Meet The First Class of
Progressive Women's Voices 2009
Deadline for Second Class Applications: March 10
The Women's Media Center is thrilled to announce the first class of our Progressive Women's Voices program for 2009. Now in its second year, Progressive Women's Voices is an intense media training and outreach program. PWV has been a resounding success, with participants diversifying the media landscape by adding their intellectual, progressive, female perspectives to outlets like CNN, MSNBC, PBS, The New York Times, the Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, as well as hundreds of other significant media outlets in print, online, radio, and broadcast.
"Progressive Women's Voices has become a cornerstone of our organization," said Carol Jenkins, WMC president. "It is a testament to the quality of our services that we received 150 applications for 11 spaces in the first class. We had to make some tough choices - there are so many incredible women out there ready to interact more with the media. With the caliber and record number of applicants, we know we're doing something right, and we're excited about future of this program and its impact on the media."
There will be two additional classes accepted in 2009. The application deadline for the next Progressive Women's Voices class is March 10, with two-day trainings to be held at the end of April, May, and June in New York City. Previous applicants are welcome to reapply. For more information, visit our website.
Participants in the first training class for 2009 include experts in home mortgage lending, health care reform, US foreign policy, and internet/cultural trends - 11 women whose diverse backgrounds reflect the diversity of women's experiences in the United States. They join 33 participants from 2008, forming a roster of progressive women who will add their voices to the national conversation in areas of economics, politics, health care, immigration, women's rights, workplace policy, and other important issues. Short bios of the first class of PWV are below, but you can check out their photos & full bios here.
CHERYL DORSEY
An accomplished social entrepreneur with expertise in health care, labor issues, and public policy, Cheryl Dorsey was named President of Echoing Green in May 2002. She is the first Echoing Green Fellow to lead this global nonprofit, which has awarded more than $27 million in start-up capital to over 450 social entrepreneurs worldwide since 1987.
SOMJEN FRAZER
Somjen Frazer is a senior policy analyst at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute and also owns a consulting research company. A Rhodes scholar, she is the author of numerous articles and reports on public health, gender and sexuality studies, criminal justice, and other topics. As an activist researcher, she works to connect social science to social change and is particularly interested in community-based projects.
BARBARA GLICKSTEIN
Barbara Glickstein is a public health nurse executive, health policy expert and broadcast journalist. For more than 25 years, she has produced and hosted Healthstyles, an award winning, weekly program on public radio in New York. Glickstein is also a contributing health reporter on Martha Stewart's radio show, Living Today. Glickstein was co-founding director of the Continuum Center for Health and Healing at Beth Israel Medical Center in NYC, the largest academic integrative health care center in the United States.
JEHMU GREENE
Jehmu Greene is a national political consultant and commentator. Her passion for politics and communications has earned her a regular slot on local and national media outlets and programs. She is the former president of Rock the Vote. Under her leadership, Rock the Vote registered 1.4 million new voters and its membership grew from 1500 to 1 million. In 2008, she co-founded WomenCount.org, a political site for progressive women .
EMMA COLEMAN JORDAN
Georgetown University Law Professor Emma Coleman Jordan is best known for her pioneering work in financial regulation and economic inequality. She is a specialist in bank payment systems. She wrote the first law regulating bank holds on customer deposits. She was a White House Fellow and Special Assistant to the Attorney General of the United States. Her most recent book is Economic Justice: Race, Gender, Identity and Economics. At the Law Center, she teaches courses in Commercial Law: Bank Payments and Secured Lending, Regulation of Modern Financial Institutions and Economic Justice. She is a past President of the Association of American Law Schools and served as counsel to Professor Anita Hill during the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings.
ANN LEE
Ann Lee is an expert on financial derivatives and the global financial system. With a decade of experience on Wall Street, she worked through both boom and bust cycles and has analyzed and traded almost every type of fixed income financial security, ranging from convertible bonds to a variety of credit derivatives. Currently she teaches two courses in economics and finance at New York University. She also served as an adjunct professor at the Lubin School of Business and Graduate Economics at Pace University, and as a visiting professor to Peking University in Beijing, China.
CHRISTINE NEUMANN-ORTIZ
Christine Neumann-Ortiz is the founding Executive Director of Voces de la Frontera, a low-wage and immigrant workers center with chapters in Milwaukee and Racine, Wisconsin, including student chapters called Students United for Immigrant Rights with members from six high schools. Voces de la Frontera is increasingly recognized as Wisconsin's leading voice for immigration reform.
RINKU SEN
Rinku Sen is the President and Executive Director of the Applied Research Center (ARC) and Publisher of ColorLines magazine, winner of the 2007Utne Award for General Excellence. She has written extensively about racial justice, immigration, community organizing and women's lives. She is the author of Stir it Up: Lessons in Community Organizing and Advocacy. Her latest book, The Accidental American: Immigration and Citizenship in the Age of Globalization (Berrett-Koehler), was released September 2008. In 2008, Rinku was named one of Utne Reader's 50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World.
KAREN FRAGALA SMITH
Karen Fragala Smith specializes in making the complex facts of international relations accessible to a wide audience. She is currently Associate Editor in the Foreign Department of Newsweek, where she has interviewed high profile figures such as Benazir Bhutto, Madeleine Albright, Mikhail Gorbachev and Vaclav Havel. She is currently working on her first nonfiction book called "Welcome to Your World: A Friendly Guide to Global Affairs" to be published in late 2009.
VANESSA VADIM
Vanessa Vadim is an environmental activist, farmer, designer of edible landscapes and sustainable gardens. She provides environmental consulting with V2 Synergy. In addition, Vadim is an artist, filmmaker and co-founder of MayDay Media, a non-profit documentary production company. She currently serves as a Producer-in-Residence at Georgia State University. Vadim has a weekly advice column on Mother Nature Network (MNN.com) called "Ask Vanessa."
DEANNA ZANDT
Deanna Zandt is a media technologist and consultant to key progressive media organizations including AlterNet and the Hightower Lowdown, and hostsTechGrrl Tips on GRITtv with Laura Flanders. She works with groups to create and implement effective web strategies toward organizational goals of civic engagement and empowerment, and uses her background in linguistics, advertising, telecommunications and finance to complement her technical expertise.
The Progressive Women's Voices participants join an outstanding roster of women sources and experts already signed on with the WMC to ensure that women are visible and powerful in the media. The Women's Media Center acts as a spokesperson resource for media professionals seeking to connect with great women sources in a variety of areas. For more information on the organization or to connect with any of these women, please visit our Progressive Women's Voices page or contact Tristin Aaron, Media Director, at (212) 563 0680, tristin@womensmediacenter.com.
The Women's Media Center was founded in 2005 by Jane Fonda, Robin Morgan and Gloria Steinem to make women more visible and powerful in the media. The WMC places female voices into the media, offers media training, and publishes original reports and commentaries as well as links to women columnists and bloggers, news organizations, and journalism sources on its Web site, www.womensmediacenter.com.
