Critical Challenges, Real Solutions:
How Women Can Change Our World

Biographies of Participants

Pinney L. Allen is Chair-Elect of The Atlanta Women's Foundation, one of the most successful and respected women’s foundations in the country. Pinney has served on the boards of several non-profit organizations and independent schools. In 1999, she was recognized by Atlanta Magazine and Georgia Public Television as one of twenty-one “Women Making a Mark” on Atlanta, honoring powerful women who have made permanent, positive marks on lives in Atlanta. Pinney co-chairs Alston & Bird LLP’s Tax Section and serves on the firm’s 15-member operations council. She has led the firm as a member and chair of its executive committee, served in financial oversight roles, and led major client relationships and marketing efforts. Pinney’s law practice concentrates on structuring and effecting complex business transactions, including partnership and corporate tax planning and litigation. She also frequently speaks and writes both on issues of professional firm management and on legal issues. Pinney received her J.D. degree, cum laude, in 1979 and her A.B. degree, summa cum laude, in 1976, both from Harvard University. Pinney is ranked as one of the top attorneys in the United States by Best Lawyers in America, Chambers USA, Lawdragons 500, and Best of the US.

Dr. Peggy Antrobus is an activist and academic. She is a founding member and the former General Coordinator of Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) and was the third recipient of the CARICOM Triennial Award in 1990. Born in Grenada, she acquired citizenship of St. Vincent and the Grenadines and now resides in Barbados. Dr. Antrobus pursued studies in Economics at the Bristol University in the United Kingdom and in Social Work at the Birmingham University. Her Ph.D. in Education was obtained from the University of Massachusetts. Following a stint of service at the Jamaica Ministry of Finance in 1958, Dr. Antrobus assumed office as an Assistant Registrar at UWI, later transferring to academia as lecturer in Economics, Sociology and Social Work, contributing to the university's academic prestige. Her career path led her to serve in multiple capacities within the Region and internationally with appointments which include: Chief Community Development Officer for St. Vincent (1969-1970), Director, Women’s Bureau, Office of the Prime Minister, Jamaica (1974-1977), Secretary, Caribbean Coordinating Committee on Women’s Affairs (1977-78), Tutor-Coordinator, Women and Development Unit (WAND) UWI at Cave Hill (1978-1995). Consultant to UNIFEM (1998-99), Co-sponsor with Centre of Concern, Washington D.C for Strategic Planning Seminar on Gender and Trade (1998-2000). Several international agencies including CIDA, UNDP, and UNIFEM benefited from her expert knowledge as a consultant. As a member of numerous boards, advisory and steering committees, among which are the Global Fund for Women and the Grenada Education and Development Programme, she shared her expertise and worked diligently to serve the interests of women and the region. Through her service and enthusiastic leadership she forged new territory for women as an instrumental founding member of the Caribbean Association of Feminist Action and Research (CAFRA) and Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN). She contributed to the vitality of DAWN functioning as its General Coordinator from 1990-1996. She has written and published extensively on issues pertinent to the role of women and their development, most recently her work, The Global Women's Movement: Origins, Issues and Strategies, published by Zed Books in 2004.

Patricia Antoniello is Director of the Shirley Chisholm Center for Research on Women and Associate Professor of Health and Nutrition Sciences and Anthropology at Brooklyn College, City University of New York. Until 2003, she served as Director of the Brooklyn College Center for Health Promotion and Research. Dr. Antoniello received her Ph.D. in Anthropology from Columbia University. Dr. Antoniello has produced significant work on the subject of women’s health, including: Women’s Stories: HIV/AIDS Organizations Solving Personal and Family Dilemmas; The Voices of Women with HIV, in Primary Care Of Women And Children With HIV; Reproductive Decision Making Among Women in HIV Infection In Women; Women and HIV: The Imperative for Anthropological Research. In 1999, she received a Professional Staff Congress-CUNY Research Award for her project, “Life Force: The Women’s Life Stories Project”. Dr. Antoniello’s academic interests include urban health issues, women and HIV/AIDS, reproductive health and reproductive rights, and social and cultural influences on health.

Veronica I. Arreola is the director of the University of Ilinois at Chicago's Women in Science & Engineering Program (UIC WISE). An active member of the UIC campus, Arreola has served on the Chancellor's Committee on the Status of Women, the Chancellor's Committee on the Status of Latinos, and is a Safe Zone trainer. Arreola is also a board member of the Chicago Abortion Fund and has been active with the National Organization for Women at the local, state, and national level since 2000. She currently serves on the National NOW Mothers & Caregivers Economic Rights committee. She also serves on the board of Women in Media & News, a media reform organization based in Brooklyn, NY [www.wimnonline.org]. The first member of her family to attend college, she is a double graduate from UIC with a B.S. in Liberal Arts & Sciences and a M.P.A. in public administration, both with concentrations in Women’s Studies. Prior to her tenure at UIC, Arreola spent three years at the Field Museum of Natural History on a National Science Foundation funded internship in zoology. She has represented NOW on local radio (WSCR and WLUW), local television (FOX News in the Morning) and in the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times. Arreola lives on the north side of Chicago with her partner of almost 15 years and their pre-school-aged daughter. She blogs about life as a feminist mom at ChicagoParent.com.

Moya Bailey is a rising third year Fellow in Women's Studies at Emory University. Her research is focused on health care disparities in marginalized groups. She received her undergraduate degree from Spelman College where she majored in Women's Studies with a concentration in Health. While at Spelman she was a resident assistant and was active in many campus organizations including AUC Peace, Sisterfire, Afrekete, and served as President of the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance (FMLA). Her organizational and planning activities with the FMLA and the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Rights Conference led her to a life of activism centered on health issues and social constructs affecting women of color. Bailey also serves on the national board of the Davis-Putter Scholarship Fund, which provides scholarships for activist students. Her dream is to open a free clinic for women that provides a holistic approach to health and social services.

Linda G. Basch is a researcher and anthropologist with over 20 years experience in women’s issues, academia, and the international arena. Since late 1996, she has been Executive Director, and now President, of the National Council for Research on Women. At the Council, Basch has worked to further the organization’s commitment to use research as a tool for progressive social change and to provide accurate, evidence-based information and analyses to inform public debate, dialogue, and policymaking on women and girls. Under her leadership the Council has spearheaded research in a number of arenas, including examining the impacts of globalization on women’s and girls’ human security worldwide; the ways women’s and men’s leadership has and can strategically affect race and gender diversity in the higher education and corporate arenas; the gains made by women and girls in the sciences and the challenges they continue to confront; and the complex impacts of tax policies on women and families. Prior to joining the Council, Basch served as Research Director at the United Nations Institute for Training and Research; as Director of Special Programs at New York University; Dean of Arts and Science at Manhattan College; and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Wagner College. She has also served as Chair of the Anthropology Section of the New York Academy of Sciences, where she presently is a Fellow. She serves on several Advisory B oards, including Ms . Magazine, the AAUW, and the National Initiative for Women in Higher Education. She received her Ph.D. in Anthropology from New York University, where she is a Research Scholar.

Bonnie Bazata is the Associate Director of the Center for Women's InterCultural Leadership at Saint Mary's College. Bonnie developed CWIL's Community Connections component to create meaningful and powerful connections between Saint Mary's College and diverse women leaders in the Michiana area. She developed innovative program models such as the Catalyst Trip, WiLCO (Women in Leadership in Community Organizations) and the Wellsprings of Wisdom conference. Her work also launched a new model in women's intercultural leadership, connecting
CWIL locally, nationally and internationally, and became the basis for a new student certificate in intercultural leadership. For her work, she was awarded an Indiana Torchbearer award in 2006
from the Indiana Commission for Women and in 2006 was given a community service award from the Martin Luther King, Jr. Foundation of St. Joseph County. For the last 25 years, Bonnie has been involved in a wide range of organizations for social justice and community development. A graduate of Antioch College, she received a Watson Fellowship to study Gandhian nonviolence in England and India, and then worked in community based organizations working for peace and social justice. Later, she worked with several education programs to
create success for culturally diverse and economically disadvantaged youth in Tucson, Arizona. Her Masters is in Bilingual/Multicultural Education from the University of Arizona, and she also studied Elementary Education with Prescott College.

Elizabeth Blake is Senior Vice President of Advocacy, Government Affairs, and General Counsel at Habitat for Humanity International, the world’s most foremost housing ministry. Liz joined Habitat after a highly impressive business career in the for-profit sector, wherein she held executive leadership positions at three NYSE companies: U.S. Airways Group, General Electric, and Cinergy Corporation, among others. In addition to her extensive work in litigation, corporate mergers, and regulatory compliance, she also has significant experience in government affairs, internal audit, security, and investor relations. Among her long list of civic and charitable involvements, Liz was the first woman to be named chair of the Ohio Board of Regents, a body appointed by the Governor that is responsible for policy oversight and budgeting authority for 38 Ohio colleges and universities on 65 separate campuses.

Naisha Bradley brings a passion for gender and educational equality to her work. A graduate of Clark Atlanta University in 2002 with a baccalaureate degree in Business Administration, she served her community during her undergraduate work as a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., organizing and participating in several programs and community service
projects related to educational development, economic development, physical and mental health, political awareness and involvement, and international awareness and involvement. Naisha formally acted as the Director of the School Age Child Care program at the Roxbury Boys and Girls Club of Boston, interacting with urban youth. Working at “The Club” reinforced her interest in activism around the intersection and resulting disparities of low income, gender, and the inequality of education. This aspect of social inequality was the focus of her master’s degree in Gender and Cultural Studies, with an emphasis in education, from Simmons College in Boston. Naisha currently works with the Women and Public Policy Program, focusing her attention on programming such as the Black Policy Conference and an international training module with Ugandan and Liberian women leaders, while providing support to the program’s Director, Ambassador Swanee Hunt. Raised in a family dedicated to service within the community, Naisha commits herself outside of her professional life to a Step Ministry at her church where she teaches teenage girls the art of Step as well as dedicates herself to community projects organized through her sorority.

Linda Burnham is co-founder and executive director of the Women of Color Resource Center (WCRC), a non-profit education, community action, and resource center committed to developing a strong, institutional foundation for social change activism by and on behalf of women of color. She has been working on racial justice and peace issues since the 1960s and on women of color issues since the early 1970s. Burnham was a leader in the Third World Women’s Alliance, a national organization that was an early advocate for the rights of women of color. In 1990, together with Miriam Ching Louie, she co-founded Women of Color Resource Center. Burnham has published numerous articles on African-American women, African-American politics, and feminist theory in a wide range of periodicals and anthologies. A particular focus of her more recent writing, organizing and advocacy work has been welfare policy and the lives of low- and no-income women and their families. Burnham led delegations of women of color to the 1985 UN World Conference on Women in Nairobi, Kenya and the 1995 UN World Conference on Women in Beijing, China. In 2001 she led a delegation of 25 women of color activists and scholars to the United Nations World Conference against Racism in Durban, South Africa. In 2004 Burnham was a leader of Count Every Vote, a human rights project that trained citizens to monitor the polls in the southern states. In 2005 Burnham was nominated as one of 1000 Peace Women for the Nobel Peace Prize. Burnham is a frequent featured speaker on college campuses and to community groups, addressing issues of women’s rights, racial justice, human rights, and peace. Burnham’s writing and organizing are part of a lifelong inquiry into the dynamic, often perilous intersections of race, class and gender.

Johnnella E. Butler is Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Spelman College and Professor of Comparative Women’s Studies. Prior to her arrival at Spelman in September 2005, she was Professor of American Ethnic Studies and member of the English Department Graduate Faculty, and Associate Dean and Associate Vice Provost of The Graduate School at the University of Washington, where she established a nationally and locally award-winning program, The Graduate Opportunities and Minority Achievement Program. A pioneer in curriculum transformation, she coined the term “difficult dialogues,” and her co-edited volume, Transforming the Curriculum: Ethnic Studies and Women’s Studies SUNY Press, 1991) is still in demand nationally and internationally. Her most recent publications include the edited volume Color-Line to Borderlands:the Matrix of American Ethnic Studies, “African American Literature and Realist Theory: Seeking the ‘true-true,’” in Identity Politics Reconsidered, Alcoff, Hames-García, Mohanty, and Moya, eds.; and “Ethnic Studies and Interdisciplinarity” in Research Methods in Ethnic Studies,Timothy Fong, ed. In 2006, Professor Butler was awarded the Charles Irby Distinguished Service Award of the National Association for Ethnic Studies.

Amy Caiazza directs the Democracy and Society Program Area at the Institute for Women's Policy Research, where she has worked since 1998. An expert on the motivations and impacts of women’s political and civic participation, Dr. Caiazza has recently explored the values and experiences of women social justice activists in religious community groups. As a regular in the media, Dr. Caiazza has appeared in outlets such as CNN, CNBC, PBS’ To The Contrary, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Newsday, and The Chicago Tribune, among many others. Her publications include Mothers and Soldiers: Gender, Citizenship, and Civil Society in Contemporary Russia (Routledge, 2002), The Ties That Bind: Women’s Public Vision for Politics, Religion, and Civil Society (IWPR, 2005), Called To Speak: Six Strategies That Encourage Women’s Political Activism (IWPR, 2006), and articles in journals such as Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society and Women and Politics. Dr. Caiazza worked jointly for the National Governor’s Association and the National Conference of State Legislators as well as for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Armed Services. She holds a doctorate in Political Science from Indiana University and a bachelor’s in International Relations from Georgetown University.

PeiYao Chen is a Research Analyst at Girls Incorporated National Resource Center. With a background in Developmental Psychology and Women Studies, PeiYao has conducted research focusing on girls’ and women’s empowerment and grassroots organizing in low-income, minority communities. At Girls Inc., she is responsible for developing a national evaluation system that uses both quantitative and participatory action research to support Girls Inc. affiliates in evaluation of the organization’s programs and programming. She is also involved in developing and implementing leadership programs for girls in different age groups. Prior to joining Girls Inc., PeiYao worked as a Scholar for the Ms. Foundation for Women - Healthy Girls/Healthy Women Collaborative and as a research associate for the Global Fund for Women - Girls’ Reflection and Evaluation Project. She holds a B.S. from National Taiwan University and received her doctorate in Psychology from the CUNY Graduate Center in 2003.

Pearl Cleage is an American poet, essayist, and journalist living in Atlanta, Georgia. After graduating from the Detroit public schools in 1966, Cleage enrolled at Howard University in Washington, D.C., where she majored in playwriting and dramatic literature. In 1969 she moved to Atlanta and enrolled at Spelman College, graduating in 1971 with a bachelor's degree in Drama. She later joined the Spelman faculty as a writer and playwright in residence and as a creative director. She is a frequent contributor to anthologies and has been featured recently in Proverbs for the People, Contemporary African American Fiction, edited by Tracy Price-Thompson and TaRessa Stovall, and in Mending the World, Stories of Family by Contemporary Black Writers, edited by Rosemarie Robotham. She is a Contributing Writer to ESSENCE Magazine, and in 1998, her novel, What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day, was an Oprah Book Club pick and spent nine weeks on The New York Times bestseller list.

Dr. Chris Cuomo , the Director of the Institute for Women's Studies and Professor of Philosophy, holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Formerly a professor of Philosophy and Women’s Studies at the University of Cincinnati, Dr. Cuomo's research focuses on ethics, feminist philosophies, race, sexuality, environmental ethics, and art. She is the author of Feminism and Ecological Communities: An Ethic of Flourishing (Routledge) and The Philosopher Queen: Feminist Essays on War, Love & Knowledge (Rowman & Littlefield), which was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award and an American Philosophical Association Book Award and coeditor of The Feminist Philosophy Reader, forthcoming in 2007. Dr. Cuomo has been awarded grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and the Charles Phelps Taft Center. She is currently working on a project on indigenous knowledge concerning climate change in Northern Alaska.

Stephanie Davis is the Policy Advisor on Women's Issues to the Mayor and is charged with developing the agenda and coordinating the quarterly Roundtables. She is a member of the board of the White House Project who recently served as the CEO of the Atlanta Women's Foundation and was on the first City of Atlanta Commission for Women.

Hazel D. Dean , Sc.D., M.P.H., is currently the Acting Deputy Director of the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention (NCHHSTP) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). She previously served as NCHHSTP’s first Associate Director for Health Disparities and as a supervisory, senior, and staff epidemiologist in the Divisions of HIV/AIDS Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Prior to joining CDC, she worked at the Louisiana State Health Department, where she was an epidemiologist, biostatistician, and statistical coordinator with the HIV/AIDS Program. Throughout her two decades of work in the public health field, Dr. Dean has contributed significantly to the development of national and international strategies for using HIV/AIDS, viral hepatitis, STD, and tuberculosis program, surveillance, and scientific data to guide prevention and care program planning and to address infectious and chronic diseases health disparities. Her major research interests include developing methods, applications and programs to detect, understand, and reduce health inequalities. Dr. Dean received her Bachelors degree in Biology from Spelman College, her Masters degree in Public Health in International Health/Biostatistics, and a Doctorate of Science Degree in Biostatistics from Tulane University.

Stacie Geller , Ph.D. is a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Illinois College of Medicine and at the School of Public Health. Dr. Geller is the Director of the UIC Center for Research on Women and Gender and the UIC National Center of Excellence in Women's Health, Office on Women's Health, Department of Health and Human Services. Dr. Geller is a health services researcher and epidemiologist with expertise in maternal and women's health issues, complimentary and alternative medicine related to women's health and has been awarded 15 research grants in the past 5 years in these study areas. Dr. Geller's work in maternal mortality and morbidity extends to international circles where she is currently working to reduce postpartum hemorrhage in rural India; there, she is responsible for the design and implementation of a clinical trial in four primary health centers in Belgaum district of Karnataka, India. Dr. Geller is currently conducting three FDA funded studies with the College of Pharmacy to examine the pharmacokinetics of pharmaceuticals in pregnancy and the potential relevance of these effects in explaining differences in drug response between men and women. Dr. Geller's research interests extend beyond that of pregnancy to the midlife and menopause.

Beverly Guy-Sheftall is the Anna Julia Cooper Professor of English and Women's Studies at Spelman College in Atlanta. In 1981, she became the founding director of the College's Women's Research and Resource Center, the first of its kind on a historically black college campus. She earned her Ph.D. in American Studies from Emory University in 1984. Guy-Sheftall is the editor of Words of Fire: An Anthology of African-American Feminist Thought, co-editor of the first anthology of black women's literature published in the U.S., Sturdy Black Bridges: Visions of Black Women in Literature, and co-editor of Double Stitch: Black Women Write About Mothers and Daughters. She recently completed an anthology with Rudolph Byrd entitled Traps: African American Men on Gender and Sexuality and a monograph, Gender Talk: The Struggle for Women’s Equality in African American Communities with Johnnetta B. Cole.

Bridget Harris Tsemo serves on the advisory council for the Women of Color Leadership Project at the National Women's Studies Association. She is also assistant professor of African American Studies and Rhetoric at the University of Iowa, where she focuses on the issues of class, race, and democracy as they exist in works by African Americans mainly at the turn of the nineenth and twentieth century. Bridget Harris Tsemo received her PhD from the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she studied the African American Literary and Rhetorical Tradition and Race and Class Issues in American Literature. She won a 2006 Outstanding Thesis Award from the UIC Graduate College for her dissertation, "Confronting an 'Unwashed Democracy': African-American Literature at the Turn of the Century." In September 2005, she organized a public forum at the University of Iowa, entitled, "Gulf Coast Underwater: America Uncovered," which explored the rhetoric surrounding the tragedy of hurricane Katrina, and how to cut through to the truth. Tsemo's academic interests include the African American literary tradition and cultural studies. One manifestation of her interest will come in the form of a symposium she is co-chairing titled "From Bourgeois to Boojie: African American Middle Class Performances," which will take place October 24 and 25, 2007 at the University of Iowa. The symposium presenters are slated to discuss both class and blackness as expressed in film, literature, media, music, autobiography\biography, theatre, or the performance of everyday life. The speakers will also contribute their presentations to an edited collection, which shares the same name as the symposium.

The Rev. Dr. Katharine Henderson is currently the Executive Vice President of Auburn Theological Seminary in New York City. She oversees the educational program, including developing and directing program initiatives, among them, multifaith programs for women, corporate executives, and Face to Face/Faith to Faith, a multifaith leadership program for teenagers from around the world. Henderson received a doctorate in higher education from Teachers College Columbia University in 2000. She received her M.Div. degree in 1982 from Union Theological Seminary in New York City and her B.A. from The College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio, Phi Beta Kappa. She was ordained as a minister in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in 1982 and is currently Parish Associate at First Presbyterian Church in New York City. Since 1985, Dr. Henderson has worked in theological education as Director of Development at Auburn Seminary from 1993-2000; Associate Dean of Students and Director of Admissions at Union Seminary, 1985-1993. Prior to that, she was Associate Pastor at Central Presbyterian Church, New York City. Her book, Gods Troublemakers: How Women of Faith are Changing the World, has just been published by Continuum International Publishing Co. and is currently available. Henderson’s intellectual interests include leadership, particularly among women; the role of progressive religious leadership in the public arena and religion in the media; communication across lines of faith, race and class; and the role of philanthropy in shaping the third sector of society. She sits on the Boards of the New York Women’s Foundation and The Palestinian Children’s Initiative and the American Friends of the Interreligious Coordinating Council of Israel, and is a member of the Women’s Advisory Committee of the Council on Foreign Relations. Keynote speeches include: Alchemists at Work: God, Money and the Common Good, October 2001, Generations of Giving Conference, The Aspen Institute, and Women Alchemists At Work: Turning Good into Gold delivered at A Force for Change, a conference of the Jewish Women’s Foundations, Chicago, IL in April 2002. An entry, Public Voices of Religious Women, appears in The Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America, Rosemary Skinner Keller and Rosemary Radford Ruether, Editors, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 2006.

Inés Hernández-Ávila is Director of the Chicana/Latina Research Center. She served for several years on the C/LRC steering committee, and then as co-Director, from 2000-2002. She became Director in academic year 2002-2003. She is Professor of Native American Studies, having served as Chair of that Department from 1996-1998. Under her leadership, the department submitted a successful proposal to establish an M.A. and Ph.D. program in Native American Studies. This graduate program, officially approved at the UC systemwide level in early November 1998, is the first of its kind in the country in its hemispheric perspective. Dr. Hernández-Ávila's research/publication areas are Native American women's literature (particularly poetry and performance), contemporary indigenous literature of Mexico, Native American religious traditions, Native American and Chicana cultural studies, Native American and Chicana feminisms, early 20th century Texas-Mexican women’s literature. She is a member of the Latina Feminist Group who produced Telling to Live: Latina Feminist Testimonios, which won the Gustav Meyers Center Award as one of the ten outstanding books of 2002 focusing on issues of human rights and bigotry. She and Gail Tremblay co-edited a special issue on Indigenous Women for Frontiers: A Journal of Women’s Studies (fall 2002). She and Domino Renee Perez co-edited a special issue of SAIL (Studies in American Indian Literature), titled “Indigenous Intersections,” looking at Chicana/o and Native American connections. She also edited a collection of essays titled Reading Native American Women: Critical/Creative Representations (Altamira Press). One of her forthcoming projects is Entre Guadalupe y Malinche: Tejanas in Literature and Art, co-edited with Norma Cantú, which is being published by the University of Texas Press. Dr. Hernández-Ávila is an associate editor of Wicazo Sa Review, a major journal of Native American Studies, and she is an elected member of the National Caucus of the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers. She also holds memberships in the American Academy of Religions, the Society for the Study of Native American Religious Traditions, the Association for the Study of American Indian Literature, the American Studies Association, MALCS (Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social), and the National Association of Chicana and Chicano Studies. Her Ph.D. is in English from the University of Houston. She is a Ford Foundation/National Research Council Fellow twice, at the doctoral and postdoctoral levels.

Vivienne Heston-Demirel is Director of Communications at the National Council for Research on Women. She is a communications specialist with a solid background in journalism and public relations for educational, non-profit, and international organizations. She recently completed a series of assignments for the United Nations where she developed and managed global communication strategies involving media relations, diplomacy, and public outreach. She began her career as a journalist working for newspapers, magazines and broadcast media. This expertise has given her a diverse rolodex of media contacts. An experienced writer and editor, she has produced a wide variety of information products including annual reports, press kits and promotional materials 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 challenges such as the HIV epidemic. She graduated with honors from the State University of New York at Stony Brook with a BA in French Language and Literature and she also conducted research and completed graduate coursework in international relations at Bosphorus University in Istanbul, Turkey.

Heather Johnston Nicholson, Ph.D. has more than two decades of experience in research, program development, and educational and political advocacy for girls and young women. A prolific author, Nicholson has contributed to some 30 books, articles, monographs, and technical reports on gender equity, informal education, and the healthy development of girls and young women ages 6 to 18. She also has written and contributed to a wide range of program curricula, magazine articles, evaluation tools, and policy on issues of math, science and technology, health and wellness, sports, teen sexuality and pregnancy, violence and juvenile justice, single-sex education, and leadership – all with a focus on girls. Nicholson joined Girls Incorporated, the national youth program, research, and advocacy organization that inspires all girls tobe strong, smart and bold SM in 1982 as Senior Research associate at the National Resource Center in Indianapolis. Nicholson now directs the research and evaluation work of Girls Incorporated. She has been the principal investigator for several multi-million dollar initiatives of Girls Incorporated funded by government and private foundation grants. Nicholson serves on advisory boards for United Way of America, Purdue School of Education, and the National Collaboration for Youth. Prior to joining Girls Incorporated, Nicholson taught political science and public policy at The University of Iowa, Purdue University, and Indiana/Purdue at Indianapolis. She holds a B.A. with honors from Chatham College, an M.A. from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and a Ph.D. from the University of Iowa, all in political science.

Susan Kaufmann has been an Associate Director of the University of Michigan Center for the Education of Women in Ann Arbor since 1990. After leading the Center’s counseling services, programs, and leadership development activities for 13 years, Kaufmann became the Associate Director for Advocacy in 2006, heading advocacy and policy initiatives that benefit women within and beyond the University. After spending two years writing and speaking about the potential impact of the anti-affirmative action ballot measure known as the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, she is currently writing about the extent to which women, in Michigan and the nation, are assuming roles in the high-tech knowledge economy. During the 1980’s, Kaufmann was the women's advocate in the University of Michigan Affirmative Action Office, where she led pioneering efforts to develop an institutional response to sexual harassment; the director of the Washtenaw County Assault Crisis Center, providing services to sexual assault and domestic violence survivors; and the associate director of the University of Michigan Institute for the Humanities. In 2004, Gov. Granholm appointed Kaufmann to the board of the Washtenaw County Department of Human Services, on which she continues to serve. Between 1995 and 2004, she chaired the Ann Arbor Mayor’s Task Force on Violence Against Women and the Washtenaw County Coalition on Gender Violence. Her publications include the forthcoming “Michigan Women in the High-Tech Knowledge Economy,” “The Potential Impact of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative on Employment, Education and Contracting,” “The Gender Impact of the Proposed Michigan Civil Rights Initiative,” "Michigan: A 'Smart State' for Women?: Women and Higher Education," and “The Michigan Women’s Leadership Project: Leadership for Social Change,” in A Leadership Journal: Women in Leadership—Sharing the Vision. Kaufmann has a master's degree in Environmental Advocacy from the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment.

Daisy Khan is Executive Director of ASMA Society (American Society for Muslim Advancement), a non-profit organization dedicated to developing an American Muslim identity and to building bridges between the Muslim community and the general public through dialogues in faith, identity, culture, and arts. As wife of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, Ms. Khan mentors young Muslims on questions of assimilation, tradition and modernity, and intergenerational challenges. In the aftermath of 9/11, Ms. Khan focused on creating interfaith programs aimed at seeking commonalities among the Abrahamic faith traditions, such as a groundbreaking theater production titled Same Difference and The Cordoba Bread Fest interfaith banquet.

Given the ascendancy of issues of youth and women's marginalization, and sectarian divides in the global Muslim community, Ms. Khan has now launched two cutting edge intrafaith programs to create movements of change agents amongst the two disempowered majorities of the Muslim world: youth and women. The MLT: Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow and WISE: Women's Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equity programs were successfully launched at a global scale in Copenhagen (MLT) and in New York (WISE) in 2006. Both programs, which seek to bring together, empower, and build networks in their target groups, are advancing the emergence of a leadership that speaks with a credible, humane, and equitable voice within the global Muslim community. Ms. Khan frequently lectures in the United States and internationally and has appeared on various media outlets, such as PBS, BBC World, CNN, National Geographic, Al Jazeerah, and the Hallmark Channel. She has also been quoted in several print publications, such as Time Magazine, Newsweek, ChicagoTribune, New York Times, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Saudi Gazette, and KhaleejTimes. Ms. Khan is the recipient of several awards, including the Interfaith Center Award for Promoting Peace and Interfaith Understanding, the Auburn Seminary's Lives of Commitment Award, and the Annual Faith Leaders Award. Born in Kashmir, India, Ms. Khan spent her first 25 years as an interior architect at various Fortune 500 companies, and in 2005 decided to fully dedicate herself to the development of her community through ASMA Society.

M. Bahati Kuumba is the Associate Professor of Women’s Studies/Associate Director of the Women’s Research and Resource Center at Spelman College. Her scholarly research, activism, and public presentations focus on African women transnationally in the areas of social resistance movements, population policy, and global African/Black feminist theory and praxis. She has also done work in the areas of participatory research methodologies and popular education for movement-building. Her research and activism have led to collaborations with women and women’s organizations in the United States, Canada, Cuba, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. Dr. Kuumba is a prolific scholar who has published widely in scholarly journals and activist publications such as Sociological Forum; Race, Gender, and Class; Africa Today; Mobilization: International Journal of Social and Political Movements; 21st Century Afro Review, Feminist Issues; and Agenda – Empowered Women for Gender Equity (a South African feminist journal). She has also authored several book chapters on women and gender in cross-cultural and race/class/gender perspective including “Engendering the Pan-African Movement: Field Notes from the All-African Women’s Revolutionary Union,” in Still Lifting, Still Climbing: African American Women’s Contemporary Activism.

Ilene H. Lang is the President of Catalyst, the leading research and advisory organization working with businesses and the professions to build inclusive environments and expand opportunities for women at work. Ms. Lang leads a team of experts in tracking workforce demographic trends, establishing the business case for women’s career development, and creating and implementing innovative strategies for recruiting, retaining, and advancing women. She regularly addresses national and international audiences in a variety of business, academic, and public policy venues. Prior to joining Catalyst in September 2003, Ms. Lang broke barriers in her own career as a pioneering female high-tech and Internet executive. Most recently she was a board member, advisor to CEOs, and investor in women-led technology companies. She was the founding CEO of AltaVista Internet Software Inc, as well as a Senior Vice President at Lotus Development Corporation, responsible for the worldwide development and marketing of a $500+ million product line. Ms. Lang currently serves on the Board of Directors of ART Technology Group. She earned a Bachelors degree from Radcliffe College and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. Ms. Lang is married to H. Neil Berkson, an attorney, and is the mother of three children—Sarah, 29; Penelope, 26; and Edmund, 24.

Meizhu Lui is the Executive Director of United for a Fair Economy which is a nonpartisan, non-profit organization that is committed to raising awareness that concentrated wealth and power undermine the economy, corrupt democracy, deepen the racial divide, and tear communities apart. Meizhu was a Boston City Hospital kitchen worker for 20 years, rising from the ranks to become President of AFSCME Local 1489. In 1993 Meizhu became an organizer for Health Care for All, building a multi-ethnic coalition that challenged Boston’s hospitals to fund community driven health projects. Meizhu serves on the Center for American Progress’ National Initiative to End Poverty. She is a Trustee of the Hyams Foundation. Her work has been honored by the YWCA, the Immigrant Workers’ Resource Center, Mass Senior Action Council, and the Boston Women’s Fund. Meizhu has co-authored The Color of Wealth: The Story Behind the Racial Wealth Divide, and UFE’s annual “State of the Dream” reports. Her articles appear in the Wealth Inequality Reader and Inequality Matters.

Theresa Lund is the Research Manager at the Women and Public Policy Program (WAPPP) at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. She is responsible for the strategic design and implementation of all of WAPPP’s academic programming activity. Her work includes directing WAPPP’s research fellows program, organizing conferences and seminars on key issues related to gender policy, and writing grant proposals and managing awarded grants. In addition, Theresa represents WAPPP at related conferences and symposia throughout the US and abroad. Previously, Theresa worked in the private sector as a business strategy consultant, with the US Department of Sate in Germany, and with the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. Theresa is the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship to Germany, and she serves on the Board of Directors of the Fulbright Association of Massachusetts. She holds an Ed.M. in International Education Policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a B.A. in International Relations and German Language and Literature from Wellesley College.

Dr. Lisa McClain is an Associate Professor and the Director of Gender Studies at Boise State University. She earned her Ph.D. in History from the University of Texas-Austin where she also served as a Lecturer. Dr. McClain is currently researching the issue of domestic violence and sexual assault perpetrated against women with disabilities as part of her work on a three-year grant from the U.S. Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women (OVW). This grant program, entitled "Education and Technical Assistance Grant to End Violence against Women with Disabilities," was created by the Violence Against Women Act of 2000 (VAWA 2000), which recognized the need to focus on violence against women with disabilities due to the proliferation of such violence and the gaps in service provision for this population. Foci of McClain's research include investigating how best to provide equal access to services for victims and survivors in frontier states, rural areas, and religiously conservative regions. Dr. McClain's fields of specialty also include religion during the Renaissance/Reformation era and gender and
popular culture in early modern Europe. She is the author of the book Lest We Be Damned: Practical Innovation and Lived Experience among Catholics in Protestant England 1559-1642 (Routledge, 2004), as well as several articles in journals such as the Sixteenth Century Journal and the Journal of Religious History.

Terri McCullough is Chief of Staff and advisor on women’s issues to Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Speaker of the House. She is responsible for overseeing a legislative agenda representing the 8th Congressional District of California and managing staff in Washington, DC and San Francisco. Previously, she served in a variety of roles in ten years in Rep. Pelosi’s Capitol Hill and San Francisco offices, with a focus on issues affecting women and families.

Patricia McFadden was born in Swaziland and now lives and works mainly from Zimbabwe, based at the Southern African Political Economy Series Trust (SAPES). She received her M.A. from University of Dar es Salaam ( Tanzania) and Ph.D. in Sociology from Warwick University in UK (1987). She was the recipient of the Hellman/Hammett Prize from Human Rights Watch, 1998. Patricia taught in various universities in Africa, the US and in Europe. She is currently the Endowed Cosby Chair in the Social Sciences – in the Women’s Research and Resource Center, at Spelman College, Atlanta (2005-07). Patricia has presented and published numerous papers since 1975 and edited three books, and contributed chapters on Feminism, Gender and Women’s struggles in Africa. Her main areas of intellectual inquiry include: theorizing radical African feminism; sexuality and pleasure, reproductive and sexual health and rights, identity, violation and citizenship for African women.

Caryn McTighe Musil is Senior Vice President at the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) where she oversees the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Global Initiatives and brings her expertise on U.S. diversity, civic engagement, global learning, and women's issues in higher education. She received her B.A. from Duke University and her M.A. and Ph.D. in English from Northwestern University.  Dr. Musil is currently directing a multi-project initiative called Core Commitments: Educating Students for Personal and Social Responsibility funded by the Templeton Foundation, while also serving as project director of a curriculum and faculty development initiative, Shared Futures: General Education for Global Learning, funded by FIPSE in the Department of Education and the Luce Foundation. Some of her edited and co-authored publications include The Courage to Question: Women’s Studies and Student Learning, To Form a More Perfect Union: Campus Diversity Initiatives, and Gender, Science, and the Undergraduate Curriculum. At AAC&U she also serves as Director of the Program on the Status and Education of Women which produces an electronic newsletter (On Campus with Women [www.ocww.org]), houses Campus Women Lead and its Women’s Leadership for Inclusive Excellence project, and provides national leadership on issues concerning women in higher education.

Sandra Morgen is Professor of Women's Studies at Pennsylvania State University. Previously she served as Director of the Center for the Study of Women in Society at the University of Oregon where she continues to work with the Women in the Northwest Research Initiative. Her scholarship focuses on women and public policy, particularly health, welfare and tax policy in the U.S. Morgen's most recent books include Into Our Own Hands: the Women's Health Movement in the U.S., 1969-1990 (2002), Work, Welfare and Politics Confronting Poverty in the Wake of Welfare Reform, co-edited with Frances Fox Piven, Joan Acker, and Margaret Hallock (2002), and Taxes are a Woman's Issue: Reframing the Debate co-authored with Mimi Abramovitz. She is currently co-authoring a book based on an in-depth study of welfare restructuring in Oregon entitled Neoliberalism on the Ground: Multiple Perspectives on Welfare Restructuring (with Joan Acker and Jill Weigt). Morgen received her Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1982.

Layli Phillips is Associate Professor of Women’s Studies and Associated Faculty of African American Studies at Georgia State University. She recently published The Womanist Reader (Routledge, 2006), a comprehensive anthology documenting the first quarter century of womanist thought and the first-ever volume to focus on womanism “on its own.” From 1994-2000, she served as Founding Co-Director of the Womanist Studies Consortium, a Rockefeller Humanities Fellowships Residency Program and Founding Co-Editor of the journal The Womanist (later Womanist Theory & Research). She teaches courses in womanism, Black feminist thought, women and hip hop, and the African-American lesbian and gay experience. In addition to researching womanism, Africana sexualities, and women and hip hop, she also conducts biographical research on Drs. Kenneth B. and Mamie P. Clark and writes on liberation psychology. She holds a Ph.D. in Psychology from Temple University, an M.S. in Psychology from Penn State, and a B.A. from Spelman College, where she majored in Philosophy.

Laura L. Rahman , a native of Detroit, Michigan, is an activist documentary filmmaker who graduated from Spelman College with honors. She was a Comparative Women’s Studies major and sociology minor with a concentration on documenting women of African descent in film. She is a part of the Digital Moving Image Salon, which nurtures and inspires emerging Black women filmmakers to contribute to the narratives of women’s lives. She is a winner of the Eyes On The Prize Black College New Media Project which resulted in a $5000 grant to produce her documentary Breaking Silences. She was among the seven Spelman students selected by the Oprah Show to discuss the Don Imus comment and Hip Hop in the black community. Her community involvement includes supporting and mentoring youth in the metropolitan Atlanta area. She has received an outstanding volunteer service award in working with elementary students. Through her African American woman’s lens she desires to impact the global society by presenting film images that focus on the lived experiences of women of African descent.

Dina Refki is Acting Director of the Fellowship on Women & Public Policy, a women’s leadership development program of the Center for Women in Government & Civil Society (CWIGCS). CWIGCS is a research and public policy education center at the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy, University at Albany. She also serves as Deputy Director for Voices for Change: Immigrant Women & State Policy, and for New Partners, both programs of CWIGCS. Both programs build bridges between civil society and government to strengthen policy responses to the needs of women and their families in New York State. She teaches World History at Empire State College. She serves as a board member of Holding Our Own, a women’s foundation which promotes feminist social change in New York State’s Capital Region. She is also a member of the Coordinating Council of the Women’s Building; the Capital Region’s women’s community center. Dina holds a doctorate in Humanistic Studies, a Master of Arts in Africana Studies and a Bachelor of Arts in English. Her research interests include gender equity and feminist movements.

Deborah Richardson is Chief Executive Officer of the Atlanta Women's Foundation. The organization has been in existence for more than 20 years and is the only public foundation in Georgia with a mission to support women and girl-serving organizations. Ms. Richardson has a thirty-year track record of non-profit administration, fundraising, and program development, and serves on the Boards of Directors of the AWF and the Women's Policy Group. Before assuming her current position, she was Vice President of Programs and Strategic Initiatives for AWF, and was concurrently the Director of Program Development for Fulton County Juvenile Court and the founding Executive Director of the Juvenile Justice Fund. She is nationally recognized for her advocacy regarding child sexual exploitation, and is a powerful ally for every under-served girl in Atlanta.

Sue Rosser received her Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1973. Since July 1999, she has served as Dean of Ivan Allen College, the liberal arts college at Georgia Institute of Technology, where she is also Professor of Public Policy and of History, Technology, and Society. She holds the endowed Ivan Allen Dean’s Chair of Liberal Arts and Technology. From 1995-1999, she was Director for the Center for Women’s Studies and Gender Research and Professor of Anthropology at the University of Florida-Gainesville. In 1995, she was Senior Program Officer for Women’s Programs at the National Science Foundation. From 1986 to 1995 she served as Director of Women’s Studies at the University of South Carolina, where she also was a Professor of Family and Preventive Medicine in the Medical School.

She has edited collections and written approximately 120 journal articles on the theoretical and applied problems of women and science and women’s health. Author of ten books, Teaching Science and Health from a Feminist Perspective: A Practical Guide (1986), Feminism within the Science and Health Care Professions: Overcoming Resistance (1988), Female-Friendly Science (1990) from Pergamon Press, Feminism and Biology: A Dynamic Interaction (1992) from Twayne Macmillan, Women’s Health: Missing from U.S. Medicine (1994) from Indiana University Press, and Teaching the Majority (1995), Re-engineering Female Friendly Science (1997), Women, Science, and Society: The Crucial Union (2000) from Teachers College Press, and The Science Glass Ceiling: Academic Women Scientists and their Struggle to Succeed (2004), her latest book is Women, Gender, and Technology (2006), co-edited with Mary Frank Fox and Deborah Johnson. She also served as the Latin and North American Co-editor of Women’s Studies International Forum from 1989-1993 and currently serves on the editorial boards of NWSA Journal, Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering and Transformations. She has held several grants from the National Science Foundation, including “A USC System Model for Transformation of Science and Math Teaching to Reach Women in Varied Campus Settings” and “POWRE Workshop”; from 2001-2006 she served as co-PI on a $3.7 million ADVANCE grant from NSF. She currently serves as PI on InTEL: Interactive Toolkit for Engineering Learning, a $900,000 NSF grant. During the fall of 1993, she was Visiting Distinguished Professor for the University of Wisconsin System Women in Science Project.

Dr. Debra L. Schultz  is Director of Programs for OSI’s Network Women’s Program, which promotes accountability for women’s human rights as an integral part of building open societies. At OSI, she has helped catalyze women’s movements, developed new frameworks for women’s human rights activism, supported young Roma women’s leadership development, and launched grant-making efforts on women’s multiple discrimination.  She is the author of Going South: Jewish Women in the Civil Rights Movement (New York University Press). As a historian, she documents cross-racial alliances for social change. She is the former Assistant Director of the National Council for Research on Women.

Felicity Schaeffer-Grabiel is an Assistant Professor in the Feminist Studies Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Currently she is working on her book manuscript, “Cyber-brides Across the Americas: Transnational Imaginaries, Marriage, and Migration.” She has published numerous articl es on this project including, “Planet-Love.com: Cyberbrides in the Americas and the Transnational Routes of U.S. Masculinity.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, vol. 31 (2), Winter 2006, 331-356. She is also the Co-Chair of MALCS (Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social / Women Active in Letters and Social Change), a Summer Institute for Chicana/Latina, Native and Afro-Latina women that bridges academic work, mentorship and activism.

Olivia A. Scriven, Ph.D.is Senior Advisor for Academic Development and Institutional Advancement at Spelman College, the nation’s oldest liberal arts college solely and specifically for women of African descent. At Spelman, Scriven provides counsel and support to the Provost and Vice President for Institutional Advancement in the areas of strategic planning; curricular and co-curricular program design, development and execution; domestic and international partnerships; and the procurement and management of external funding to support institutional initiatives. Scriven holds the Doctoral degree in the History of Science and Technology from the School of History, Technology and Society at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She is the first African-American and the first African-American female to earn the Ph.D. from the program and one of only a handful of African-Americans in the U.S. with an advanced degree in the discipline. Scriven’s research, which has been supported by fellowships from the American Association of University Women (AAUW) and Georgia Tech, addresses issues of race, gender and public policy in science and technology studies. Scriven is regularly invited to present on her work, most recently at the 26 th Annual Women’s Studies Conference, “Women, Gender, and Science,” in New Paltz, New York in Oct. 2005. Scriven serves on the Professional Development Committee of the National Council of University Research Administrators (NCURA) and is co-editor (2006-2007) of the organization’s newsletter. Scriven has authored a grant proposal guide; served on a variety of peer review panels; regularly hosts grantsmanship workshops for educational and non-profit institutions in the United States and internationally; and has served on a variety of panels focused on higher education administration and leadership development. In addition to a Ph.D., Scriven also holds a B.A. from New York University and Masters degrees in Educational Communication and Technology and the History of Science from New York University and the Georgia Institute of Technology, respectively.

Ritu Sharma is a leading voice on international women’s issues and U.S. foreign policy. Due in large part to Ms. Sharma and the Women’s Edge Coalition, the interests of poor women worldwide are now being incorporated into U.S. economic assistance and trade policies and, in some cases, into U.S. law itself. A first generation American of East Indian heritage, Ms. Sharma’s family left behind generations of violence and poverty in Punjab, India to build a new life in the United States. Her family’s legacy and her first-hand experience of the injustices suffered by women, combined with her strong belief that American citizens must ensure that the U.S. acts positively in the world, led Ms. Sharma to create the Women’s Edge Coalition in 1998. Ms. Sharma is an adept coalition builder, political strategist and communicator who has led numerous advocacy campaigns to success. Her work continues to link women’s organizations from around the world with U.S. organizations to rally their efforts to help poor women.
Ms. Sharma is an eloquent public speaker, drawing on her personal experiences, travels, unusual insights and “out-of-the-box” thinking to inspire audiences to get involved to change women’s lives for the better. She holds a BSFS in international economics from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and a Masters of Public Health from Johns Hopkins University. Ms. Sharma is the author of An Introduction to Advocacy: A Training Guide, which has been translated into six languages and is a primary reference for advocates around the globe. She serves on the Board of Directors of InterAction and the Center for Global Engagement. She lives in Annapolis, Maryland with her husband and two sons.

Donna Shavlik , is Former Director of the Office of Women in Higher Education and Senior Fellow, American Council on Education. Donna Shavlik is well-known for her leadership in many areas and especially for her work with women’s issues in higher education. Shavlik recently completed a term as Senior Fellow with the American Council on Education (ACE) where she worked with the Office of Women in Higher Education on the Women Presidents’ Summit, and the Division of Institutional and International Initiatives on the ACE Kellogg Projects on Institutional Transformation. Shavlik held leadership positions with Office of Women in Higher Education for 24 years. This office provides a national voice for women in higher education with special focus on the advancement of women leaders. During her tenure, Shavlik played a major role in coordinating efforts among higher education associations relative to women’s equity and leadership and in creating strategies to address women’s issues. Shavlik was a founding member of the National Council for Research on Women and served as chair of the Board of Directors. She was a founding member of the National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education and was chair of that group in 1978. She has also served on the executive boards of the Federation of Organizations for Professional Women, the American Association for Higher Education, and the United States Olympic Committee. Shavlik was one of the founders of the National Conference for Women Student Leaders. In addition to her work with national organizations, Shavlik has served on the governing boards for Gettysburg College where she is now an emeritus trustee, Goddard College where she just completed a term as Vice-chair, and Cottey College. She has received numerous awards and honors including Honorary Doctorate degrees from Marymount Manhattan College in New York, Alverno College in Wisconsin, Wheaton College in Massachusetts, and Olivet College in Michigan. The National Association for Women in Education (NAWE) honored Shavlik with several awards for distinguished service culminating with the Lifetime Achievement Award for Advancing Women in Higher Education in 1998. Also in 1998, the Nation Council for Research on Women awarded her the First Annual Award for Women Who Make a Difference. Shavlik earned a B.S. degree in Horticulture and Ornamental Floriculture from Colorado State University in 1957. She did graduate work in Sociology at the Universities of Alabama and Kansas. She held positions in student affairs at the University of Kansas, Colorado Women’s College, and the University of Alabama, as well as being the Associate Dean of Students at the University of Delaware, before joining ACE in 1973. Shavlik currently lives in Colorado where she is heavily involved with community affairs and joins her husband Dr. Frank Shavlik in their consulting business, the Timberline Group.

Deborah Siegel, Ph.D. is a writer and consultant specializing in women's issues and a Fellow at the Woodhull Institute.  She is the author of the forthcoming book, Sisterhood, Interrupted: From Radical Women to Grrls Gone Wild (Palgrave MacMillan, June 2007), coeditor of the literary anthology, Only Child: Writers on the Singular Joys and Solitary Sorrows of Growing Up Solo (Random House, Jan. 2007), and a founder of the webjournal The Scholar & Feminist Online.  Siegel has written about women, sex, contemporary families, work/life, and popular culture for a variety of publications. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, USA Today, O, Psychology Today, Pink, Ms., Time Out New York, and more.  Read more about her at www.deborahsiegel.net and on her blog, Girl with Pen (http://www.girlwithpen.blogspot.com).

Jane Smith is the Executive Director of the Spelman College Center for Leadership & Civic Engagement. Dr. Smith, a Spelman alumna, C'68, is the former chief executive officer of Business and Professional Women/USA. Dr. Smith began her professional career in 1975 at Spelman College as Assistant Professor of Sociology and Director of Freshman Studies. She went on to work as Assistant to President Donald M. Stewart, where she assumed responsibility for managing Spelman's seven million dollar Advanced Institutional Development Grant. She also served as Assistant Vice President for Development of Atlanta University and held Managing Directorship positions in INROADS/Atlanta and INROADS/Detroit. In 1991, Coretta Scott King invited Dr. Smith to serve as Director of Development at the Martin Luther King Center for Nonviolent Social Change. From 1994 to 1998, she reported directly to President Jimmy Carter when she directed The Atlanta Project, a community development initiative of The Carter Center. Dr. Smith relocated from Atlanta to the nation's capital nine years ago to assume the position of President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Council of Negro Women. She was later appointed by President Bill Clinton to the National Women's Business Council and by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to the Beijing Plus Five Conference delegation. Dr. Smith holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology from Spelman College, a Masters degree in Sociology from Emory University, a Doctorate of Education in Social Policy Analysis from Harvard University, and Honorary Doctorates from Spelman College and Texas College.

Dr. Cynthia Spence has served in the capacities of Assistant Dean for Freshman Studies, Associate Academic Dean and Academic Dean at Spelman College from 1985 to 2002. Currently, as an Associate Professor of Sociology, her teaching and research interests in the areas of sociology, criminology, law and violence against women support the Law and Criminology concentration in the Department of Sociology. Her interest in issues of higher education access and violence against women frame her research and writing, community service involvement and public speaking. Dr. Spence currently serves as Director of the UNCF Mellon Programs. These programs provide fellowships for students interested in becoming college professors in the areas of the humanities, physics, mathematics, sociology, anthropology and other disciplines employing philosophical or historical analysis. In addition, the UNCF/Mellon Programs provide funding for faculty development initiatives including dissertation completion fellowships, international faculty development seminars, sabbatical leave support, and teaching and learning institutes. She has served as consultant for the Ford Foundation Institutional Transformation Project, the University of Chicago Provost Initiative on Minority Affairs, the Agnes Scott College Center for Teaching and Learning Diversity Project and the Georgia Department of Corrections

Carla Stokes, Ph.D., M.P.H. is an activist, health educator, researcher, consultant, and the Founding Executive Director of Helping Our Teen Girls in Real Life Situations, Inc. (HOTGIRLS). In November 2006, Dr. Stokes completed a two-year post-doctoral research fellowship appointment at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, where she conducted research on the significance of media in the lives of black American girls. Dr. Stokes earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Spelman College and Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Public Health degrees from the University of Michigan (U-M) in Health Behavior and Health Education (with a cognate in Social Work). She developed and taught two original undergraduate courses in the U-M Department of Women's Studies: “Representations of Black Women in Hip Hop Culture” and “Black Women's Health and Social Issues”. Her dissertation research study investigated hip hop, sexuality, gender role norms, identity construction, and self-definition in Internet home pages constructed by 216 black adolescent girls residing in southern states with the highest rates of HIV/AIDS. As the first study of black adolescent girls’ home pages, this research won honorable mention in the U-M 2004 Distinguished Dissertation Awards competition in recognition of exceptional and unusually interesting scholarly work produced by doctoral students. Dr. Stokes conducted this study in consultation with an expert panel of black adolescent girls from the Atlanta metropolitan area, which included members of the HOTGIRLS Girls’ Leadership Council.

Lynn Szwaja is Program Director for Theology at the Henry Luce Foundation, where she supports theological scholarship and leadership development for religious communities in North America. Program interests include preparing leaders within particular traditions for participation in a religiously plural world; religion and the arts; and the relationships between North American and Asian theologies/faith communities/institutions. Before joining the Luce Foundation in 2004, Ms. Szwaja was Deputy Director for Creativity & Culture at the Rockefeller Foundation. She oversaw programs for humanities scholars, media and performing artists, museums, and civil society initiatives in Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia, and the United States. Ms. Szwaja also encouraged the recovery and dissemination of writing by women and other historically marginalized groups through support for the Feminist Press, the National Historic Publications and Records Commission’s Afro-American and Women’s History Consortia, and Arte Público Press’s Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage series, among others. She was honored for this work with a Femmy Award from the Feminist Press in 2003. In 1993, Ms. Szwaja developed a 10-year initiative on the role of religion in civil society, which supported multireligious efforts to address social issues and investigate the implications of religious pluralism. Ms. Szwaja served twice as Acting Director of the Rockefeller Foundation’s arts and humanities program, and in 2000 was awarded the Foundation’s Evans Medal for Outstanding Contribution to the Well-being of Humankind. Ms. Szwaja received her B.A. cum laude in religious studies from Yale University in 1975 and worked at the Yale Art Library, the Shaker Museum and Library in Maine, and as a consultant before becoming an officer of the Rockefeller Foundation. Ms. Szwaja is currently President and Chair of the Feminist Press, a trustee of the Connecticut Historical Society, and a member of the Service Commission of the First Congregational Church. She co-edited Museum Frictions: Public Cultures/Global Transformations with Tomas Ybarra-Frausto, Ivan Karp, and Corinne Kratz (Duke University Press 2006).

Chandra Talpade Mohanty is Professor of Women’s Studies and Dean’s Professor of the Humanities at Syracuse University. Her work focuses on transnational feminist theory, cultural studies, and anti-racist education. She is author of Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity (Duke University Press, 2003 and Zubaan Books, India, 2004), and co-editor of Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism (Indiana University Press, 1991), and Feminist Genealogies, Colonial Legacies, Democratic Futures (Routledge, 1997). Her current projects include a co-edited book on feminism and war, a book called At Home in the Struggle with Minnie Bruce Pratt, and the Sage Handbook on identities co-edited with Margaret Wetherell. She is a member of the national advisory boards of Signs, A Journal of Women in Culture and Society, the South African journal Feminist Africa, Asian Women ( Korea) and the Caribbean Review of Gender Studies. Ms. Mohanty has worked with three grassroots community organizations, Grassroots Leadership of North Carolina, Center for Immigrant Families in New York City, and Awareness, Orissa, India, and has been a consultant/evaluator for AAC&U and the Ford Foundation. She edited a series of books on gender, culture and global politics for Garland Publishing of New York, and now edits a series called Comparative Feminist Studies for Palgrave/Macmillan

Representative “Able” Mable Thomas has been recently elected to her second term in office as a member of the General Assembly, and is still working hard to represent the needs of her constituents. Thomas is the representative for House District 55, covering a portion of Fulton County. Presently, she is an active member of the Health and Human Services, Judiciary-Civil and the Natural Resources and Environment Committees of the House of Representatives. While fulfilling her legislative duties both under the Gold Dome and throughout the year, she also earns a living working as a program developer.

Bonnie Thornton Dill is Professor and Chair of the Women’s Studies Department and serves as Founding Director of the Consortium on Race, Gender and Ethnicity at the University of Maryland. Dr. Dill received a B.A. from the University of Rochester and a Ph.D. from New York University. Her research focuses on intersections of race, class and gender with an emphasis on African American women and families and has been reprinted in numerous collections and edited volumes. Among Dr. Dill’s recently published works are: “Disparities in Latina Health: An Intersectional Analyses” with Ruth E. Zambrana in Amy J. Schulz and Leith Mullings eds., Gender, Race Class & Health. (Jossey-Bass, 2006); “Future Directions of Feminist Research: Intersectionality” with A. McLaughlin and A.D. Nieves, in S. Hesse–Biber, ed., Handbook of Feminist Research: Theory and Praxis (Sage, 2006); “Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Motherhood, Choice and Welfare in the Rural South,” in Sharon Harley, et. al., ed., Sister Circle: Black Women and Work ( Rutgers University Press, 2002) and “Poverty in the Rural U.S.: Implications for Children, Families and Communities,” in Judith Blau, ed., Blackwell Companion to Sociology (Blackwell Publishers, 2001). Because of her innovative work, Dr. Dill is the recipient of several prestigious awards, including two awards for mentoring, one from Sociologists for Women in Society and a second from the University of Maryland Regents. She has also received both the Jessie Bernard Award and Distinguished Contributions to Teaching Award (American Sociological Association) and the 2001-2002 Robin Williams, Jr. Distinguished Lectureship (Eastern Sociological Society).

Erin Vilardi is the National Program Director at The White House Project. She directs the Vote, Run, Lead program, training women to run for political office, and the Real Security initiative focusing on women and security. Vilardi was a part of Global Youth Connect’s first youth delegation to Bosnia this summer to study human rights and post-conflict resolution. This March, she will appear on “Spotlight 25,” a Lifetime Television special on young women and the quarter-life crisis. She is a member of the Younger Women’s Task Force NY Metro Chapter and has been recognized as an emerging progressive leader. Vilardi graduated from New York University with a B.A. in Politics and Gender Studies. As a student leader, she was involved with various organizations, served as a Resident Assistant, volunteered with the Future Voters of America Youth Party, and interned at The White House Project prior to joining the staff.

Aaronette M. White is a cross-cultural social-personality psychologist and is Assistant Professor of African American Studies and Women’s Studies at Pennsylvania State University. Dr. White was a fellow at the Bunting Program of the Radcliffe Institute (1998-1999) and at the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for Afro-American research at Harvard University (2001-2002) before becoming a Women and Public Policy Fellow. She holds a Ph.D. in Psychology from Washington University in St. Louis. Her research topics include critical psychology, socio-political identity changes in adulthood, the psychology of collective action, and behavioral and attitudinal correlates of race, gender, and class consciousness cross-culturally. She has published extensively in professional psychology and interdisciplinary journals such as the Journal of Black Psychology, Psychology of Women Quarterly, Women’s Studies International Journal, and Gender & Society . She has taught and conducted research in the United States, Western Europe ( University of Amsterdam), South America ( University of Suriname), and South Africa (University of the Western Cape). Currently, Dr. White is studying the diverse experiences of African women guerrilla soldiers in order to understand why and under what conditions women voluntarily join guerrilla armies. Social policy recommendations will be made regarding how women can use their experiences as former soldiers to contribute to ongoing peace building efforts in their countries.

Lisa Diane White is the Health Education Advocacy and Prevention Program Manager at SisterLove, Inc., a women’s’ HIV/AIDS and Reproductive Health organization. She has been an outspoken feminist, educator, activist and advocate for the advancement of women's health and women's status in the United States and around the world.  Lisa Diane began her activism with the National Black Women’s Health Project where self-help and empowerment through wellness continues to influence the foundation of her mission. She is an accomplished and recognized speaker, facilitator, trainer and consultant, who expertly intersects many social justice issues, including women's health, HIV/AIDS, domestic violence, and human rights.  Lisa Diane’s commitment to sharing information on these issues takes her into the community via private homes, community centers, churches, workplaces, prisons and the streets sharing the vision, “Healthy Loving is Healthy Living”. Is your love healthy?  

Marie C. Wilson is President and Founder of The White House Project . An advocate of women’s leadership for more than 30 years, Marie C. Wilson is founder and President of The White House Project, co-creator of Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work ® Day and author of Closing theLeadership Gap: Why Women Can and Must Help Run the World (Viking 2004). In 1998, Wilson founded The White House Project in order to build a richly diverse, genuinely representative democracy. Since its inception, The White House Project has been a pioneer in advancing women’s leadership in every sphere—political and social, cultural and economic. Under Wilson’s stewardship, innovative research and programming initiatives have been hallmarks of The White House Project. Highlights of the last decade include groundbreaking research, the launch of SheSource.org, a database with over 330 women experts, two national leadership summits, and Vote, Run, Lead, a training program that has given more than 1,000 women the tools they need to run for office. An innovator and change-maker, Wilson’s ultimate goal is to transform American culture so that women are perceived as leaders. Wilson has been profiled in The New York Times “Public Lives” column, and has appeared on The Today Show, Good Morning America, CNN, National Public Radio and other national programs.

Dr. Rosina Wiltshire has served as UNDP Resident Representative and UN Resident Coordinator in Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean since November 2001. Dr. Wiltshire’s mandate covers ten countries and eleven operational programmes. She also represents the UN Secretary-General as Resident Coordinator of the UN system agencies, funds and programmes resident in Barbados. Dr. Wiltshire served in UNDP Headquarters from 1994 until leaving in 2001 to take up re-assignment to Barbados. Whilst at Headquarters, she held a number of posts including: Acting Deputy Assistant Administrator of the Bureau for Development Policy, Deputy Director of the Social Development and Poverty Eradication Division, Chief of Learning, and Head of Gender in Development. She coordinated UNDP’s substantive position for the Fourth World Conference on Women, Development and Peace in Beijing and was a member of the official delegation. Prior to joining UNDP, Dr. Wiltshire was Manager of the Gender and Development Programme at the International Development Research Centre, Canada and an Adjunct Professor at Carlton University. She supported the South African Transition Team in mainstreaming gender across the policy spectrum. Dr. Wiltshire lectured at the University of the West Indies (UWI) for 20 years in International Politics and International Development and was Visiting Professor at the Institute for International Development and Cooperation, University of Ottawa and the Norman Patterson School for International Affairs at Carlton University. She was a member of the Planning Committee for the 1991 World Women’s Congress for a Healthy Planet held in Miami. She also was a part of the official delegation and the NGO delegation to the UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio 1992. In 1999, Dr. Wiltshire presented at the World Trade Organisation’s Official Conference on Trade and Environment, in Seattle. Dr. Wiltshire holds a Masters and a Ph.D. in Political Science (International Relations) from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA and a B.Sc. (Economics) from UWI Mona. She is married to Dr. Jan Loubser and is the mother of one daughter.