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 largest 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-after 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 programming 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 Productions, 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 and 2020. She is a past 21 Leaders honoree and returns as Honorary Gala Chair of the 21 Leaders for the 21st Century Awards Gala in 2021. For the gala, each year Loreen presents 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.
You each bring powerful & significant change to our world!
Special gratitude to LaTosha Brown, the Dorothy Height Champion for Civil Rights Awardee, for remaining steadfast in your work for voters’ rights & equality for Black Voters.
Deborah Santana Founder, CEO Do A Little Foundation
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 educational 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 worldwide community of artists and allies who work for empowerment, opportunity, 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 Emmy-award winning director Barbara Rick: Road to Ingwavuma, Girls of Daraja, 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 Women’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 Concentration in Women’s Spirituality.
A leadership donor of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, she works for the rights and freedom of women and people of color.
We are so proud to have Ting Ting Cheng directing this work with Professor Katherine Franke CONGRATULATIONS!
ERA PROJECT’S FOUNDING ADVISORY BOARD
Susan Bevan
Nia J.C. Castelly
Wade Leak
Marianne Stack
Marcy Syms
Liz Young
Marcy Syms helped create the ERA Coalition in 2013 with the goal of passing the long-stalled Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution that would guard against discrimination based on gender. She later chaired the coalition as well as the Fund for Women’s Equality, spurring the passage of the amendment in Nevada, Illinois and Virginia, bringing the total number of states that have ratified it to 38, the necessary two-thirds majority. (It still requires legislation in Congress to overcome procedural barriers before it can become law.)
In January 2021, Syms and other board members left the coalition to start the ERA Project at Columbia Law School’s Center for Gender and Sexuality Law, a think tank that researches women’s equality under the law.
In 1983, at the age of 32, she took the helm of Syms Corp., the
family-owned New York- based discount clothing retailer that her father, Sy Syms, founded 25 years earlier. In doing so, she became the youngest woman at the time to serve as president of a company listed on the New York Stock Exchange; 15 years later, she became CEO. She shepherded the company to become a 50-store chain in 16 states until it filed for bankruptcy and closed all its stores in 2011.
Ms. Syms also serves on the board of WAPPP (Women and Public Policy Program) at Harvard Kennedy School, Sy Syms Foundation (President & Founding Trustee), National Public Radio (NPR) Foundation, Macaulay Honors School at CUNY, Sy Syms School of Business at Yeshiva University (Founding Trustee), Advisory Board of Have Art Will Travel, and on the Leadership Council, Tanenbaum.
Ambassador Alice Marie Dear, Africanist, banker, consultant, and diplomat has enjoyed and excelled in multiple careers with a global focus. In each endeavor she has proudly deployed her creative energy to empower women and girls.
In this milestone year, the Honorable Alice Dear celebrates her 50-year membership in Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated. She became a member on the very Howard University campus in Washington, DC where the international service organization was founded in 1908. She credits AKA, the first Greek-lettered organization founded by African American college-educated women, with modeling for her at an early age how to leverage the power of women through collaboration, preparation and service. AKA enabled her to develop and fine-tune critical leadership skills for success. Those early building blocks propelled her career achievements that we celebrate this evening.
Ms. Dear honed her skills in international banking, finance and marketing during an 11-year tenure on Wall Street in the Middle East and Africa Group at Irving Trust Company, now Bank of New
York Mellon. Her familiarity with the nuances of African business, economic, political and cultural affairs complemented her skills acquired at Irving as an international lending officer, trade finance specialist and marketing officer for operational services. She left banking in 1988 as a Vice President to launch an international consulting business with a focus on Africa, and to make a difference in the lives of those she encountered.
In early 1994 President Bill Clinton appointed Alice Dear, with unanimous Senate confirmation, as U.S. Executive Director of the African Development Bank Group, Africa’s premier financial institution headquartered in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire. From 1994-2000, Ambassador Dear, the first woman appointed to this position, represented the U.S. Government on the Boards of Directors of the African Development Bank Group, sharing responsibility for oversight of the Bank’s financial, operational and administrative management, including its then $3 billion annual lending portfolio, a key contributor to the economic development and social progress of the Bank’s 54 regional member countries.
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 individuals 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 media, 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,
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 award winning book, She Is Me: How Women Will Save The World (She Writes Press, 2020) will be published as a children’s book in Spring 2022.
In collaboration with Women’s eNews, Amy Ferris and Beth Broday have created and curated a column designed to inspire, encourage, awaken and enlighten MEN. We are bringing together an amazing team of men who will write about such topics as love, family, sexuality, compassion, tolerance, empathy and vulnerability, just to name a few. Our fervent wish is to not only include male voices in conversations that are often reserved for women, but to inspire all men to open up their hearts and their minds so that they may stand with us, by us, and for us; to champion our causes, to support our missions, to march with us, and to help shoulder & lift all of our stories.
We are thrilled to launch this column so men can raise their voices, share their stories, join in and stand side-by-side with women.
In gratitude,
Amy Ferris Beth Broday Author/Writer/Screenwriter Producer/DirectorKluane Adamek
Dr. Michele Bratcher Goodwin
LaTosha Brown
Devika Bulchandani
Ting Ting Cheng
Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas
Kylie Hunts-in-Winter
Patrisha McLean
Sydney Montgomery
Kimberly Peeler-Allen
Karine Jean-Pierre
Sophie Poldermans
Cynthia Richie Terrell
Marcie Roth
Assembly Member
Rebecca A. Seawright
Nahid Shahalimi
Lisa Sharkey
Mary Kim Titla
Yasmin Vafa
Tracey E. Vitchers
Brooke Warner
Breakthrough Film of the Year
DISCLOSURE
Yukon Regional Chief Kluane Adamek (Aagé) is a proud northerner and citizen of Kluane First Nation, and she acknowledges the Matriarchs who have welcomed her into the Dakl’aweidi (Killerwhale) Clan. Kluane is an Indigenous woman with mixed ancestry in Canada. Having lived in both northern and southern parts of the country, her lived experiences give her the ability to analyze the world around her from several different perspectives.
As the youngest serving Yukon Regional Chief, and the youngest ever female Regional Chief, she continues to press for change in the ways that women, young people and the next generation are included in decision-making forums, and she is committed to advancing solutions while approaching leadership from a place of values.
As the AFN’s lead on climate change and the environment, she has succeeded in establishing the environment as a top priority for the organization by being a key representative at international conferences and a powerful voice within global conversations on climate. Most recently, she served on the Net-Zero Advisory Body to the Minister of Environment and Climate. She has also served as the Co-Chair of the COVID-19 Northern and Remote Communities Working Group. She holds the Modern Treaties portfolio where she is actively working to resolve and enforce the treaties signed after 1975. Kluane is deeply committed to the 14 Yukon First Nations and works closely with the leadership and members to advance their priorities and interests, both regionally and nationally.
Since 2009, she has worked with Yukon First Nations and local communities in the areas of education, economic development and governance serving on several boards and committees including the Yukon College Board of Governors, Kluane Dana Trust, Actua, the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, and the Aboriginal Sport Circle.
Kluane is enriched and inspired daily by the Matriarchs, Elders, and youth who guide her work and the future of Yukon First Nations.
At the intersection of social justice, political empowerment, human development and the cultural arts one will find LaTosha Brown. As a catalyst for change, thought leader and social strategist, her national and global efforts have been known to organize, inspire and catapult people into action—not just lip service—enabling them to build power and wealth for themselves and their community. Honored to receive the 2010 White House Champion of Change Award, the 2006 Spirit of Democracy Award and the Louis Burnham Award for Human Rights, it is more than evident that LaTosha is passionate about leading social change for the purpose of advancing humanity, creating a more equitable redistribution of wealth and power around the globe.
Where other leaders see nothing but poverty, despair and destitution, this 2018 Bridge Jubilee Award and Liberty Bell Award recipient sees great opportunity. To her, there is more than enough resources on the planet to comfortably sustain every human being. Affectionately known by many as a “Black Renaissance” woman, her southern roots, coupled with her global thoughts toward people, ideas and money, have opened doors for her to maximize her voice in the U.S., as well as over 30 countries abroad. In addition to being recognized as a well-respected leader in the South who has led numerous initiatives, campaigns and special projects to empower marginalized communities, LaTosha is leading several international efforts to provide training, support and funding for women-led institutions based in Guyana, Senegal, Belize and Tanzania.
Ting Ting Cheng is the Director of the ERA Project at Columbia Law School’s Center for Gender and Sexuality Law.
Ting Ting is also a civil rights attorney and activist. Before joining the ERA Project, she litigated gender discrimination cases at Legal Momentum, and the Women’s Legal Defense and Education Fund. Earlier, she was an attorney at the New York City Commission for Human Rights and a public defender and immigrant defense attorney at Brooklyn Defender Services.
Ting Ting was the Legal Director of the 2017 Women’s March on Washington and served on the National Organizing Committee. She was a foreign law clerk to Justices Albie Sachs and Edwin Cameron of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. In addition, Ting Ting was a Fulbright Scholar to South Africa where she received the Amy Biehl Award.
As a youth she was a concert oboist and performed with various orchestras in the United States, including the American Symphony. She is a graduate of the City University of New York School of Law and Bard College. .
Kylie Hunts-in-Winter, of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, is a veteran activist who has created an ever-expanding movement; one that empowers women, especially those in Native American Communities. A movement she calls “Brave Woman”, she has been training in martial arts her entire life, and Brave Woman not only shares her story but provides a place for female martial artists to feel safe and supported. With the help and encouragement of her parents, Veronica and Timothy Hunts-in-Winter, Kylie has become a local celebrity as a result of her skill in martial arts, her advocacy, and her leadership. Kylie’s Instagram account, @bravewoman, currently has more than fifty thousand followers. She has used that platform to empower women around the world.
As a board member and chief youth lobbyist for the Indigenous Peoples’ Initiative, Kylie is advocating for the rights of Indigenous Peoples. “We are a nonprofit organization that is youth led, based here in Arizona... advocating for the rights and equality of all marginalized populations, with a specific focus on Indigenous and Native American peoples,” she says. The group is currently advocating for Indigenous Peoples’ Day and abolishing Columbus Day. “We have been successful in getting Arizona governor Doug Ducey to sign our proclamation, [proclaiming] October 12, 2020 Indigenous Peoples’ Day in Arizona.”
Kylie is currently a first year student at Harvard University.
Patrisha McLean is a photojournalist, a human rights activist, and the founder/president of Finding Our Voices. In 2016, Patrisha’s secret of 29 years was outed by worldwide headlines over the domestic violence arrest of her celebrity husband, Don. Dozens of women in her small community in Maine told her they too had been terrorized by an intimate partner: They hadn’t known about her and she hadn’t known about them and they all had felt alone.
This led her to create Finding Our Voices: Breaking the Silence of Domestic Abuse, a grassroots non-profit organization powered by survivors standing proud and speaking loud to educate everyone about the pervasiveness, insidiousness and complexity of domestic abuse. The organization empowers girls and women to recognize, avoid, safely leave and heal from dangerous relationships, reframes domestic abuse away from false and harmful stereotypes and provides sister-to-sister services for victims.
Patrisha also created a multimedia exhibition called Finding Our Voices: Breaking the Silence of Domestic Abuse that features portraits of 21 women, from all over Maine, all ages, and all walks of life, along with audio of their voices telling their story of domestic abuse and their journey out of it. She provides a platform for women to join her in speaking out about the domestic abuse in their lives for personal healing, to help other women, to educate communities, and to get accountability and justice.
Karine Jean-Pierre currently serves as the White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary. She was the Senior Advisor to President-Elect Joe Biden and Chief of Staff to Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris on the Biden-Harris Campaign. Prior to her role on the campaign, she served as Chief Public Affairs Officer for MoveOn.org and was an NBC and MSNBC Political Analyst. Jean-Pierre also served as Regional Political Director for the White House Office of Political Affairs during the Obama-Biden administration and as Deputy Battleground States Director for President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign. She served as Southeast Regional Political Director for President Obama’s 2008 campaign, Deputy Campaign Manager for Martin O’Malley for President, Campaign Manager for the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Initiative, and Deputy Chief of Staff and Director of Legislative and Budget Affairs for two members in the New York City Council. Previously, she worked at the Center for Community and Corporate Ethics, pushing major companies to change their business practices. Born in Martinique and raised in New York, Jean-Pierre is a graduate of Columbia University.
Karine Jean-Pierre is also the author of the memoir, Moving Forward: A Story of Hope, Hard Work, and the Promise of America.
Sophie Poldermans is an expert on women leaders in times of conflict. She founded her own business, “Sophie’s Women of War,” to shed light on women leaders in times of conflict, crisis and change. She is a best-selling author, international speaker, lecturer and consultant on women and war, women’s leadership and business innovation, advocating for women’s rights around the globe. Poldermans is also the author of the New York Post & Amazon best seller, Seducing and Killing Nazis. Hannie, Truus And Freddie: Dutch Resistance Heroines of WWII (USA, 2019). She personally knew Truus and Freddie Oversteegen of the book for 20 years and worked closely with them for over a decade as a board member of the Dutch National Hannie Schaft Foundation.
Sophie currently resides in The Netherlands and has degrees in Dutch Law, International Criminal Law and Human Rights (University of Amsterdam); Peace and Conflict Studies (UC Berkeley, USA); Human Rights and Democratization (EIUC, Venice, Italy; Vienna, Austria) and certificates in Women’s Leadership (Yale School Of Management, USA), Business Innovation (Columbia Business School, USA) and Negotiation (Columbia Business School, USA).
As a non-profit executive and nationally recognized expert on sexual violence prevention and survivor advocacy, Tracey Vitchers currently serves as the Executive Director of It’s On Us, a nonprofit founded in 2014 as an initiative of the ObamaBiden Administration to combat campus sexual assault through peer-to-peer prevention education programs and activating the largest student organizing program of its kind. It’s On Us is the only national sexual assault prevention nonprofit in the United States to combine grassroots organizing and prevention education with large-scale culture change campaigns through partnerships with creative agencies, influencers, PR and communications firms, and media. Tracey joined It’s On Us in November of 2017 following its transition out of the White House to Civic Nation.
Tracey is also an active member of the Advisory Boards of Culture Of Respect, The Every Voice Coalition, and SafeBAE, and she previously served on the Governing Boards of End Rape On Campus, Safe Haven of Pike County, and SAFER.
Tracey was named a 2014 Women’s Media Center Progressive Women’s Voices Fellow, and, in May 2011, Tracey founded the national youth service-learning program, The 9/12 Generation Project, and served as Director until the fall of 2013.
Devika Bulchandani is the Chief Executive Officer of Ogilvy North America and Global Chairwoman of Advertising. She is responsible for driving all aspects of Ogilvy’s core business across the United States and Canada which spans Advertising, Brand & Content, Public Relations & Influence, Experience, Growth & Innovation, and Health.
Devika is deeply devoted to social causes that promote equality, diversity and inclusiveness. She is a founding member of Times Up Advertising, where she has tirelessly championed equality for women in advertising, particularly for women of color. To mark International Women’s Day in 2019, Devika brought together her industry peers for a discussion in partnership with NYWICI, AAF and Bloomberg Media that featured the pioneering women of Madison Avenue. In 2017, she was named to the “Working Mothers of the Year”list by She Runs It, and is a previous recipient of the AdColor Innovator Award.
Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas is an American film producer and the President at Goldsmith-Thomas Productions. As one of the few female Hollywood film producers, she has represented such prominent artists such as Julia Roberts, Jennifer Lopez, Jennifer Connelly, and Susan Sarandon. Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas and Jennifer Lopez currently serve as co-presidents of film and television production company Nuyorican Productions.
In June 2021, Netflix announced a multi-year first look deal with Nuyorican Productions to produce a slate of films, television series, scripted and unscripted content, with an emphasis on projects that support diverse female actors, writers and filmmakers.
Trained in sociology and anthropology, Professor Goodwin has conducted field research in Asia, Africa, Europe and North America, focusing on human trafficking (marriage, sex, organs, and other biologics). Her books include Policing The Womb: Invisible Women and the Criminalization of Motherhood (2020); Biotechnology, Bioethics, and The Law (2015); Baby Markets: Money and the Politics of Creating Families (2010); and Black Markets: The Supply and Demand of Body Parts (2006).
Professor Goodwin has also long recognized the transformative power and value of education and access. After earning her juris doctorate, she moved south and guided one of the largest southern school districts in the United States through desegregation, equity and inclusion efforts across 52 K-12 schools, more than 35,000 students, with an operating budget exceeding $350 million. She later served as an assistant dean at the University of Wisconsin to help galvanize equity and inclusion efforts, followed by directing university programs and institutes.
She is also host of the On the Issues with Michele Goodwin podcast at Ms. Magazine. A prolific author, Goodwin’s publications include six books and over 100 articles, essays, book chapters, and commentaries.
Sydney Montgomery is the owner and founder of S. Montgomery Admissions Consulting, LLC which provides personalized law school admissions consulting and college counseling services. As the first lawyer in her family, and as a graduate of Princeton and Harvard Law School, Sydney has used her platform since 2012 to help students break down generational barriers and step confidently into their future.
Sydney is also a Co-Founder of College Equity First, Inc. a Maryland 501(c)(3) non-profit with a mission to motivate colleges and universities to become places where women and BIPOC students are as safe, valued, supported, developed, and celebrated as other students. In 2021, through data collection, analysis, and substantive interviews, College Equity First, Inc. synthesized quantitative and qualitative data about each institution into the College Equity Index™. Using an alphanumerical rating system, the College Equity Index™ ranked 105 top private colleges on 19 different criteria as they related to the Black experience on campus.
Sydney also sits on the Board of the Institute for Anti-Racist Education, a New Jersey 501(c)(3) non-profit dedicated to creating decolonizing pedagogy and anti-racist curriculum.
Kimberly Peeler-Allen has been working at the intersection of race, gender and politics for almost 20 years. Kimberly is the Co-founder of Higher Heights, a national organization building the political power and leadership of Black women from the voting booth to elected office.
Kimberly and her Co-Founder, Glynda Carr, have built Higher Heights from an idea on the back of a placemat into a network of over 90,000 members, donors and activists across the country that have helped elect 10 Black women to Congress, one Black woman to the US Senate and grow the number of Black women in statewide executive office and leading our nation’s largest cities.
Higher Heights has helped drive the national narrative about the power of Black women voters and has inspired countless Black women to step into their power whether it is as voters, activists or elected leaders.
Marcie Roth is Executive Director and CEO of the World Institute on Disability, one of the world’s first global disability-led organizations, advancing the rights of 1.3 billion people with disabilities worldwide.
Recently named by Forbes Magazine to their Fifty Over 50 Impact List, Marcie has served in executive leadership roles for advocacy and public policy organizations since 1995, leading coalitions committed to operationalizing accessibility and inclusion as intersectional imperatives for global social justice.
Appointed by President Obama to the U.S Department of Homeland Security - Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) from 2009 to 2017, she served as Senior Advisor to the Administrator, establishing and directing the Office of Disability Integration and Coordination.
Assembly Member Rebecca A. Seawright represents the Upper East Side, Yorkville and Roosevelt Island in New York’s 76th Assembly District. As the first woman to serve the district and since her election in 2014, she is known as a strong voice for over 133,000 constituents, securing over $15 million in funding for public schools, senior centers, parks and non-profits.
Appointed by the Speaker in 2021, she holds the Leadership position of Chair of the Majority Steering Committee. Previously, she served in leadership as Secretary of the Majority conference, and as Chair of the Task Force on Women’s Issues. Nominated by her colleagues, she serves as a Director of the Legislative Women’s Caucus and works with her colleagues as part of the Bipartisan Pro-Choice, Jewish, Environmental, and Gun Reform Legislative Caucuses.
Inspired to renew the movement for the federal Equal Rights Amendment to guarantee that our rights are anchored in our State and US Constitutions, she authored and passed an Equal Rights Amendment to our New York State Constitution.
Nahid Shahalimi is a human rights activist, artist, filmmaker, and an international consultant on gender. After being forced to leave Afghanistan in 1985, she has travelled back 19 times across Afghanistan collecting inspiring stories of hope and courage from women who are great testaments of resilience, which she collated in her book, Where Courage Bears the Soul: We the Women of Afghanistan: Tales of Courageous & Inspiring Afghan Women (published in 2017 by Elisabeth Sandmann Publishing).
Ms. Shahalimi is also the founder of the international campaign, “Stand Up For Unity” which promotes unity through diversity. The campaign travels around the world raising awareness by gaining endorsements from renowned figures including His Holiness Dalai Lama and others.
This is a continuation of a creative global series Nahid began in 2009 with “We The Women”, a collection of inspiring stories of courageous and resilient women from around the world told through 3 creative pillars involving portrait paintings, books and documentary films. “We the Women of Germany” was the first of this series and gained immense successes following its Portrait painting exhibitions that took place between 2009- 2014, where 100% of its proceeds were donated to UNICEF’s projects in Afghanistan. Nahid recently finished working on “We the Women of Afghanistan: a silent revolution” a multiple-award winning documentary film and promotion tour that kicked off on March 8, 2018, along with a special World Premiere screening at the UN German Mission (at the United Nations’ headquarters in New York City).
Lisa Sharkey is an author, publishing executive, green blogger, former network television news journalist, two time Emmy Award winner, and Peabody winner.
Currently, as a SVP Director of Creative Development at HarperCollins Publishers, over 50 of the books she has published have become bestsellers, including those written by women who have accomplished extraordinary things and changed the world by telling their stories including:
• The Dressmaker of Khair Khana, by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
• Stolen Innocence by Elissa Wall
• Assume Nothing: A Story of Intimate Violence by Tanya Selvaratnam
• Things Mentally Strong Women Don’t Do by Amy Morin
• Beauty Sick by Rene Englen, Ph.
D.
Cynthia Richie Terrell is the founder and executive director of RepresentWomen, a founding member of the ReflectUS coalition, and an outspoken advocate for institutional reforms to advance women’s representation and leadership in the United States. Terrell and her husband Rob Richie helped to found FairVote - a nonpartisan champion of electoral reforms that give voters greater choice, a stronger voice, and a more representative democracy. Terrell has worked on projects related to women’s representation, democracy, and voting system reform in the United States and has worked extensively to help parliamentarians around the globe meet UN goals for women’s representation and leadership.
Previously, Terrell worked as campaign manager and field director for campaigns for the U.S. President, U.S. House and U.S. Senate, for governor and for state and city-wide initiative efforts, including a state equal rights amendment in Iowa and a city campaign for fair representation voting.
Mary Kim Titla is an American publisher, Native American youth advocate, journalist, former TV reporter (notably for KVOA in Tucson, where in 1987 she became the first Native American television journalist in Arizona, and later KPNX in Phoenix), and was a 2008 candidate for Arizona’s First Congressional District. Titla is a self described moderate democrat. As an educator her personal vision is “Everyone involved in a child’s education must go above and beyond to ensure every student receives a world class education in a safe environment.” She is an enrolled member of the San Carlos Apache Tribe.
She currently serves as as Executive Director for United National Indian Tribal Youth (UNITY), a national non-profit organization promoting youth leadership, citizenship and personal development among Native American youth. She also serves as a journalist for Women’s eNews’ new podcast series, ‘Indigenous Women Leaders Speak Out.”
Yasmin Vafa is co-founder and Executive Director of Rights4Girls. A human rights attorney and advocate, Yasmin’s work focuses on the intersections of race, gender, violence, and the law. She educates the public and policymakers on these issues and how they affect the lives of marginalized women and children.
Yasmin has successfully advocated for passage of several laws at the federal level, testified before the U.S. Senate and international human rights bodies, and has been recognized for her legislative advocacy by Congress. She is co-author of several reports, including The Sexual Abuse to Prison Pipeline: The Girls’ Story, which exposed the widespread criminalization of girls of color in the U.S. as a direct result of their victimization. The report has not only shaped the national conversation around women and girls’ incarceration, but helped inspire national efforts to decriminalize survivors of gendered violence.
Brooke Warner is publisher of She Writes Press and SparkPress, president of Warner Coaching Inc., and author of Write On, Sisters!, Green-light Your Book, What’s Your Book?, and three books on memoir. Brooke is a TEDx speaker, weekly podcaster (of “Write-minded” with co-host Grant Faulkner of NaNoWriMo), and the former Executive Editor of Seal Press. She writes a monthly column for Publishers Weekly.
In the pages of her book, Write On, Sisters! Brooke draws upon research, anecdotes, and her personal experiences from twenty years in the book publishing industry to show how women’s writing is discounted or less valued than men’s writing, then provides support to overcome these challenges. She also shines light on how women writers face not only ever-present historical and social challenges but also their own self-limiting beliefs.
Hollywood simultaneously reflects and manufactures our deepest anxieties about gender. Leading trans thinkers and creatives, including Laverne Cox, Lilly Wachowski, Yance Ford, Mj Rodriguez, Jamie Clayton, and Chaz Bono share their reactions and resistance to some of Hollywood’s most beloved moments. Grappling with films like A Florida Enchantment (1914), Dog Day Afternoon, The Crying Game, and Boys Don’t Cry, and with shows like The Jeffersons, The L-Word, and Pose, they trace a history that is at once dehumanizing, yet also evolving, complex, and sometimes humorous. What emerges is a fascinating story of dynamic interplay between trans representation on screen, society’s beliefs, and the reality of trans lives. Reframing familiar scenes and iconic characters in a new light, director Sam Feder invites viewers to confront unexamined assumptions, and shows how what once captured the American imagination now elicit new feelings.
Laverne Cox, Executive Producer
Sam Feder, Director
Amy Scholder, Producer
S. Mona Sinha, Executive Producer
Women’s eNews is proud to launch these two new Podcasts* in 2021-22, ensuring that the accomplishments of diverse women are both seen and heard!
Indigenous Women Leaders Speak Out
(featuring Indigenous Leaders in the US & Canada)
Where the ‘L’ Are The Women
(featuring Lesbian, Queer & Trans Women Leaders)
*Audio podcasts available on Apple, Google and Spotify
*Video podcasts available on YouTube