Linda Basch - President

A. Greenblatt - Director of Operations

Vivienne Heston-Demirel - Director of Communications

T. Bagley - Director of Development

Shyama Venkateswar- Director of Research and Programs

Lisa Rast - Development and Operations Coordinator

Kyla Bender-Baird - Research and Programs Coordinator

Linda Blyer - Bookkeeper

Mary Ellen Capek - Former Executive Director

Fellows

Mariam K. Chamberlain - Founding President and Resident Scholar

Elizabeth Horton - Senior Fellow

Meryl Kaynard - Special Counsel

C. Nicole Mason - Senior Research Fellow

Delores M. Walters - Senior Research Fellow

 

Consultants

Ejima Baker

Debra Berman

Courtney E. Martin

James Silbert - pro bono legal Counsel

Deborah Siegel

Bill Tam, CPA - Accountant

Vivian Todini - Communications Consultant

Linda Basch, PhD, President, has led the National Council for Research on Women since 1996. Under her leadership, the Council has grown into a thriving network of 110 research, advocacy, and policy centers with a growing Corporate Circle of major corporations and a Presidents’ Circle of college and university leaders. Her areas of expertise include globalization; economic security; the impact of public policy on women and families; higher education; gender and diversity in academia, society, and the workplace; women in the corporate world, including work/life balance; human security; women’s leadership; and women and girls in science, technology, engineering, and math. An anthropologist by training, she has examined issues of migration, race, ethnicity, and gender, conducting field research in the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, and North America.

Previously, she has held positions as Director of Academic Programs at New York University, Dean of Arts and Sciences at Manhattan College, and Academic Vice President at Wagner College. She has also worked for the United Nations as a social policy specialist and a director of research. She has written and co-authored numerous books and articles for scholarly journals and also overseen the Council’s many special reports. Her articles, letters and interviews have been featured in major media outlets including the Associated Press, National Public Radio, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Chicago Tribune, the San Francisco Chronicle and Fox News.com. She serves on numerous boards and advisory bodies including Ms. Magazine and the Women’s Rights Prize of the Gruber Foundation.

Linda is an Elected Fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences and a current member of the National Academy of Sciences previously serving as co-Chair of its Anthropology Section. She received her PhD in Anthropology from New York University and a BA in Economics from the University of Michigan.

A. Greenblatt, Director of Operations, graduated from New York University ’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Policy with an MPA in Public and Non-profit management. She has many years of experience in the non-profit sector where her work has primarily focused on the areas of hunger and homelessness. Most recently she worked for the Homeless Services Department of the American Red Cross in Greater New York. She functioned in a leadership capacity for a department that encompassed two residential facilities and post-relocation programs for homeless mothers and their children. While at the Red Cross she also worked with a management team to design, implement and administer $100M in emergency financial assistance to surviving family members and people who were physically injured in the September 11th attacks. Prior to working with the Red Cross, Andrea worked for the Food & Hunger Hotline, a city-wide anti-hunger organization.

Vivienne Heston-Demirel, Director of Communications, is a communications specialist who has worked in journalism as well as in public relations for educational, non-profit, and international organizations. She has undertaken numerous assignments for the United Nations where she played a key role in implementing global communication strategies, conducting media outreach and producing public information materials. She began her career as a reporter working for newspapers, magazines and broadcasters. An experienced writer and editor, she has produced a wide variety of information products and materials including website content, annual reports, press kits and promotional tools as well as op-ed articles and speeches. No stranger to gender issues, she has written extensively about the role of women in development and the special needs of women and girls in times of crisis, including humanitarian disasters, armed conflict, and public health emergencies, including HIV and AIDS. She graduated with honors from the State University of New York at Stony Brook with a BA in French Language and Literature and has conducted research and completed graduate coursework in international relations at Bosphorus University in Istanbul, Turkey.

T. Bagley, Director of Development, brings to NCRW twenty years of experience developing and directing fundraising initiatives and strategic communications to secure revenue and generate awareness. She has raised money for multi-million dollar organizations including North General Hospital in Harlem, St. Luke’s and Roosevelt Hospitals, and most recently Continuum Hospice Care.

Shyama Venkateswar, PhD, Director of Research and Programs brings a strong background in international programming, particularly in the areas of poverty reduction and economic sustainability. At the Council, she provides vision and strategic direction as well as helping to develop research and policy agendas.

Before joining the Council in late 2008, Shyama was the founding Executive Director of Mercy Corps’ Action Center to End Global Hunger [http://www.actioncenter.org/visit_us], an interactive learning center dedicated to eradicating hunger and poverty. Previously, she served as the Director of the Asian Social Issues Program at the Asia Society and was a Program Officer at the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs. She was also an Adjunct Professor at Brooklyn College where she taught courses on South Asia and Middle Eastern history and politics.

Shyama’s areas of expertise include human rights, peace and conflict, and South Asian politics. Her commentary has appeared in numerous publications such as The San Francisco Chronicle, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Asia Times, The Indian Express, and the Chicago Sun-Times. Her broadcast experience includes Voice of America, NDTV Profit, Reuters Television, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and her work has been profiled in Crain’s New York and The New York Times (Business section).She has organized international conferences and led policy briefings on human security issues across Asia and given presentations at Columbia University, the Women’s Foreign Policy Group, and the Population Council. She has served in advisory capacities at the New York Women’s Foundation, the United States Institute of Peace, and for Echoing Green. She is currently a contributing editor for India Review, an external reviewer for Transparency International, as well as an advisor to Breakthrough, a human rights organization.

Shyama was awarded the Harry Frank Guggenheim Fellowship for her research and dissertation work on religious nationalism in India. She received her Ph.D. in Political Science at Columbia University and is a graduate of Smith College. A native of Calcutta, India, Shyama now lives in New York.

Lisa Rast, Development and Operations Coordinator, received a B.A. in French and Women’s Studies from the University of the South, and completed a master’s degree at New York University’s Institute of French Studies. Her thesis explored the development of Parisian youth in the wake of the suburban riots of 2005 – specifically the significance of gender identity on France’s immigrant community. Lisa first came to the Council as an intern during the last semester of her master’s program, and stayed on as a Summer Program Associate before assuming the position of Development and Operations Coordinator. She worked previously as an intern in the Development office at the Hetrick-Martin Institute, where she helped to prepare the organization’s first annual report and many grant requests. Before moving to New York City, Lisa worked at the law firm of McCullough & Payne in Atlanta, Georgia. She has studied at the Sorbonne, Paris IV and at St. John’s College, Oxford, and speaks fluent French and conversational Spanish.

Kyla Bender-Baird, Research and Programs Coordinator, is providing the Council with a wide range of research and communications support. She received a BA in Sociology from Principia College and an MS in Women’s Studies from Towson University. Her thesis focused on transgender experiences of employment discrimination. During her time at Towson University, Kyla was a graduate assistant with the Institute for Teaching and Research on Women. On completion of her master’s degree, Kyla served as a Vaid Fellow with the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute. Kyla first joined the Council as a research consultant for The Big Five initiative. She has also interned previously with Planned Parenthood and the Gender Public Advocacy Coalition.          

Mary Ellen Capek, a founding officer of NCRW and Executive Director from 1989-1996, is a philanthropic and nonprofit consultant whose recent work includes "Funding 'Norm' Doesn't Fund Norma: Women, Girls, and Philanthropy," a chapter in The State of Philanthropy 2002 published by the National Committee for Responsive Philantrhopy (available for purchase at www.ncrp.org); Fostering Effective Funding for Women and Girls: A Next Stage Strategy published by Chicago Women in Philanthropy (available online at www.wfnet.org or www.womenphil.org); and Women and Philanthropy: Old Stereotypes, New Challenges (available online at www.wfnet.org). She was instrumental in shaping NCRW priorities that link research, policy, and activism, and launched many of the Council's groundbreaking publications--including Women's Research Network News and Issues Quarterly (IQ). An advocate for using technology to improve access to women's resources, Mary Ellen also produced the award-winning Women's Thesaurus (Harper & Row, 1987).

The former Director of Continuing Education at Princeton University and a faculty member and department chair at Essex County College in Newark NJ, she has served on numerous boards and working groups--among them the Aspen Institute's Nonprofit Sector Research Fund, the Independent Sector Research Committee, the Conference Board Work and Family Council, Women & Philanthropy's Action/Research Committee, the Working Group on Funding Lesbian and Gay Issues, and the New Jersey Commission on the Status of Women.

Honored on her retirement from the Council with a $25,000 nonprofit leadership award, Mary Ellen spent 1996-1998 as a Visiting Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson School for Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, and is now based at the University of New Mexico, where she is affiliated with the Anderson Schools of Management. She is the author with Molly Mead of Effective Philanthropy: Organizational Success through Deep Diversity and Gender Equality (paper, 2007). To order, click here.

Fellows

Mariam K. Chamberlain, PhD, Founding President and Resident Scholar, is an economist by training whose career includes university, government, and foundation employment. She is the Founding President of the National Council for Research on Women and continues to work on international programs and higher education programs.

Mariam's career in philanthropy spans three decades, and involves work at the Ford and Russell Sage Foundations. At the Ford Foundation she served as a Program Assistant in the Economic Development and Administration Program and as a Program Officer in Education and Public Policy in which capacity, she was instrumental in developing the field of women's studies. At the Russell Sage Foundation she was Resident Scholar and headed a Task Force Study on Women in Higher Education. While there, she helped to found the National Council for Research on Women and presided over its growth during the 1980s.

Mariam has also taught at Connecticut College, the School of General Studies at Columbia University, and at Yale University, where from 1960 to 1966 she was Executive Secretary and Research Associate at the Economic Growth Center. Her publications include Women in Academe: Progress and Prospects, and Women of Color and the Multicultural Curriculum. She currently serves on the boards of the Feminist Press, the Institute for Women's Policy Studies, the Network of East-West Women, the Women's Interart Center, and the National Council for Research on Women. She holds an AB in Economics from Radcliffe (1939) and a PhD, also in Economics, from Harvard (1950).

Elizabeth Horton, Senior Fellow, served as Director of Finance and Administration and as Deputy Director at the National Council for Research on Women from 1997 to 2006. During her tenure, she oversaw the development and growth of the Council’s financial infrastructure, participated in the expansion of its programming and organizational reach, and oversaw the development of recent programming, including Taxes are a Women’s Issue and Gains and Gaps. With an MA in secondary education, Liz also has extensive experience in educational issues. She served as a classroom teacher, as Assistant to the Dean of Arts and Sciences at Manhattan College , and as the Board chair of the Ethical Culture Fieldston Schools (an independent pre-K-12 school system in NYC) and of the Literacy Assistance Center (an organization devoted to professional development and institutional capacity building for adult and out-of-school youth education). She currently serves as a Board member of the Literacy Assistance Center and as chair of the Steering Committee of Border Crossers, a start-up organization that addresses the de facto segregation in the New York City education system.

Meryl R. Kaynard, Special Counsel, served as Chief Employment Counsel (heading and co-heading a full service in house employment law group at JPMorgan Chase for 20 years) and Director of Diversity and Special Counsel (at an AmLaw 100 law firm where she continues to serve as contract counsel) advancing proactive and cutting edge employment law and diversity best practices. Meryl has also served as Assistant Corporation Counsel to the City of New York and Judicial Clerk to a Federal Court Judge, and is a stalwart advocate of programs addressing women's and diversity issues through these roles as well as her extensive work in the not for profit sector and numerous professional associations. Meryl serves as a trusted advisor to senior management and consistently wins support for diversity agendas and women's issues by aligning with business goals. She is an influential thought leader who motivates employees and to optimize their contributions to organizational success by defining and executing progressive policies and programs on employment, diversity, talent development, risk management and compliance.

C. Nicole Mason, PhD, Senior Research Fellow, has worked in advocacy and public education at the local, state, and national levels with a special focus on women and underserved communities. For the last 12 years, her work has centered on violence against women, reproductive rights, civic engagement, youth development and education, economic security, welfare reform, and health policy reform. She is the former Director of Research and Policy Initiatives at the Council and is the current Executive Director of the Women of Color Policy Network at the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at NYU.

In her work, Nicole continues to investigate the intersections of race, class, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, and other markers of difference and their impact on rights and liberties in the modern democratic state. Nicole has also written extensively on the experiences of black women and gender-based violence and is the author of the Guide to Addressing Violence Against Women: An Intersectional Model and Approach for Service Providers, Advocates and Community Leaders. She has been interviewed by National Public Radio, among other news outlets.

Nicole previously served as the Executive Director of the National Women's Alliance, a multi-issue human rights organization focused on the needs and concerns of women and girls of color based in Washington, D.C. She built strategic partnerships and alliances at the grassroots and national levels and spearheaded innovative research and policy initiatives. She also taught at the Institute for Policy Studies’ Social Justice and Leadership School for Activists and in the Department of Political Science at Howard University. She is a current member of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research Advisory Board for the Status of Women in the Fifty States.

Nicole earned her Doctorate and MS degrees in Government and Politics, along with a Graduate Studies Certificate in Women's Studies, from the University of Maryland, College Park. She received a BA with honors in Political Science from Howard University.

Delores M. Walters, PhD, Senior Research Fellow, is a cultural anthropologist and educator with an extensive record of community-based teaching and research. Before working at the Council as Director of Diversity Initiatives (2007-09) she held a joint position with the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, Ohio and Northern Kentucky University. As a community research specialist, she conducted workshops and courses aimed at restoring the history of people of color, particularly of African American women, to the public memory. She helped introduce the new opera, “ Margaret Garner,” to the public for both the Cincinnati Opera and the New York City Opera. She is currently co-editing a collection of symposium papers called “Gendered Resistance” focusing on both contemporary and historic slavery.

While Delores was a Visiting Scholar at the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University she also taught in an urban youth program called “Year Up.” She was also Director of the ALANA (African, Latin, Asian, Native American) Cultural Center at Colgate University where she organized co-curricular multicultural programs and taught community-based courses involving cultural competency.

Delores earned a BS in Biology from City College of New York; a BS and RN from Columbia University School of Nursing; and spent 10 years in hospital and public health nursing.  She received her PhD in Cultural Anthropology and an MA in Liberal Studies from New York University. Her post-doctoral research resulted in a video documentary on women’s roles in changing health care delivery and race relations in Yemen.

Here are some more links to Delores’s work.

Consultants

Ejima Baker is an artist and academic whose work focuses on popular culture, race, and gender. She is intensely interested in the multiplicity of black and Latin@ identities, their intersections, and the ways in which racial and gendered identities can be employed for political, economical, and cultural strength. She spends her time reading, singing, writing and teaching.

Deb Berman, Director of Talent and Search at JustMeans. Deb has extensive experience growing and building the capacity of non-profit organizations and socially responsible entities. In her role as The Director of Talent and Search at JustMeans, Deb partners with the Council on strategically growing and expanding the team. In Deb’s 15 year career, she has amassed experience working with and for organizations and companies focused on deliberate and strategic social returns on investment with a particular focus on talent identification and retention. Deb Berman started her career founding a highly successful camp for emotionally disturbed children with a one-to-one camper to staff ratio called Camp Starfish. Her successes in that role have equipped her to understand the needs of growing entities. In addition to taking coursework at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education, Deb earned her Bachelor of Arts in Education and Sociology cum laude from Colgate University and her Master of Business Administration from Boston University with a concentration in non-profit management.

Courtney E. Martin is the award-winning author of Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters: How the Quest for Perfection is Harming Young Women called “a hardcover punch in the gut” by Arianna Huffington and “a smart and spirited rant that makes for thought-provoking reading” by the New York Times. She is also a widely-read freelance journalist and regular blogger for Feministing. She is a columnist on political and youth culture for The American Prospect Online and her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Newsweek, and the Christian Science Monitor, among others. Courtney co-wrote the life story of Marvelyn Brown, called The Naked Truth: Young, Beautiful and (HIV) Positive, just released in August on HarperCollins. In addition, she has essays in many anthologies, including A 21st Century Ethical Toolbox (Oxford University Press), and Declare Yourself: Fifty American Talk About Why Voting Matters (Greenwillow Books, HarperCollins). She is the Director of Undergraduate Programs at the Op-Ed Project, a Woodhull fellow, and part of the Progressive Women’s Voices Project at the Women’s Media Center. Read more about her work at www.courtneyemartin.com.

Deborah Siegel, PhD is the author of Sisterhood, Interrupted: From Radical Women to Grrls Gone Wild, co-editor of the literary anthology Only Child: Writers on the Singular Joys and Solitary Sorrows of Growing Up Solo, and co-founder of the webjournal The Scholar & Feminist Online. She has written about feminism, masculinity, contemporary families, sex, and popular culture for The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, The American Prospect, More, Psychology Today, The Progressive, The Mothers Movement Online, and on her blog, Girl with Pen (girlwpen.com). In addition to writing, Siegel consults with individuals and organizations seeking to expand their public platforms and bring their expertise to the public. Through one-on-one coaching, webinars, and on-site workshops, Siegel coaches thought leaders, philanthropists, advocates, and social entrepreneurs wishing to differentiate or amplify their written voice, migrate real-world activities online, and connect with a broad audience. Siegel received her doctorate in English and American Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2001. Read more about her work at www.deborahsiegel.net.

Vivian Todini, Communications Consultant, has extensive experience in creating integrated communications and advocacy strategies for social justice organizations. She has worked with a range of national civil rights, women’s rights and grassroots youth organizations. Her areas of expertise include strategic communications counseling, public affairs, speech and op-ed writing, message development, media training, and website development. She is the former Director of Communications for NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund (NOW LDEF). She is a former board member of YouthBASE, an HIV/AIDS education organization for at-risk youth and Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund. Vivian received her B.A. from William Paterson University and her M.A. from New York University.

Anna Wadia, Program Consultant, has dedicated her career to empowering low-income communities to create and improve jobs and have a voice in local and national policy. With almost 20 years experience in domestic and international philanthropy and economic development, Anna specializes in strategic program planning and evaluation, social change philanthropy, integrated technical assistance planning and delivery, and public policy research.

Anna ’s recent projects include: a mid-course assessment of an $18 million Ford Foundation initiative to improve the quality of low-wage jobs by expanding the availability of government and employer-provided work supports; an analysis of the feasibility of expanding the pool of funders supporting improvements in caregiving and human services frontline jobs (for the Ms. Foundation for Women, in collaboration with the Robert Wood Johnson and Annie E. Casey Foundations); co-authoring a paper on strategies to improve the quality of jobs and the quality of care in the child care and home health care fields for the Ms. Foundation; an assessment of the most effective strategies Ms. Foundation grantees have used to promote the sustainability of women’s microenterprises and social purpose businesses; and an analysis of domestic and international strategies to promote women’s economic empowerment for the Women’s Funding Network.

Prior to launching her consulting business, Anna led the Ms. Foundation’s efforts to improve women’s economic security. She managed one of the country’s leading national funding collaboratives, the Collaborative Fund for Women’s Economic Development, that has directed over $10 million since 1991 to create jobs for low-income women. Anna managed a consensus-based grant selection process with over twenty funders, designed and organized a range of technical assistance opportunities for grantees, and worked with evaluators to document lessons learned. She also spearheaded the Ms. Foundation’s 2004 voter engagement initiative.

Before coming to the Ms. Foundation, Anna worked in international development, where she was a Program Officer in the Africa and Middle East Program of the Ford Foundation and worked in West Africa and Southern Africa for Catholic Relief Services.

Anna co-authored Kitchen Table Entrepreneurs: How Eleven Women Escaped Poverty and Became Their Own Bosses, published by Westview Press, as well as several reports on best practices in microenterprise development. Anna has also organized and presented at numerous conferences and training workshops for foundations and practitioner organizations.

She earned her BA from Yale University in 1984 and holds a Master’s Degree in Public Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.