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). Full Bio

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." Full Bio

Carey Graeber has extensive experience in television and film production, production management, marketing and business management. She founded her media company, Great Plains Productions, in 2001.

She is currently serving as President of New York Women in Film & Television, the pre-eminent entertainment association for women in New York City. The organization is a non-profit that seeks to help women reach the highest levels of achievement in film, television and other moving-image media and promotes equity for women in these industries. NYWIFT brings together more than 1,600 professionals including EMMY and Academy Award® winners, who work in all areas of the entertainment industry — above and below the line. It is part of a network of 40 international women in film chapters, representing more than 10,000 members worldwide.

Graeber is in development on a documentary called, “Searching for Dorothy” an exploration of the influences that led L Frank Baum to create this character and the land of Oz. We’ll reveal that among Baum’s inspirations was Matilda Joslyn Gage, his close friend and mother-in-law. Gage was a radical feminist and co-architect of the suffrage movement.

Graeber’s previous project was the documentary “Heartbeat to Heartbeat: Women and Heart Disease”, which aired on PBS stations nationwide in February and March of 2005.

She also served as producer for MSNBC’s “The Making of the Death Pilots” and “The New Heroin Epidemics: Along Comes the Horse”. She produced several award-winning documentaries in conjunction with WDIV-TV, the Detroit NBC affiliate, including “The Freedom Train”, “Rosa Parks: The Path to Freedom” and “The Rouge”.

Graeber was executive producer of a short film for the nonprofit organization Safe Horizon, which focused on how communities heal from trauma after 9/11 that was funded by the New York Times Foundation. Other clients have included the Open Society Institute’s Youth Media Program, the Human Genome Project, Walter Reed Medical Center and the National Institutes of Health.

Graeber is a graduate of Northwestern University and served on the Board of Directors of its Alumni Association, for which she received The Alumni Service Award. She is on the faculty in New York City for the University’s School of Communication and was President of its Entertainment Alliance East.

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, later merging 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 the newly formed Women's Radio Network, 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 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.

Elizabeth Hines is the co-author of the bestselling biography, Black Titan: A.G. Gaston and the Making of a Black American Millionaire, winner of the 2004 Non-Fiction Book Honor from the American Library Association. She has worked on the editorial staff at the Random House/ Ballantine Publishing Group, as an assistant producer of Harvard University's benefit performance of Eve Ensler's Obie Award winning play "The Vagina Monologues," and now serves as COO & Editor-in-Chief of Pace Media Group - home of the nation's number one online advertising publications.

Throughout her career Hines has been the recipient of several fellowships and awards, including a Richard L. Shinn Fellowship from Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, a Richter Fellowship from Yale University, and summer studies grant from the Johns Hopkins University Executive Leadership Alliance Program.

Ms. Hines graduated cum laude from Yale University and received an M.A. from the department of English and American Language and Literature at Harvard University. Currently at work on both a novel and her second non-fiction project, Hines is also a member of the Board of Trustees of The Hotchkiss School and sits on the board of LIFT, Legal Information for Families Today, which provides help for families trying to navigate the court system.anizations that encourage and support the advancement of women in the radio industry.

Dina Kaplan is the co-founder and COO of blip.tv.  Dina oversees business operations for the company, including media partnerships, advertising and sponsorship deals, distribution deals, PR, marketing and investor relations.  

Blip.tv is the double Webby-award winning video sharing site focused on shows.  It enables independent producers to create their own TV shows for the Internet, from scripted sitcoms and dramas to journalists covering the war in Baghdad.  In writing about online video sites, Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal recently wrote, “My favorite is blip.tv.”  Also this year Business 2.0 named blip.tv in a cover story as one of “25 start-ups to watch.”

Before blip.tv, Dina was an on-camera television reporter with WNBC in New York, Wave3 News (NBC) in Louisville Kentucky and News12 Long Island and New Jersey.  As a news reporter, Dina won an Emmy and numerous Society of Professional Journalists Awards and Associated Press Awards.

Before reporting, Dina produced stories for MTV News about politics, technology and a range of musical acts.  She also helped coordinate MTV's political Choose or Lose coverage. 

After graduating from college, Dina worked at the White House as Director of Research for the White House Counsel's Office and then as Special Assistant to the Director of Presidential Personnel.  During college, Dina worked at Rock The Vote, setting up a volunteer network of representatives that registered college students to vote around the country. 

Dina graduated from Wesleyan University with a degree in Economics, Government, Philosophy and History.  She sits on the National Board of Wesleyan University, is an Advisory Board Member of the Women’s Media Center, sits on the Advisory Board of the Aspen Institute Socrates Program and a member of the Producer’s Guild of America.  Dina is a judge for the Webbies and the Interactive Media Awards. 

Buff Kavelman is a nonprofit leader with a strong focus on launching new initiatives, turning around underperforming operations, building effective high-level teams, and raising institutional profiles.

Most recently, she served as Executive Director of University Programs and Events in the President’s office at Columbia, where she created and produced the University’s highest profile programs in partnership with the President, Executives and Deans.  She developed a strategic plan to expand the World Leaders Forum, recognized by The New Yorker as a leading center for international exchange on global challenges and cultural perspectives.  She also launched the Kraft Series for Interfaith and Intercultural Awareness that fosters open debate on controversial issues of race, religion, politics and culture.

Before joining Columbia, Ms. Kavelman launched the Smithsonian's National Design Awards at Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, called "one of the most prestigious awards in the United States" by The Wall Street Journal.  She secured the sponsorship of First Ladies Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush, both of whom hosted White House ceremonies honoring the awardees.  Ms. Kavelman previously directed the Rome Prize competition and public programs at the American Academy in Rome during the height of its centennial.  She funded and fostered hundreds of grantees nationwide at the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts, consulted on a diverse array of civic, cultural and philanthropic projects, and served on many nonprofit boards and executive committees.

She holds an M.S. from Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Historic Preservation, where she was appointed Humanities Fellow at International House, and a B.A. in Art History with high distinction and honors from the University of Michigan's Honors College, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Adjunct Professor, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
Adjunct Professor, Hunter College of the City University of New York
Retired Senior Producer, CBS News

Former Senior Producer for sixteen years on Peabody Award Winning CBS News Sunday Morning broadcast until April, 2006. 
Producer for The CBS Evening News with Dan Rather for thirteen years, producing stories on national news events, economics, politics, and international events, in. Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Central America and the Caribbean.

 Recipient of twelve Emmy Awards: eight as Sunday Morning Sr. Producer; four as CBS Evening News Producer;
1999 MUSE Career Achievement Award from New York Women In Film and Television. Columbia University Journalism 2002 Alumni of the Year Award. 

VOLUNTEER ASSOCIATIONS AND MEMBERSHIPS:
Board of Directors of Women At Risk which funds breast cancer research at Columbia University;
Former board officer and current advisory board member of New York Women in Film and Television;
Member of the National Association of Black Journalists; The Friends of Education of the Museum of Modern Art; the National Association of Link’s, Inc.; The History Makers; and The Council on Foreign Relations.    

EDUCATION:
M.S. degree in journalism from Columbia University School of Journalism, 1969;

Merle Geline Rubine became a member of the Women’s Media Center Advisory Council in August, 2007. She is a communications professional with extensive experience in television, radio and international advocacy.

A veteran producer of news magazine and documentary programming for NBC and CBS, Rubine is also an issue specialist who has conducted training programs on acute topics such as gender equality, HIV/AIDS, poverty reduction, press freedom and development communication.

During her career at NBC Rubine covered some of the most powerful news stories of the past quarter century: such as the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Reagan-Gorbachev summits. She also produced profiles of influential figures as Mikhail Gorbachev, Al Gore, Yasir Arafat, Sophia Loren, Hunter S. Thompson, among many others.

In 2000 Rubine left network news, joined the Peace Corps and went to Africa. She spent two years in a small village in Cote d’Ivoire – when her service was over she remained in Africa as a teacher, trainer and communications consultant. She was awarded a Knight International Press Fellowship and spent an academic year as a lecturer at the School for Mass Communications, Fourah Bay College, in Freetown, Sierra Leone. In 2006, Rubine and a team of Tanzanian women and men brought The Vagina Monologues to the Dar es Salaam stage, opening a new dimension of dialog about gender violence and gender equality.

Since her return from Africa last year, Rubine has taught journalism at Hunter College, and led press training workshops in Armenia, Sri Lanka and the Maldives for the U.S. State Department Bureau of International Information Programs media speaker program.

Melissa Silverstein is a media consultant and writer with 15 years experience in the non-profit and communications fields.  She specializes in the area of women issues, with an emphasis on women in popular culture.Currently, she edits the morning news briefing for the Women's Media Center, an organization dedicated to supporting women working in the media.  She is also working on a new start-up website, WomenFilmNet, which will be a dedicated to bringing more visibility to films by about and for women.

For the last eight years, Melissa has consulted on wide array of projects ranging from on-line marketing and web site development to event and film production as well as public education campaigns.  She also has extensive experience in public relations and communications, and organizational management and non-profit start-ups.  Some of her clients have included: Paramount Pictures; Miramax Films; Palm Pictures; Fox Searchlight Pictures; New Israel Fund; Jewish Women's Archive; Public Interest Media Group; Planned Parenthood Federation; Random House as well as several authors including: Christine Brennan; Neil Chethik; Roni Cohen Sandler; Marie C. Wilson; and Suzanne Braun Levine.
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She was the founding Executive Director of The White House Project, a project created dedicated to expanding the opportunities for women in leadership and was the Chief of Staff at the Ms. Foundation for Women.

Melissa’s writing has been published in Women's Media Center; Alternet; Ms. Magazine; Swing; iVillage; Oxygen, and Pop & Politics, among others.
Melissa spent her early career working in the theatre.  She holds an MFA in Theatre Management from Columbia University, and a BA from Brandeis University. She is based in Brooklyn, NY.