms. Magazine and The Huffington Post. She has also been interviewed in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, MSNBC, CNBC, Spectrum’s NY1 and WPIX.

As a doctoral candidate in Educational Psychology, Dr. Sokol’s research specifically focused on the media’s influence in crafting gender roles, further seeking to expose how stereotypes are created and maintained. She has published academic articles on the intersection of psychology and the me¬dia, taught seminars on Media Psychology through the University of Beijing, China, and served as an Adjunct Professor in the Psychology Department at Montclair State University where she taught the course, Psychology of Women.

In 2009, Dr. Sokol was elected to the Asian Women Business Council’s Executive Committee as its U.S. representative to help Asian female business owners expand their reach into the United States. She has also served as a national keynote speaker for the Society of Marketing Professionals and the International Telework Association Council, and internationally at the Asian Women Entrepreneur Conference in Seoul, and the International Women in Commerce Summit in Kuala Lumpur. In December, 2018, Dr. Sokol was featured in The Femocrats, About Face portrait series at Art Basel in Miami, a dynamic art series created to effect profound social change by challenging concepts of gender, race, identity and nature (see portrait image above).

Dr. Sokol is a member of the National Press Club and on the Advisory Council of Have Art Will Travel. Her first book, The Agile Workforce and Workplace: The New Future of Work, was published by Working Mother Media/Bonnier Corporation in 2011. Her recent book, She Is Me: How Women Will Save The World, was the recipient of the IBPA Award and a finalist in the International Book Awards. She is currently writing her memoir.

WOMXN UP!

Women’s eNews’ podcast, WOMXN UP!

Features Female-identifying Individuals who are at the Forefront of Transforming our World into one that Treats Everybody Equally regardless of Gender, Race, Orientation or Ability.

The Courage Museum is designed to build a world in which violence is not an inevitable part of the human experience.

On the Main Post of the Presidio National Park in San Francisco, the Courage Museum will put public land to use for a public service: ending the public health crisis caused by violence, and the hate that fuels it. The Courage Museum is a design lab for the deep, transformative human change needed to prevent violence before it happens.

A bold new platform for public education, inspiration, and action. The museum will engage visitors in a learning journey towards the possibility of a world in which violence is not an inevitable part of the human experience. It will be a place where individuals are informed and equipped with tools to rethink violence and advance concrete change.

Please become a founding member for $100/year or $8 a month to receive Museum stories and secure priority access when the Museum opens in 2025!

www.couragemuseum.org

Deborah

The Courage Museum is an initiative of Futures Without Violence and is scheduled to open in late 2025.

Become a Courage Museum Supporter

Girls' mpowerment ealth

Economic ecurity and pportunity

An nd to iolence gainst omen and irls

WOMENSTRONG.ORG

WomenStrong International believes that women and girls are best served by programs in their own communities. Yet, community-based women-led organizations often lack the resources, technical support, networks, and visibility needed to achieve their full potential. WomenStrong’s mission is to help address these challenges. To create meaningful and sustainable change, we know the importance of working closely with our partners to address issues at their very root, to ensure that women and girls will truly thrive. We believe this work will lead to a world in which all women and girls are free to prosper and to live their lives in dignity and peace.

WomenStrong International advances progress toward gender equity by partnering with grassroots women-led organizations in urban and peri-urban areas who are dedicated to improving the lives of the girls and women they serve. Through trust-based funding, capacity strengthening, and working together in our Learning Lab, we move power and money into the hands of local women- led organizations that know best what their communities need.

We support our partners in determining their own priorities and implementing gender-responsive initiatives tailored to their on-theground realities and needs. Partners are addressing some of the most critical needs of women and girls: keeping girls in school, accessing lifesaving reproductive health care, preventing gender-based violence, and creating pathways to economic security. Partners come together in our Learning Lab to share findings, gain insights, and test innovative solutions. We work directly with partners to strengthen their systems and programs, leverage additional investments, and heighten their visibility.

Our Vision: WomenStrong International envisions a just and inclusive world where all women and girls are free to prosper and to live their lives in dignity and peace.

Our Aspiration: The proven success of WomenStrong’s work with partners has contributed to transforming the lives of women, girls, and their communities.

Michelle S. Ballan, PhD.

Loreen Arbus Champion for Disabilities Award Recipient

Michelle S. Ballan, PhD, is Associate Dean for Research and Professor of Social Welfare and Professor of Family, Population and Preventive Medicine at Stony Brook University Health Sciences Center where her research, teaching and service are dedicated to ameliorating barriers for individuals with disabilities.

She is the Founder and Director of the Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and related Disabilities (LEND) Program and Faculty Affiliate for the Advanced Computational Science Institute at Stony Brook University. Dr. Ballan focuses on intimate partner violence, bioethics, medical education, and sexual health interventions for adults with disabilities.

Dr. Ballan also currently serves as the Principal Investigator on several federal and foundation grants from New York City Community Trust, U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, National Science Foundation, National Institute on Disability Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research and Craig

H. Neilsen Foundation. Each grant targets reducing health disparities and improving quality of life for individuals with developmental and/ or physical disabilities through an interdisciplinary lens.

She is the recipient of several awards and distinctions including 2022 National Academies of Practice Distinguished Scholar and Fellow, 2020 SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and the 2020 Switzer Distinguished Level Research Fellowship. In 2010, she won the Columbia University Presidential Award, bestowed upon only five professors yearly.

Dr. Ballan has authored more than 150 peer-reviewed papers, books and conference presentations. She has also served as a board member for Services for the Underserved since 2011 and has worked as a practitioner in various community settings with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, including the New Jersey Brain Injury Association, Women Helping Women, Safeplace and Schools.

Liz Elting

CEO and Founder of the Elizabeth Elting Foundation Bestselling Author of Dream Big and Win

Liz Elting, Founder and CEO of the Elizabeth Elting Foundation, is a New York-based philanthropist, businesswoman, and bestselling author recognized for her outstanding entrepreneurship and focus on developing women business leaders. An accomplished business leader, Elting co-founded TransPerfect, the world’s largest provider of language and business solutions. Headquartered in New York City, the company has over $1.2 billion in revenue and offices in over 100 cities around the globe.

In 2018, Elting founded the Elizabeth Elting Foundation to break down systemic barriers, bridge gaps, and foster systemic change for women and other underserved communities so that people of every stripe can succeed, thrive, and reach their potential.

Collaborating with the NYU Stern School of Business, Elting created the Elizabeth Elting Advancing Women’s Leadership Fellowship to support MBA students who demonstrate extraordinary academic merit, an impressive record of leadership experience, and a dedication to the advancement of women in business. Additionally, as part of NYU Stern’s Endless Frontier Labs, Elting launched the Elizabeth Elting Venture Fund to provide seed capital for promising women-led, early-stage startups in science and technology. Together, both programs represent the largest gift from a woman entrepreneur in the school’s history.

Elting’s recognitions and awards include the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, the American Express Entrepreneur magazine Woman of the Year Award, the Distinguished Alumnae Award from NYU Stern’s Women in Business, the Trinity College Alumni Medal for Excellence and Gary McQuaid Award, the National Organization for Women’s Women of Power & Influence Award, the 2019 Charles Waldo Haskins Award for business and public service from NYU’s Stern School of Business, the American Heart Association’s 2020 Health Equity Leadership Award, the Alliance of Women Entrepreneurs’ 2021 Vertex Award for changing the face

and direction of women’s high-growth entrepreneurship, the American Heart Association’s 2022 Woman Changing the World Award, Trinity College’s 2022 Kathleen O’Connor Boelhouwer ’85 Alumni Initiative Award, the Gabrielle’s Angel Foundation’s 2023 Angel of Hope Award, and the 2023 Entreprenista 100 Award. In addition, Elting has been named one of Forbes’ Richest SelfMade Women every year since the list’s inception.

Elting serves on the NYU Stern School of Business Board of Directors, the Trinity College Board of Trustees, is a founding member of Trinity’s Women’s Leadership Council and the Marjorie Butcher Circle, and is a regular speaker at both NYU and Columbia Business Schools. Elting also serves on the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women National Leadership Council, the Sandy Hook Promise Leadership Council and Advisory Board, the Board of Directors of Girls Learning Advanced Math (GLAM), and the GlobalMindED Executive Leadership Council. In 2017, she founded the Elting Family Research Fund to support initiatives for the International Waldenstrom’s Macroglobulinemia Foundation. In 2023, she established the AHA’s Elizabeth Elting Fund to support women-led organizations and entrepreneurs from New York’s under-resourced communities forging paths toward health equity.

Elting holds an MBA in Finance and International Business from The Stern School of Business at New York University and a BA in Modern Languages and Literatures from Trinity College in Hartford, CT.

Elting is the bestselling author of Dream Big and Win: Translating Passion into Purpose and Creating a Billion-Dollar Business. She has been profiled in numerous books, including American Dream: Interviews with IndustryLeading Professionals by Jason Navallo, The New York Times bestseller Succeed by Your Own Terms, Leadership Secrets of the World’s Most Successful CEOs, and Straight Talk About Starting and Growing Your Business

Dawn Smalls, JD

Attorney, Strategic Advisor & NYC Campaign Finance Board Member

Dawn Smalls currently serves as a members of the New York City Campaign Finance Board (CFB), a nonpartisan, independent city agency that administers one of the strongest, most effective campaign finance systems in the country. Smalls is a strategic advisor and multidisciplinary leader with experience across law, government, politics, and philanthropy. In her private practice, Smalls has fought for undocumented immigrants, victims of financial crime, and voters facing intimidation. Her knowledge, at the intersection of law and politics, comes from serving, first, in the Clinton Administration as assistant to the White House chief of staff and as a liaison on policy and budget issues for the District of Columbia, and then in the Obama administration as the chief regulatory officer at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), as well as HHS’ liaison to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the Office of Management and Budget.

During the 2008 election cycle, Smalls served as a regional political director for the Hillary Clinton for America presidential campaign, covering six states during the primary, after which she joined then-U.S. Senator Barack Obama’s campaign for the general election as New York political director.

As a commissioner of the New York State Joint Commission on Public Ethics, Smalls provided oversight to the state agency tasked with ensuring that state elected officials and lobbyists comply with the state’s ethics and lobbying laws and regulations.

Previously, Smalls served as the secretary of the New York City Bar’s ethics committee. Smalls also worked for the Open Society Foundations and the Ford Foundation — two of the largest philanthropies in the world — managing approximately $40 million of grants that promoted and increased civic engagement, political reform, and grassroots activism.

Smalls is a graduate of Boston University and Stanford Law School.

Penny Abeywardena

Global advocate for women’s rights; Former Commissioner for International Affairs City of New York

Penny Abeywardena has held leadership roles in international affairs, government and philanthropy for over 20years. Her contributions have been recognized and celebrated by the United Nations, the World Economic Forum, and the French American Foundation, among others. She was recently appointed to the rank of Knight in France’s National Order of Merit by President Macron for her global leadership on diplomacy, human rights, and sustainability.

Penny is a contributing columnist at Forbes on leadership strategies. Her writing is focused on identifying strategies of influence and persuasion when there is little or no perceived power. She writes on issues ranging from AI to food security and climate change. Penny recently held senior advisor roles with LUISS Guido Carli University in Rome on sustainable financing and the Charities Aid Foundation based in London.

During her eight years of service as the Commissioner for International Affairs for the City of New York (2014-2022), she led the agency serving the largest diplomatic corps in the world. During her tenure New York City successfully implemented a series of

award-winning programs with the international community including the creation of the Voluntary Local Review, a global movement of hundreds of local governments working to achieve the SDGs and the Junior Ambassador program which enabled underserved youth to address the SDGs in their local community. Prior to her role in government, Penny was the Director of the Women’s program at the Clinton Global Initiative (2009-2014), where she advised multinational corporations, philanthropists, NGOs and multilateral institutions to increase investments in gender-focused development initiatives.

Penny is currently on the Board of Directors of FHI360, the Center for Reproductive Rights and the American Society of the French Order of Merit. She also serves on advisory councils for APCO Worldwide, the 92Y Belfer Center for Innovation & Social Impact and Vote Run Lead. She’s recently served on the board of the United Nations Fund for International Partnerships, which provides oversight of the UN Foundation, the International Peace Institute, the Aspen Institute’s Digital Equity Advisory Council, and was co-chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Cities of Tomorrow.

Elevate, Empower, Excel: PowerUp Coaching Pilot –Where Female Entrepreneurs Soar

SESSION CONTENT

Adapted to entrepreneurial challenges faced by female founders. Every one-hour session includes practical exercises and post-session recommendations to take the learnings further to implement in your life and business tomorrow.

GROUP APPROACH

Together, we are stronger. We are all entrepreneurs dealing with similar challenges. Being part of the like-minded community creates an additional level of support and helps us master an iron will to take on any obstacle on the road to success.

HIGHLY INTERACTIVE

You participate in all parts of the meeting, while also hearing invaluable insights from your peers.

MEETING FORMAT

A standard beginning and ending, with the focus on entrepreneurship and empowerment, to provide consistency and inspire. 30 minutes of each meeting set aside for sharing our experiences. Sharing helps us learn how to identify and express our feelings, self-regulate and release our emotions, and accept others, even if we disagree with them.

Every attendee wants success for themselves for different reasons. And if you want to chart a path to greatness, it starts with being prepared for it!

Victoria Yampolsky

President & Founder, The Startup Station

Victoria Yampolsky is a serial entrepreneur, strategic CFO advisor for numerous early-stage startups and expert in financial modeling and valuation. She’s a passionate advocate for female founders and fair access to capital for all.

As the President and Founder of The Startup Station, a strategic CFO advisory firm and financial education platform for startups and small businesses, she has collaborated with over 150 founders across 15 industries, assisting them in raising more than $50M in venture capital funding. Hundreds of entrepreneurs worldwide took The Startup Station’s courses on accounting, financial modeling, valuation and startup finance.

Victoria is also CEO and Co-Founder of PowerUp, a new non-profit groundbreaking global program for seed-level femaleled ventures, and a strategic media partner of Women’s E-News. This program aims to bridge the gender funding gap worldwide and produce the next generation of female entrepreneurs who feel limitless. The program uniquely combines:

(1) 2-year training in strategic and financial planning to help companies scale,

(2) weekly executive group coaching sessions to expand their mindset,

(3) a global network of PowerUp ambassadors, already representing 25 countries on 5 continents, to improve access to capital, and

(4) rigorous monitoring of results to change the perception of risk.

As an activist, Victoria represents New York State on behalf of the Leadership Council of the National Small Business Association (NSBA). In this role, she advocates for fair access to capital for women in the United States.

Before venturing into entrepreneurship, Victoria spent nearly a decade on Wall Street in Deutsche Bank Research and IT Consulting at Capgemini.

In addition, Victoria is a published poet and songwriter actively involved in various creative projects in media and entertainment. In 2022, she proudly co-produced the virtual charity concert “World Unite for Ukraine” within a few months of conceiving the idea. The event brought together musicians from nine countries, including Pink Floyd, and 100+ volunteers from eleven countries, raising a significant amount of funding to support the US-Ukraine Foundation in aiding Ukrainian refugees.

Eleanor’s Legacy recruits, trains, and supports pro-choice Democratic women to run for state and local office throughout New York.

Since its founding in 2001, Eleanor’s Legacy has helped to more than double the number of pro-choice Democratic women in the NYS Senate and Assembly and to elect thousands of others at the local level, building a bench of strong, pro-choice Democratic women across the state.

This impact has been made through:

Trainings: Training nearly 5,000 pro-choice Democratic women and their staff around the state on how to run and win campaigns.

Funding: Providing nearly $2 million dollars in funding to candidates and races often overlooked by institutional donors,

including hundreds of local races where even $250 can make a meaningful difference.

Endorsements: Endorsing more than 2,500 candidates who stand out as current or future pro-choice Democratic leaders. Our endorsements are a highly coveted stamp of approval for Democratic women running for state and local office throughout New York.

Direct Services: Providing 100+ hours of pro-bono consulting services from top-grade political strategists each year and connecting campaigns to passionate volunteers and campaign staff.

“For our own success to be real, it must contribute to the success of others.”

—Eleanor Roosevelt

Carolyn Maloney

The Edie Windsor Champion for LGBTQ Equality Honoree

Former Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney has spent her entire career working to advance women’s rights. In 2014, Ms. Maloney suggested to Jessica Neuwirth that they should work together to create an organization dedicated to passing the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which prompted Ms. Neuwirth to form the ERA Coalition. Ms. Maloney is thrilled to join as the Fund for Women’s Equality Chair as part of the ERA Coalition to focus on ensuring that the ERA becomes part of the Constitution.

First elected to city council 1982-1992, she created and chaired the contracts committee which oversaw a quarter of the city’s budget. She authored and passed many accountability and reform contract laws and what was called, at the time, the toughest and best campaign finance bill in the nation. For 30 years, Ms. Maloney represented parts of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Ms. Maloney was first elected to Congress in 1992 during the “Year of the Woman. She became the 13th woman in history to chair a congressional committee first serving as the chair

of the Joint Economic Committee as well as the first woman to chair the powerful House Committee on Oversight and Reform.

Among the measures she was most proud to author and pass were bills designed to improve women’s lives, including legislation to expand Medicare to cover annual mammograms for women, to require colleges and universities to publicize information about their records on sexual violence, to encourage law enforcement to target those who patronize sex trafficking victims and to create the Smithsonian National Women’s Museum on the Washington Mall. Her Debbie Smith Act provides funding for law enforcement to process DNA evidence collected from rape victims and has been called the most important anti-rape bill Congress ever passed. The story of the bill’s passage was made into a film called A Life Interrupted. Ms. Maloney also secured passage of the nation’s first ever paid parental leave to care for newborn or newly adopted children. She then passed paid family and medical leave for all federal employees and continues to fight for paid leave for all Americans.

Edie Windsor (1929-2017)

LGBT Rights Activist

Edie Windsor was born in 1929 in Philadelphia to a Russian Jewish immigrant family. She graduated from Temple Uni¬versity in 1950 and received a Master’s Degree in mathe¬matics from NYU in 1957. She spent two decades working with mainframe computers, first as a research assistant at NYU and then at IBM where she ultimately attained the highest level technical position of Senior Systems Manager. She won a competitive IBM PhD. Scholarship to Harvard, and in 1987 was honored by the National Computing Conference as a pioneer in operating systems.

Edie was in the trenches and in the leadership of many LGBT organizations over the course of her life. She was involved with East End Gay Organizations, Long Island Gay and Lesbian Network, the LGBT Community Center of New York, SAGE, Team New York at the Gay Games in NYC in 1994, ACLU, Hetrick-Martin Institute, and Callen- Lorde Community Health Center, just to name a few. She was also one of the first Marriage Ambassadors for Empire State Pride Agenda. The Edie Windsor Fund for Old Lesbians, gifted to Windsor on her 70th birthday and maintained and administered by Open Meadows Foundation, provides mean¬ingful grants to projects by and for lesbian older adults. Edie also served on the Board of Directors of SAGE (Services & Advoca¬cy of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Elders) from 1986 -1988 and again from 2005-2007. She was a founding member of the improv acting group, Old Queers Acting Up, whose rallying cry was, “Out of the closest, onto the stage.” For several years, this group performed skits around ageism,

racism, homophobia and the other oppressions at various venues such as the Task Force’s Creating Change conference, SAGE conferences, colleges, high schools, social work agencies, and more.

After spending four decades together, Edie and Thea Spyer, a clinical psychologist, were legally married in Canada in 2007. Upon Thea’s death in 2009 Edie became the executor and sole beneficiary of Thea’s estate and was required to pay federal taxes on her inher¬itance. Had federal law recognized the validity of their marriage, Edie would have qualified for an unlimited spousal deduction and paid no federal estate taxes. Edie sought to claim the federal estate tax exemption for surviving spouses and was barred from doing so by Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)which pro¬vided that the term “spouse” only applied to marriages between a man and woman. She filed a lawsuit against the federal government and is most widely known for her landmark Supreme Court case that followed, resulting in samesex married couples being granted full federal recognition in the United States for the first time. The case of United States v. Windsor is arguably the most influential legal precedent in the struggle for LGBT marriage equality.

Until the very end of her life Edie tirelessly and selflessly trav¬eled, continued to volunteer and attended events to be with the LGBT community that she dearly loved.

In 2016 Edie married Judith Kasen, a financial advisor, at New York City Hall and they remained together until Edie’s passing.

Spiritual Whistleblower

Chanel Jasmin Clark, also known as the “Spiritual Whistleblower,” is a relationship coach and social media influencer. She utilizes her global platform to educate the masses about narcissistic abuse and domestic violence. Also, a survivor of emotional abuse herself, she has managed to turn her pain into purpose for the sake of helping others escape abusive relationships. She has now devoted her time to conducting national tours to hold support group meetings for victims of domestic violence.

Clark started vlogging about her encounters with her past toxic relationships via her YouTube channel in 2016. What started out as a small confessional, attracted onlookers who connected with her stories of trauma and abuse. Her growing audience demanded more stories of Clark’s personal experiences to validate their own. This motivated her to write her first literary publishing in 2018 entitled, “The Spiritual Whistleblower’s Breakup Manual: How to Defeat a Narcissist.” A book that would further propel Clark’s presence all over social media.

As Clark’s name became popular, her videos started going viral ending up being the talk of discussion on major television networks and celebrity blogs. In 2022, Clark created a video about toxic mother-inlaws who are grossly enmeshed with their sons. The video grew to over 2 million views and ended up being the roundtable discussion on The Real, a nationally syndicated talk show on BET. Actress Garcelle Beauvais along with her co-hosts Adrienne Bailon and Loni Love, highlighted Clark’s TikTok video as a talking point of whether or not women coddle their adult sons too much. This was a pivotal point in Clark’s growing popularity and overall message to what she stands for in bringing awareness to narcissistic abuse in romantic relationships.

Clark has also made strides as a plus size runway model in NYC from 2004-2009. Her tall, curvy, statuesque frame would land her a role as a the full-figure protégé for the late fashion designer, Henry Jackson. She went on to make history with Jackson as becoming the first plus size model to walk the runway in the Islands of the World Fashion Week, which took place in Nassau Bahamas. Because of the lack of curvy models on the runway, Clark wanted to bring more recognition of the lack of inclusion of plus size women in fashion shows, by creating a protest during New York Fashion Week. She successfully gathered hundreds of women and marched down 42nd street, concluding the march in front of the tents at Bryant Park. She wanted the message be known that there needs to be a change in what is deemed fashionable and what is not. Not only did this protest gain the attention of celebrities, but there were news outlets on site who took note of the rally. Clark received the honorary Susan B. Anthony Award from the National Organization for Women in 2009, for her activism in the NYC Fashion Industry.

Clark began her educational and media studies at HBCU, Grambling State University. She transferred to New York City and later completed her Bachelor’s Degree in Mass Communications at SUNY Empire State College, and a Master’s degree in Media Management at the Metropolitan College of New York. She is currently pursuing a Doctorates in Psychology at Capella University. She plans to graduate in 2025 and become an adjunct professor someday.

Her recent book, “My Family Can Kiss My Ass,” has gone viral on social media and was #13 on Amazon’s list of books in the Child Abuse category. Clark wrote this book based on her own experiences with her narcissistic parents and continues to help others break free from generational trauma.

New York Women in Film & Television (NYWIFT) connects, educates, and advocates for women to accelerate diversity in media.

NYWIFT energizes women by illuminating their achievements, presenting training and professional development programs, awarding scholarships and grants, and providing access to a supportive community of peers. NYWIFT is part of a network of more than 60 women in film organizations worldwide, representing more than 15,000 members. NYWIFT produces over 50 innovative programs and special events annually, including the Muse Awards for Vision and Achievement, which honors women in front of and behind the camera; Designing Women, which recognizes costume

designers, makeup artists and hair stylists in the industry; the Finance Institute, connecting filmmakers and funders to discuss the latest opportunities for support; and the Creative Workforce Initiative, which includes an annual Summit, publication, and screening series.

NYWIFT believes media has the power to change hearts and minds. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are integral to their greater mission and at the core of who they are and what they do. As they strive to strengthen gender parity in the entertainment industry, NYWIFT creates, operates, and innovates using DEI as a guide to intentionally foster positive change for their talent in the workplace, their staff and on their board, and in all of their content and programming.