Judith Aidoo is a private investor (Caswell Capital Partners, LLC) and media and entertainment entrepreneur (Caswell Communications, Inc.) with holdings in radio broadcasting; television syndication; publishing; and feature film and theater production.

Judith began her career as an investment banker in 1987 with Goldman, Sachs & Co., where she specialized in structured finance. Upon leaving Goldman in 1991, she started her own firm to both advise and invest in technology; telecommunications and media; and financial services. She has co-managed a hedge fund with over $200 million in broadcast and entertainment assets.

Ms. Aidoo is also a founding member of the African Women's Development Fund; the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers University's Advisory Board; and an investor and Chief Executive Officer of Capital Alliance Co., a boutique merchant bank; Caswell Communications, Inc., the operator of WPAL-FM, and one time owner and joint operator of WZJY 1480 AM, both in Charleston, SC.

Judith graduated Phi Beta Kappa and with high honors from Rutgers College in 1984 and from Harvard Law School in 1987. She has been a television contributor for MSNBC and CNN, and has been profiled and quoted in major business publications on investment matters including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the Financial Times and Black Enterprise.

Kathy Bonk is the co-founded the Communications Consortium Media Center (CCMC) in 1988 and serves as its executive director. She is co-author of Guide to Strategic Communications for Nonprofits (1999). Kathy has worked on many multi-year, issue-oriented efforts for prominent foundations since 1988. These include: child welfare, for the Annie E. Casey, W.K. Kellogg and Edna McConnell Clark Foundations; international trainings for the Ford Foundation; and population and global health, for the Open Society Institute, Pew Charitable Trusts and the Compton, Dodge, Hewlett, Packard and Turner Foundations. In 1989, Kathy was awarded a Kellogg Foundation National Leadership Fellowship, which enabled her to work with women's organizations in Russia, the Ukraine and Eastern Europe. Previously, she was a public information officer for the U.S. Department of State and developed media policy recommendations for the International Women's Year Commission under Presidents Ford and Carter. Her government career also includes four years with the Justice Department in the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division and she was a founder of the Center for Women and Work at the National Manpower Institute. She also directed the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund's Women Media Project and the NOW FCC/Media Committee.

Suzanne Braun Levine is a writer, editor and nationally recognized authority on women, media matters, and family issues. Inventing the Rest of our Lives: Women in Second Adulthood (Viking, 2005; Plume, 2006), her second book, has generated a new conversation about the choices women make as they age. She is currently at work on Fifty Is the New Fifty: Life Lessons From Second Adulthood, to be published by Viking.

She has just completed (with Mary Thom) an oral history of the late Congresswoman Bella Abzug compiled from Abzug’s own words and interviews with those who knew and worked with her, published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux (December 2007).

Levine was editor of Ms. magazine from 1972 to 1988 and editor of the Columbia Journalism Review, the premier magazine of media criticism, from 1989 to 1997. She produced the Peabody-award winning HBO documentary "She's Nobody's Baby: American Women in the 20th Century." She is a contributing editor to More magazine, and writes a monthly blog for the More website, which also appears on her website www.SuzanneBraunLevine.com.

Bonnie Bruckheimer has been a film producer for many years, having produced such films as "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood", starring Sandra Bullock, Ellen Burstyn, James Garner, Ashley Judd, and Maggie Smith.  She formed All Girl Productions, with partner, Bette Midler, in 1985 and  made her debut as a film producer on "Beaches," having served previously as associate producer on "Big Business," the hit comedy that starred Bette Midler and Lily Tomlin.

Bruckheimer producer the hit comedy "Man of the House" as well as "For the Boys" starring Midler and James Caan for Twentieth Century Fox, as well as the romantic feature comedy "That Old Feeling."  She served as co-producer on "Hocus Pocus."

Bruckheimer served as executive producer on the Bette Midler HBO concert film "Diva Las Vegas" which earned ten Emmy nominations and won three Emmy awards, including "Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special." She was also executive producer on the highly rated CBS special television production of "Gypsy" starring Bette Midler, which won both Emmy and Cable Ace Awards.  She also served as Executive Producer on the ill-fated “Bette” sitcom, after which All Girl closed it’s doors.

Bruckheimer is the proud mother of an 20 year old son and a 15 year old daughter, and is currently residing in development hell.

Jennifer Buffett shares her full-time work as Co-Chair and President of the NoVo Foundation in New York City with her husband singer/composer, Peter Buffett and staff. Jennifer has worked in philanthropy since 1997 after her in-laws Susan and Warren Buffett gave the couple a $100K “fund” to spend annually to begin learning about charitable giving and non-profits.  Today, the NoVo Foundation’s future annual giving projections make the foundation one of the top 75 in the United States, and one of the 10 top foundations in New York.

Jennifer helped launch the  Wisconsin Infant & Early Childhood Mental Health Association to advance advocacy and policy work around healthy social emotional development for young children and “Educare”  - an early childhood inner city facility modeled after a center created by the Ounce of Prevention on the south side of Chicago.

Jennifer attended Marquette University and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee where she graduated with a BA in Journalism and Communications. A travel-writing job with a small publishing company, and various other jobs, allowed her to pay for college. After college she worked in Public Relations and Marketing.

Presently, Jennifer is working with the NoVo Foundation on its strategies and internal planning process. A major focus of the Foundation is to help empower and protect women and girls around the globe for generations to come.

As Founder and Chief Executive Officer/Chief Creative Officer of DMI Music & Media Solutions, Tena Clark is responsible for driving the company’s strategic direction. Under her leadership, DMI has conceived and executed some of the most well-known, well-regarded, and successful music branding initiatives. DMI developed United Airlines’ complete audio presence, including championing the use of “Rhapsody in Blue” as United’s Audio Logo as well as programming the airline’s award-winning in-flight audio. DMI has also successfully spearheaded Subway Restaurants in-store “Subway Radio” audio programming, in addition to strategic and tactical music activations for top lifestyle and consumer brands such as AARP, Build-A-Bear Workshop, InStyle Magazine, McDonald’s, Now! That’s What I Call Music, P&G, 7UP, Target, Toyota, and Victoria’s Secret, to name a few.

Born in Mississippi, Clark has bridged music and marketing throughout her colorful career.  Whether composing and producing milestone commercial campaigns such as McDonald’s “Have You Had Your Break Today” or her years of writing for film and television, with credits that include My Best Friend’s Wedding, Where The Heart Is, Hope Floats, French Kiss, Twins, CBS This Morning, and Entertainment Tonight, Clark has connected to audiences through music and has become a true thought leader on the power of music branding. Clark’s musical expertise and deep understanding of audience preferences have also resulted in the gold- and platinum-selling songs she has penned for many of the music industry’s leading artists.

Clark’s musical talents are wide-reaching and varied. Most recently, she composed an original song for the Desperate Housewives soundtrack, recorded by LeAnn Rimes. She also produced Dionne Warwick’s first holiday CD, My Favorite Time of the Year, as well as Church: Songs of Soul & Inspiration, a dual music CD and CD-ROM box set featuring Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, and top African-American female artists such as Patti LaBelle and Chaka Khan performing a collection of favorite R&B, pop, and gospel songs. Clark wrote and produced the single “Way Up There,” recorded by Patti LaBelle for the Church CD that was nominated for a GRAMMY® Award.

Julie Dash was born and raised in New York City; she has toured nationally and internationally with her work, and she has received numerous awards since embarking on her film career. With the debut of "Daughters of the Dust" in January 1992, Julie Dash became the first African American woman to have a full-length general theatrical release in the United States. "O" magazine included 'Daughters" among it's 50 Greatest Chick Flicks, and in 1999, the twenty-fifth Annual Newark Black Film Festival honored Julie and her film "Daughters of the Dust" as being one of the most important cinematic achievements in Black Cinema in the 20^th century.December 2004, The Library of Congress placed in the National Film Registry; "Daughters of the Dust" joins 400 American films preserved as a National Treasures.

Ms. Dash also directed the NAACP Image Award winning CBS Network Television Movie, "The Rosa Parks Story" the winner of The Family Television Award, The New York Christopher Award, and Angela Bassett received an Emmy Nomination for her performance as "Rosa Parks." Her long form, dramatic narrative films include: "Love Song," an MTV original feature starring R&B singers Monica, Tyress and TLC's Chili; "Incognito," a romantic thriller staring Richard T. Jones, Vanessa Williams, Phil Morris, Ron Glass with Rodger Guenveur Smith; and the ENCORE/StarZ3 "Funny Valentines" starring Alfre Woodard, Loretta Devine and C.C.H. Pounder. She wrote and directed an episode of "Women" for ShowTime Cable Network, as well as "Sax Cantor Riff", HBO's "Subway Stories" for Producers Jonathan Demme and Rosie Perez.

Ms. Dash has a book published by The New Press, and a novel published by Dutton-Signett Books. She is currently working on a romantic trilogy for Dutton-Signett Books. She has directed Music Videos with musical artists including Raphael Saadiq with Tony, Toni, Tone; Keb 'Mo, Peabo Bryson, Adriana Evans, Sweet Honey in the Rock, and Tracy Chapman's "Give Me One Reason," which was nominated for MTV's Best Female Vocalist, 1996. Her critically acclaimed short film "Illusions", a drama set in Hollywood 1942, won the 1989 Jury Prize for Best Film of the Decade, awarded by the Black Filmmakers Foundation.

Ms. Dash earned her M.F.A. in Film & Television production at UCLA; received her B.A. in Film Production from CCNY, and she was also a Fellow at the American Film Institute's Center for Advanced Film Studies, the AFI conservatory at Greystone Mansion.

When not working on her projects, Ms. Dash is a frequent lecturer at many of the leading universities across the United States.

Dina Dublon is a current member of the boards of directors at Microsoft, Accenture, and PepsiCo. She also serves as a trustee of Carnegie Mellon University and on the boards of several non-profit organizations, including the Global Fund for Women and the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children. She was from 1998 until her retirement in 2004 the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for JPMorgan Chase.

Dublon was born in Brazil in 1953. She holds a Bachelors degree in economics and mathematics from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and a Masters degree from the Business School at Carnegie Mellon University. She is the recipient of many awards and honors, and was included on Fortune magazine’s list of the “50 Most Powerful Women in American Business.”

Carol Edgar is a consultant specializing in media relations, public relations and other forms of public outreach. Over 18 years, first in New York and now in San Francisco, she has consulted with US ambassadors, academic institutions and national non-profit organizations including the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard, the Committee of 100 (an organization of leading Chinese Americans founded by I.M. Pei), the Women's Funding Network, the new Women Moving Millions philanthropy initiative, Arts International and the White House Project. Her Bay Area clients have included the Hearing and Speech Center of  Northern California, City CarShare, the Graduate Theological Union (a nationally prominent center of interfaith scholarship) and Give2Asia (an off-shoot of the Asia Foundation). She shuttles between both coasts as a "connector" of women with powerful ideas, to one another, and to media with an interest in the work of her client organizations. She also consults with private individuals on using their philanthropic power to advance causes they believe in. Prior to establishing her own practice, Carol served as vice-president of the public relations subsidiary of Grey Advertising, specializing in US government clients. At Grey, Carol's team's work earned the highest honor in public relations, the Silver Anvil Award.

Carol began  her career in Dallas, Texas, as a journalist, starting at the PBS/NPR affiliate. Subsequently she was published in the Texas Observer, Texas Monthly, the Washington Post, and in other publications on a variety of subjects, with a focus on politics, art and social change. While still in Dallas, Carol taught writing at the University of Texas Dallas campus. In 2005, on Martha Stewart's release from prison, Carol published an op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle on what Stewart could/should do to shape a better world (and rehabilitate her own image). The op-ed was termed "brilliant" by a writer for the New York Times. Coverage for Carol's has clients appeared in all major US media, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, network television news, National Public Radio and new media including salon.com. She is married to Richard King and resides in San Francisco and Sonoma County, California.

Eve Ensler (Playwright/Performer/Activist), award-winning author of The Vagina Monologues, has just completed a 20 North American cities tour from October 2005-April 2006 with her newest play The Good Body, following engagements on Broadway in NYC, at ACT in San Francisco. The Good Body addresses why women of all cultures and backgrounds - whether undergoing Botox injections or living beneath burkhas - feel compelled to change the way they look in order to fit in, to be accepted, to be good.

Ms. Ensler's The Vagina Monologues has been translated into over 45 languages and is running in theaters all over the world, including sold-out runs at both Off-Broadway's Westside Theater and on London's West End (2002 Olivier Award nomination, Best Entertainment.) Her experience performing The Vagina Monologues inspired her to create V-Day, a global movement to stop violence against women and girls. Ms. Ensler's performance in The Vagina Monologues can be seen in the HBO original documentary of the play (2002).

Ms. Enslers play Necessary Targets, set in a Bosnian refugee camp, opened Off-Broadway at the Variety Arts Theater in February 2002, after a hit run at Hartford Stage. Other plays include Conviction, Lemonade, The Depot, Floating Rhoda and the Glue Man, and Extraordinary Measures. The Good Body, The Vagina Monologues. and Necessary Targets have been published by Villard/Random House. Vagina Warriors, words by Eve Ensler and photos by Joyce Tenneson, was published by Bulfinch Press for V-Day 2005. Ms. Ensler’s newest play, The Treatment, will premiere in September 2006 at the Culture Project in New York City. Her first book Insecure At Last: Losing It in A Security Obsessed World will be published by Random House in October.

Ms. Ensler is the recipient of many awards including the Guggenheim Fellowship Award in Playwriting, the Berrilla-Kerr Award for Playwriting, the Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Solo Performance, and the Jury Award for Theater at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival, as well as the 2002 Amnesty International Media Spotlight Award for Leadership and The Matrix Award (2002).

She is the Executive Producer of What I Want My Words To Do To You, a documentary about the writing group she has led since 1998 at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women. The film had its world premiere at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival where it received the Freedom Of Expression Award and premiered nationally on PBSs P.O.V. She has received numerous Honorary degrees, including Doctor of Letters from her alma mater,

Middlebury College.

Love the Game...With those words Gail Evans concludes one of the most successful and influential books about women in the workplace. Ironically, many women did not even know the game existed before Evans taught them how to win in the workplace with her book "Play Like A Man, Win Like A Woman."

The book was listed for several months on the New York Times, Business Week, and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists. "Play Like A Man, Win Like A Woman" has been translated into 18 languages and has been a bestseller around the world. She has appeared on The Today Show and Larry King Live, and has been featured in The New York Times and USA Today.Evans' status has been enhanced by her newest book, "She Wins, You Win" as well as her weekly radio segment "It's Not Just A Man's World," which is syndicated to 1900 CNN Radio affiliates across the United States. She has spoken and given lectures to many of the world's leading companies including GE, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, KPMG, BellSouth, The Southern Company, and Scana Energy. Evans is currently an associate professor at Georgia Tech's School of Management. Her business advice columns appear in Worthwhile and PINK Magazines.

She began working at CNN at its inception in 1980. By the time she retired in 2001, she was its Executive Vice President. During that time she was responsible for program and talent development at all CNN's domestic networks overseeing national and international talk shows and the Network Guest Bookings Department, which schedules about 25,000 guests each year.

In addition to speaking and teaching, Evans stays busy serving on numerous charitable boards talk radio for Women. She was also appointed by President Clinton to the Commission on White House Fellows. She is the former chairperson of the Georgia Endowment for the Humanities and worked at the White House in the Office of the Special Counsel to the President during the Lyndon B. Johnson Administration.

Gail Evans lives in Atlanta and is the grandmother of five. Her Golden Retriever, Duke, sleeps at the foot of her bed every night.

After 21 years with CNN, Gail Evans retired from CNN in 2001.

Inspired by her twin daughters, Mavis and Nia, in 1992 Nancy Gruver and her family founded the groundbreaking international publication, New Moon: The Magazine for Girls and Their Dreams. She is still the publisher and is a national leader in the movement to empower girls and foster their creativity and self-confidence. 

She’s also the Executive Director of Dads and Daughters, the national advocacy non-profit for fathers and daughters, and manages the newsletter Daughters: For Parents of Girls.

Nancy is frequently asked to speak about girls’ issues and communication strategies for adults with 8 to 14 year-old girls in their lives.

She lives in Duluth, Minnesota with her husband Joe Kelly. 

A trail-blazer for women in radio since the early ‘70s, Edie Hilliard spent the first half of her career on the station side, starting in marketing and promotion for a group of stations, then moving into sales in 1975 at KJR Seattle, where within two years she was named sales manager. In 1981 Edie became general manager at KING AM Seattle, one of the first women to hold that position in any major market.

In 1987 Edie moved to the syndication side of radio, heading up Seattle-based Broadcast Programming (BP), which provided music formats and programming services to radio stations. Within six years BP emerged as the leading syndicator of music formats, and in 1997 Edie moved BP into satellite-delivered daypart personality programs for music stations, beginning with Delilah, the hugely successful syndicated program for Adult Contemporary music stations, followed by country programs, Lia and Danny Wright, and other programs for AC stations. BP was acquired by Jones Media Networks, Ltd., in 1999, and merged with Jones Radio Networks (JRN), to form the largest independent network in the industry, providing programs and services to more than 5000 stations. As VP/COO of JRN, Edie had responsibility for all of JRN’s radio programming operations, and served on the board of directors of Jones Media Networks.

In Spring 2005 Edie was recruited to serve as Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer of GreenStone Media, LLC, to develop radio programming by and for women for distribution to commercial FM radio stations.

Throughout her career Edie has been active in industry associations and initiatives, including serving on the RAB and state association boards. Recipient of numerous industry awards for her achievements, Edie was selected in 2000 by readers of Radio Ink as Number One on the magazine’s list of Radio’s Most Influential Women. Widely recognized as a leader and mentor, she continues to work with organizations that encourage and support the advancement of women in the radio industry. 

Sheryl Hilliard Tucker became Executive Editor of Time Inc. in April 2006. In this role, she works closely with Time Inc.'s Editor-in-Chief, helping to oversee the editorial content of more than 145 magazines such as Time, Fortune, People, InStyle, ESSENCE, Sports Illustrated, Entertainment Weekly and Real Simple. As Executive Editor, Tucker also focuses on talent management and is responsible for implementing a formal and ongoing audit of content diversity in all of Time Inc.'s titles.

Previously, Tucker was an Editor-at-Large for Time Inc., most recently acting as Deputy Editor of Health magazine. Before her appointment, she was Executive Editor of Money, where she managed some of the magazine's most important franchises, including the groundbreaking Affluent Americans and Their Money research and the annual Money Summit, which convened CEOs, government leaders, policymakers and academicians to discuss the changing landscape of the financial services industry. She was also one of the key architects of Money's very successful 2005 redesign and served as the magazine's liaison to the NFL, and the keynote speaker at the annual financial boot camp for NFL rookies.

Before joining Time Inc., Tucker was Editor-in-Chief and Vice President at Black Enterprise. She has edited several books, including Prime Time: African-American Women's Guide to Midlife Health and Wellness and The New MONEY Book of Personal Finance. Tucker is co-author of the recently published book Tomorrow Begins Today: African-American Women as We Age.

Tucker is a member of the Time Inc. Diversity Council and has served on the board of the American Society of Magazine Editors. She has been a National Magazine Award finalist, named one of Glamour magazine's Outstanding Young Working Women, and was inducted into New York City's YWCA's Academy of Women Achievers.

Tucker lives in New Jersey with her husband Roger and daughter Alexis.

Marta Kauffman co-created and executive produced the Emmy Award-winning series “Friends.”

Previously, Kauffman co-created and served as co-executive producer on the critically acclaimed, award-winning comedy series “Dream On.”  While on “Dream On,” she received an Emmy Award nomination and a CableAce Award for writing the episode “For Peter’s Sake.”  Kauffman also co-created the comedy series “The Powers That Be” for Norman Lear, starring John Forsythe, David Hyde Pierce and Holland Taylor. Most recently, she served as executive producer on the one-hour drama “Related” on the WB. 

She also co-created and served as executive producer on the comedy series “Family Album” and “Veronica’s Closet,” starring Kirstie Alley.  In addition, she served as an executive producer on the series “Jesse,” starring Christina Applegate.

A Philadelphia native, Kauffman began her writing career at Brandeis University, which is where she met her then writing partner of over 25 years, David Crane.  They began their working relationship in the theatre in New York, where they teamed with composer Michael Skloff to write several musicals, including the stage version of the movie “Arthur.”  At Brandeis, they also co-wrote the book and lyrics for the widely acclaimed musical “Personals,” which played off-Broadway.  “Personals” received an Outer Critics Circle Award and a Drama Desk Award nomination. Kauffman and Crane also contributed musical and sketch material to the off-Broadway revues “A…My Name is Alice” and “Martin Charnin’s Upstairs At O’Neals.”

Kauffman lives in Los Angeles with her husband, composer Michael Skloff, and their three children, Hannah, 18, Sam, 16, and Rose, 8.  She serves on the Board of Trustees of Oakwood School and has been named one of the 25 Most Influential Mothers by Working Mother magazine.

Jennifer Lawson is general manager of Howard University Television, WHUT-TV, a post held since June 2004. She recently co-produced a documentary, “Security versus Liberty: The Other War,” in association with ABC News Productions. This program premiered nationwide on PBS in April 2007. For nine years prior to WHUT, she headed Magic Box Mediaworks, a company that co-produced an eight-hour television series, AFRICA, in association with Thirteen, New York and National Geographic Television. This award-winning series, which portrays Africa through African eyes, was developed from ideas based on her experiences in Africa. The series premiered nationwide on PBS and internationally in over 130 countries to critical acclaim in September 2001.

From 1989 to 1995, Jennifer Lawson was Executive Vice President, Programming and Promotion Services, PBS.  She was public television's first chief programming executive and was responsible for the strategies that resulted in PBS's two most successful series, The Civil War and Baseball. She developed several highly regarded children's series including Barney & Friends, Lamb Chop’s Play-Along, and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? that increased children's viewing of public television over 100% in three seasons and resulted in the most watched week in PBS history in January 1993. 

Before joining PBS, she was director of the Television Program Fund at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting where she commissioned hundreds of successful programs and managed a $43 million annual budget.  Prior to CPB, she was chief executive officer of The Film Fund, a New York foundation supporting independent filmmakers.She also taught film at Brooklyn College for three years, produced two documentaries, and worked as a screenwriter and children's book illustrator. 

Judith Light has captivated audiences worldwide since her portrayal of Angela Bower on the hit comedy series “Who's the Boss?”. Her award-winning career has spanned across a diversity of roles in television, theater and film.

Judith’s television career began with her two-time Best Actress Emmy award- winning turn as Karen Wolek on “One Life to Live”.  She can currently be seen on the highly-acclaimed ABC hit “Ugly Betty” in her 2007 Emmy nominated portrayal of Claire Meade, and on NBC’s long-running drama “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” in the recurring role of Supreme Court Judge Elizabeth Donnelly. Judith has also starred in “Phenom” (created by James Brooks), “The Stones” (created by Max Mutchnick, David Kohan and Jenji Kohan) and in over 15 television movies, including her role as Ryan’s mother, Jeanne, in “The Ryan White Story”.

A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University with a BFA, Judith has worked in repertory theatres throughout the United States and Canada as well as a USO Tour of "Guys and Dolls" with William Atherton and Paula Wagner throughout Europe.  Judith’s Broadway debut was in “A Doll’s House” with Liv Ullmann and was followed by a season at the Eugene O’Neil Playwright’s conference.  She returned to the New York theatre to do the Pulitzer Prize winning play, “Wit” for the MCC Theatre where her performance won her the Helen Hayes and Eliot Norton awards for best actress on the National Tour.  Additionally Judith starred in “Hedda Gabler” directed by Michael Kahn, in Washington DC, for which she received a Helen Hayes Award nomination, “Sorrows and Rejoicings”, by Athol Fugard, in New York at the Second Stage, and in LA at The Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles Reprise! Broadways Best, Stephen Sondheim’s “Company”, and joined the Ojai Playwrights Conference for their 2004 season.  She also appeared in MCC’s production of “Colder Than Here” with Brian Murray, Lily Rabe and Sarah Paulson, at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in New York for their 2005 season. 

Judith recently starred in three independent films, “The Shoemaker” with Danny Aiello, “Ira & Abby” by Jennifer Westfeldt, with Robert Klein, Fred Willard, and Frances Conroy - which was voted Best Comedy at the 2007 HBO comedy festival; and most recently, "Save Me" with Chad Allen and Robert Gant, a film which she also produced with her long-time manager/producer, Herb Hamsher through their production company, Tetrahedron Productions, in conjunction with GKE and Mythgarden Productions.  “Save Me” had its US premier at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, followed by screenings at both NYC’s NewFest and LA’s Outfest, as well as a screening and panel discussion aboard RSVP vacations Queen Mary 2 transatlantic crossing. 

Judith is a Board Member and advocate for many organizations and charities representing AIDS-related and Human Rights issues including; Broadway Cares: Equity Fights AIDS, Faith in America,  Project Angel Food, The Matthew Shepard Foundation, The National Aids Memorial Grove, The Point Foundation, The Rome Chamber Music Festival, and The Trevor Project.

Judith lives in Los Angeles with her husband, writer/actor, Robert Desiderio.

Ruth B. Mandel is director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University, where she also holds a faculty appointment as Board of Governors Professor of Politics. From 1971 through 1994, Mandel built and directed Eagleton's Center for the American Woman and Politics (CAWP). Mandel writes and speaks widely about women and leadership, with particular emphasis on women as political candidates, women in office, women's political networks, and the "gender gap." She teaches courses on women and American politics and political leadership.

Since 1991, Mandel has held a presidential appointment on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. She was Vice Chairperson from 1993 until August 2005. She continues to serve on the Museum's executive committee, its Committee on Conscience, and its academic committee, and has chaired strategic planning and education committees. Mandel is a member of the board of the Charles H. Revson Foundation. Other service has included membership on the board of the National Council for Research on Women; the National Commission for the Renewal of American Democracy; and the Mercer County Commission on the Status of Women.

Mandel has received the Governor's Pride of New Jersey Award (1992); the Gloria Steinem Women of Vision Award from the Ms. Foundation (1996), the Twenty-First Century Leadership Award, from the National Women's Hall of Fame, the Breaking the Glass Ceiling Award from Women Executives in State Government (1998) and an honorary Doctor of Public Service degree from Chatham College (1998).

Barbara Nessim is an internationally known artist, illustrator and educator. She received her art training at Pratt Institute (1956-60) in the Department of Illustration and Fine Art. Since 1980 she has been using the computer to create art and has lectured widely on the subject.

Her paintings and drawings are part of numerous public and private collections and have been shown in museums and galleries worldwide. Nessim's work is in the permanent collection of The Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC, USA; Lunds Kunsthal, Lund, Sweden; and the Szepmuveszeti Museum in Budapest, Hungary, among others. Nessim's work has been extensively shown including The Kunst Museum in Dusseldorf and The Louvre in Paris, as well as a solo exhibition at the Centro Colombo Americano in Bogota, Colombia and most recently in 2003 at bitforms gallery in New York City's Chelsea area. Nessim's artwork has appeared in many publications and has graced the covers of Time, Rolling Stone, and Frankfurter Allgemeine.

When Amy Richard's graduated from Barnard College in 1992, she did not know that her summer project would be the beginning of her career as a feminist activist, writer, and organizer. Amy expected to use her degree in Art History to work in a museum or gallery. Instead, after she organized Freedom Summer ’92, a cross-country voter registration drive, Amy went on to co-found the Third Wave Foundation, a national organization for young feminist activists between the ages of 15 and 30.

For a decade, Amy led Third Wave as it grew from a small grassroots organization into a national institution. At Third Wave, Amy created and sustained the organization’s program areas—grant-making, public education campaigns and a national membership—and initiated projects such as "I Spy Sexism," a public education and postcard campaign encouraging people to take action on the injustices that they witness every day, and "Why Vote?," a series of panel discussions on funding for the arts, education, reproductive rights, and affirmative action. Amy has appeared in a range of media venues including Fox’s The O’Reilly Factor, Oprah, Talk of the Nation, New York One and CNN. Amy was publicly distinguished as a leader in 1995 when Who Cares magazine chose her as one of twenty-five Young Visionaries. She has gone on to win accolades from Ms. magazine, which profiled her in "21 for the 21st: Leaders for the Next Century,” Women’s Enews, which in 2003 named her one of their “Leaders for the 21st Century,” and the American Association of University Women, which recently chose her as a 2004 Woman of Distinction. As Amy moves into her thirties and away from her commitment to Third Wave, she makes her living as a lecturer, writer and consultant. Amy was the interim director for Twilight: Los Angeles, a film by Anna Deavere Smith. Amy is also the voice behind Ask Amy, the online advice column she launched at feminist.com in 1995.

Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future, Amy’s first book, which she co-authored with Jennifer Baumgardner, was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in October 2000. Amy and Jennifer completed their second book, Grassroots: A Field Guide for Feminist Activism, and together they also created Soapbox Inc: Speakers Who Speak Out, a lecture agency for “speakers who speak out.” Amy’s writings have also appeared in The Nation, The LA Times, Bust, Ms. and numerous anthologies, including Listen Up, Body Outlaws and Catching A Wave. Insight Guides recently hired Amy to write a shopping guide to New York City. She is also very involved with the organizations on whose boards and advisory committees she serves, Third Wave, Ms. Magazine, Choice USA, the Sadie Nash Leadership Program, feminist.com and Planned Parenthood of New York City. She is at work on a book about feminism and motherhood called Opting In.

Elizabeth A. Sackler, public historian, arts activist and American Indian advocate, is transforming the public's perception and understanding of 21^st century Feminist Art.  As visionary and matron of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art that opened at the Brooklyn Museum in March 2007, Dr. Sackler realized her goal of highlighting women's contributions in disciplines, past and present.  The Center for Feminist Art is the first of its kind, bringing Feminist Art into a major cultural institution; it is also a fertile space for writers, thinkers, artists, and feminists to congregate and dialogue.  The Elizabeth A. Sackler Foundation was responsible for the 2002 gift of The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago to the Brooklyn Museum.

Dr. Sackler is CEO of The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation which lends objects from its collections of Chinese antiquities to museums and institutions, nationally and internationally. She is also the founder and President of the American Indian Ritual Object Repatriation Foundation; serves on the National Advisory Board of the National Museum of Women in the Arts; is on the Board of Trustees of the Brooklyn Museum; is published in scholarly journals, books, and magazines; and lectures on a variety of topics – from ethics in the art market to cultural genocide, to gender and art.

Dr. Sackler is the recipient of ArtTable’s “Distinguished Service to the Visual Arts,” NOW-NYC’s “Women of Power & Influence Award,” and Moore College of Art & Design’s “Visionary Woman Award.”

She lives in New York City, is the mother of two, Laura and Michael, and grandmother of Aidan and Madeleine.

Marlene Sanders is a three-time Emmy Award winning correspondent, producer, writer and former news executive, who broke barriers for women throughout her career. While a correspondent at ABC News, she was the first woman to anchor a prime time network newscast. In l966, she was the first TV newswoman to report from Vietnam and in l976, became the first woman news vice president at a network, as Vice President and Director of Documentaries. She is co-author with Marcia Rock of Waiting for Prime Time: The Women of Television News, an updated version of which was published in l994 by the University of Illinois Press.

From l977 through 2000, she was in Residence at the Freedom Forum's Media Studies Center, where she organized and moderated panels on media issues. Sanders also narrates documentaries for HBO, public television, and others. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She was a judge for the Dupont Awards, and in l999 she became a judge for the Peabody Awards.

Sanders, began her broadcasting career in l955. In l964, she joined ABC News as a correspondent, anchor, producer and news executive. In l978 she joined CBS News, working on documentaries for CBS Reports and on other reporting assignments. In l987 she hosted several public affairs programs at the local PBS station in New York, WNET. During her 4 years there she also taught part time as an Adjunct Professor of Journalism at both New York University and Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism. She was the anchor of Profiles in Progress, 26 half hours about the developing world.

Bonnie Schaefer is the former Co-CEO and Co-Chairman of the Board of Claire’s Stores, Inc., the leading international specialty retailer offering value‑priced costume jewelry and accessories to fashion-aware tweens, teens and young adults through its two store concepts: Claire’s (North America and Europe) and Icing by Claire’s. Ms. Schaefer was also the Chairman of the Board of Claire’s Nippon, Co., Ltd, a joint venture operating accessory boutiques in Japan, formed by Claire’s Stores, Inc. and AEON, Co., Ltd., a $30 billion specialty retailer. 

Ms. Schaefer joined Claire’s Stores in 1987, working as a sales associate and then progressing to more senior positions.  After a brief respite, she returned to Claire’s Stores in 1990 to focus on visual merchandising efforts and store operations.In 1996, she was promoted to Executive Vice-President of Claire’s Boutiques, Inc. and was elected to the Board of Directors in 1998.  In 1999, Ms. Schaefer became Co-Vice-Chairman of the Board.  In that capacity, Ms. Schaefer played a key leadership role in store and field operations, while continuing to oversee Claire’s Stores real estate operations, both in the U.S. and abroad. In connection with the latter activities, she was head of an internal committee responsible for evaluating and approving potential leasing transactions. Ms. Schaefer was deeply involved in all facets of the Company’s international expansion, with the heads of each European division reporting directly to her. In addition, Ms. Schaefer was in charge of an internal steering committee for Claire’s Europe, which directed international expansion.

Ms. Schaefer attended the University of Miami and Skidmore College.  She also studied in Florence, Italy through the Florida State University Overseas Study Center.Ms. Schaefer is an active participant in a number of charitable and community organizations.  Included among these are the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition (NOCC); Equality Now; and the Women’s Division of The Weizmann Institute of Science, where she serves on the Host Committee and was honored as a Woman of Vision in 2000.  She was also co-chair of the Ms. Foundation’s 2007 “Gloria Awards”.As well, Ms. Schaefer is a founding member of the High Country Women’s Fund in NC; Board member of the Appalachian State University’s Summer Music Program; and is on the Board of Trustees of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

Ms. Schaefer makes frequent speaking appearances, the most recent taking place before the Women’s Executive Leadership Committee.

Mary P. Stier, CEO of The Brilliance Group, is a leader who has inspired and mentored women across the country to help them focus their energies and passions with incredible results.

Prior to founding The Brilliance Group, Stier enjoyed a 25 year career as one of the top executives of  Gannett Company, Inc., a Fortune 500 media company. As one of the youngest publishers in Gannett's history, Stier served as President and Publisher of The Des Moines Register, the Rockford (IL) Register Star and the Iowa City (IA) Press-Citizen.  Stier also served as a Senior Group President for Gannett's Midwest and SunCoast Newspaper Groups and was responsible for the publication of 26 midwestern and southern newspapers, over 350 non-daily publications and 27 web sites.

Stier led and mentored 7400 employees through change of the newspaper industry into a multimedia environment.  She initiated and led the Generation X Task Force for Gannett that developed strategies and products to attract and retain younger readers which resulted in a significant impact to the media industry and is modeled throughout the United States today.

Susie Tompkins Buell was the founder and co-owner of the Esprit clothing company, which was known for its revolutionary fusion of corporate mission with social responsibility. The Esprit Foundation was created in 1990 and supported a variety of organizations in areas such as at-risk youth, AIDS awareness and direct care, women’s issues and the environment.

When Susie Tompkins Buell left Esprit de Corp in 1996, she took the Foundation with her and eventually renamed it the Susie Tompkins Buell Foundation. The Foundation retained the original mission and areas of funding, including a “women and girls lens”, which screened organizations for their inc