Compass Award Winners

Vanessa Castagna is Executive Vice President, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of JCPenney Stores, Catalog and Internet. JCPenney is one of America?s largest department store, drugstore, catalog and e-commerce retailers. Ms. Castagna was named to her current position in July 2002. She was appointed Executive Vice President, President and Chief Operating Officer for JCPenney in 2001.

Ms. Castagna joined JCPenney in 1999. Previously, Castagna served as Senior Vice President and General Merchandise Manager at Wal-Mart Stores, where her responsibilities included women?s and junior apparel, intimate apparel and accessories, children?s apparel, and product and brand development. From 1994 to 1996, she was Senior Vice President and General Merchandising Manager for home d?cor, domestics, furniture, crafts and children?s apparel at Wal-Mart. Prior to Wal-Mart, Castagna served in several senior level positions in the retailing industry, including Senior Vice President, General Merchandising Manager for women?s and juniors for Marshalls stores, a division of TJX Companies. From 1985 to 1992, Castagna served as Vice President, merchandising-women?s at Target stores. Castagna began her career in 1972 with Lazarus, a division of Federated Department Stores, where she rose to Senior Vice President and General Merchandising Manager.

Ms. Castagna serves on the Executive Board of the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University, and the boards of the National Minority Supplier Development Council and the JCPenney Afterschool Fund. She is the current chair of the Women?s Leadership Council of the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas.

She is a leading advocate for the JCPenney Afterschool Fund, which works with leading after school providers and advocates to provide children with high quality after school programs to help them reach their full potential.

Ms. Castagna graduated in 1971 from Purdue University with a B. S. degree in psychology and speech communication.

Celebrating the newly released paperback version of her widely acclaimed book, When Smoke Ran Like Water: Tales of Deception and the Battle Against Pollution (Basic Books, 2003), which was a National Book Award Finalist, epidemiologist Devra Davis is one of the world's most visible and outspoken advocates for improving the environment to protect public health. Respected worldwide and in constant demand as a public speaker, she has often been called "today's Rachel Carson."

Dr. Davis is Visiting Professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz School as well as Honorary Professor, London's School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and an Expert Advisor to the World Health Organization. President Clinton appointed Dr. Davis to the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, (1994-99), an independent executive branch agency that investigates, prevents, and mitigates chemical accidents.

As the former Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Health in the Department of Health and Human Services, she has counseled leading officials in the U.S., United Nations, World Health Organization and World Bank. She was also a Distinguished Visiting Professor at The Yeshiva University and Stern College for 1996-97 and Scholar in Residence and Executive Director of the Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology at the U.S. National Research Council, of the National Academy of Science, 1983-93.

Dr. Davis holds a B.S. in physiological psychology and a M.A. in sociology from the University of Pittsburgh. She completed a Ph.D. in science studies at the University of Chicago, as a Danforth Foundation Graduate Fellow and a M.P.H. in epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins University, as a Senior National Cancer Institute Post-Doctoral Fellow. She has also authored more than 170 publications.

Adela Cepeda, founder and president of A.C. Advisory, Inc., has been a finance specialist since 1980, structuring and executing transactions in the capital markets for corporations and municipalities. She worked for over 10 years for a major Wall Street firm as a corporate finance executive handling public and private debt and equity transactions.

Cepeda has extensive community involvement and serves on the boards of Window to the World Communications, Inc., Ravinia Festival Association, The Joffrey Ballet of Chicago and The Chicago Community Trust. She is also a board member of three New York Stock Exchange listed companies, as well as a current member of the Hispanic American Construction Industry Association (HACIA) and the Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Ms. Cepeda is a recipient of many honors and awards, including Member of the Year from the Mexican American Chamber of Commerce, "100 Successful Hispanic Women," by Hispanic magazine, Hispanic Leadership Award from HACIA, and "Chicago's Top 25 Women in Finance" by Today's Chicago Woman. She is an honors graduate of Harvard College and has an MBA from the University of Chicago School of Business.

Gloria Jean, the woman who started the gourmet coffee craze around the world!

Gloria Jean married at age 20 and not long after had a little home with two babies. For some that would have been enough?her hands full with two young sons, a load of wall papering and a freshly minted "Jaycee of the Year" award from the local Jaycees. But characteristically Gloria Jean put in more time to earn extra income to help out. She also enrolled in beauty culture school and got her license as a hairdresser. She bought a neighborhood beauty shop in Wheeling Illinois, which she ran successfully for over 12 years. She swears being a hairdresser was her best education.

While running her beauty shop Gloria Jean?s Gourmet Coffee was invented. This was 1979, in Long Grove Illinois and by1981 she expanded to Woodfield Mall and Northbrook Court.

Gloria learned that having coffee is a simple process, but the way everyone likes it is not so simple. Everyone has his or her own tastes and preferences. There is just no right or wrong way. Now there is abundant variety of choices to suit everyone?s personal tastes. Gloria Jean is quoted "Isn?t it wonderful to know the first decision you make in the morning when you pour that cup of coffee is the right one?" Gloria Jean brought espresso coffee to the front counter. She introduced the sampler packet,coffee gifts ideas, club cards, to name a few and she made the color green popular.

By 1986, she sold her beauty shop and started to franchise her stores with 11 stores in Illinois and Wisconsin. By expansion through franchising, the business flourished both nationally and overseas to over 200 stores. Gloria Jean?s Gourmet Coffees Inc. sold in November 1993. Today there are almost 300 stores worldwide. She also was one of the first women to definitely break the "glass ceiling".

Muriel "Mickie" Siebert is the founder and president of the discount brokerage firm that bears her name, Muriel Siebert & Co., Inc. She established the firm in 1967 when she became the first woman member of the New York Stock Exchange ("NYSE"), and transformed it into a discount brokerage house on May 1, 1975, the first day that NYSE members were permitted under a new federal law to negotiate commissions. Muriel Siebert & Co. is the only woman-owned NYSE brokerage firm with a national presence.

Ms. Siebert continues to oversee the firm's day-to-day operations at its nine branches. Ms. Siebert started her career as a $65 a week trainee in research at Bache & Co., and became an industry specialist (airlines/aerospace). She later became a partner at Finkel & Co., as well as at Brimberg & Co. She was born in Cleveland, Ohio and attended what is now known as Case Western Reserve University. Although she never graduated, she now holds 14 honorary doctoral degrees.

In 1977, Ms. Siebert took a leave of absence from her firm to serve five years as the first woman Superintendent of Banking for the State of New York under Governor Hugh Carey. As such, she was responsible for the safety and soundness of not only the banks, but also other financial institutions in New York State.

Reflecting upon her commitment to philanthropy and "giving back," Ms. Siebert started her own charitable program in 1990, the Siebert Entrepreneurial Philanthropic Program ("SEPP"). Under SEPP, half of the firm's net commission revenue on new issue underwritings is donated to a charity, usually chosen by the issuer or purchaser.

In 1999 while president of the New York Women's Agenda, a coalition of over 90 women's organizations, she developed a Personal Finance Program that was introduced into the economic curriculum of New York City's public high schools. The program was designed to equip seniors with two essential financial management skills - managing a checkbook and understanding the use and abuse of credit cards. In the interest of improving the financial literacy of our nation's young people, Ms. Siebert has expanded the curriculum to include topics such as mortgages, retirement accounts, taxation, financial planning, etc. It is scheduled to be city-wide in late 2002. In keeping with her personal agenda, she hopes to see this program established nationally.

Throughout her career, Ms. Siebert has been actively involved with a wide range of non-profit, civic and women's organizations. To name only a few of her affiliations, she is currently on the boards of The New York State Business Council, the Greater New York Council of the Boy Scouts of America, and the Guild Hall Museum. She is one of five founding members of The Museum of Women-The Leadership Center, an institution in the initial planning stages to be built in Battery Park City. Ms. Siebert was an appointee of the National Women's Business Council, a founder and former president of the The New York Women's Forum, now the International Women's Forum (of which she is also former treasurer), and was a member of the Deloitte & Touche Council for the Advancement and Retention of Women. She is a former president of the New York Women's Agenda ("NYWA"), a non-partisan coalition of 90 diverse women's organizations. NYWA provides a unified "voice for women" on all issues, policies and programs. She is a member of The Committee of 200, an international organization of pre-eminent business women. Ms. Siebert serves on the New York State Commission on Judicial Nomination which selects nominees for vacancies on the New York Court of Appeals and refers them to the Governor.

Ms. Siebert has received countless awards and honors throughout her career, including the first woman selected as "one who has made a difference" for the Working Women's Hall of Fame. In 1994, she was inducted into the International Women's Forum Hall of Fame, the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, NY and The Ohio Women's Hall of Fame. She was the recipient of the Sara Lee Frontrunner Award in Business, which honors the service, accomplishments, and abilities of women who represent achievement and shape the future. She was honored at Mattel/Barbie's 40th AnniversaryGala as an "Ambassador of Dreams," representing women who have embraced the power of their dreams by becoming the very best in their chosen fields. She also received The Athena Foundation's highest award, given to those "who open the doors of leadership opportunity for women."

Her most recent honors include Town Hall Friend of the Arts Award, NAWBO First Signature Award for Lifetime Achievement as a pioneering women's business owner, the Iphigene Ochs Sulzberger Award for Contributions to Family Life from Inwood House, and the Pride of New York Award.

In November 2002, Ms. Siebert's autobiography, .Changing the Rules -- Adventures of a Wall Street Maverick, was published by Simon and Schuster.

Muriel Siebert is a sought after speaker on current financial matters and a commentator on all of the television financial news networks.

Gail Evans is the best-selling author of Play Like A Man Win Like A Woman, an informative business guide to the secrets men know about success that women need to learn. The book was listed for several months on the New York Times, Business Week, and Wall Street Journal?s 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 in recent years on outlets such as, NBC?s ?The Today Show?, USA Today, ?Larry King Live?, and the New York Times to name a few. Her latest book, She Wins, You Win, was published in May of 2003.

Evans? career is vast, beginning in government and culminating as the Executive Vice President of CNN. Evans began working with CNN at its inception in 1980 and was promoted to Executive Vice President for CNN in 1996. In September 2000, Evans was named to Executive Vice President of Domestic Networks for the CNN Newsgroup. She was responsible for program and talent development of all domestic networks overseeing national and international talk shows and the Network Guest Bookings Department, which schedules about 25,000 guests each year. She served as a member of the CNN Executive Committee and was chairperson of the CNN programming task force. Evans retired from CNN in the summer of 2001.

Evans is active in numerous charities and served for two years as the chairperson of the Georgia Endowment for the Humanities. In 1979, she was nominated to Leadership Atlanta and in 1993, she became a trustee of the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation. In 1997, Evans was appointed by President Clinton to the Commission on White House Fellows.

She is a member of the Board of Trustees at Kennesaw State University and has served as an adjunct professor at Emory University?s Goizueta School of Business, teaching a course on gender issues in the workplace. Additionally Evans is a member of the board of the Society for Women?s Health Research, the Breman Jewish Heritage Museum, and the Atlanta Girls School. Evans also has been elected to membership of the Committee 200 and The International Women?s Forum and the Council on Foreign Relations. Her weekly syndicated radio segment ?It?s not Just A Man?s World? is syndicated to 1900 CNN radio affiliates throughout the U. S.

Mrs. Carter, along with her brother John started V & J Foods with a single Burger King restaurant in 1984. In nineteen years, she has nurtured the company into a 126-unit, multi-brand operation. Mrs. Carter adopts a hands-on approach to restaurant operations. She focuses on the performance of each and every unit so that all are achieving positive results. Her operating philosophy is ?YATSE?: You Are The Standard of Excellence. Mrs. Carter laid the foundation for her successful entrepreneurial career at Lincoln University where she received her BA. She later earned an MBA from Cardinal Stritch College in Milwaukee.

She began her career with First Wisconsin National Bank (now US Bank) as a retail and commercial lender. She later accepted a position as an auditor for MGIC Investment Corporation in the financial underwriting division. Mrs. Carter currently serves as President of the Minority Franchise Association of Burger King Corporation; Past President of Milwaukee World Festival, Inc.; Executive Board Member of the National Franchisee Association; Board of Directors of AAA Michigan and Wisconsin, Inc.; Member of the Diversity Action Council of Burger King Corporation; Board Member of US Bank; Board of Directors of Holy Redeemer Church of God In Christ; Chief Financial Officer for Auxiliaries in Ministries of the Church of God In Christ; and Regional Minister of Music for the Church of God In Christ.

Mrs. Carter has personally received a number of awards including recognition by Essence magazine as a Trailblazer in the Top 40 Inspiring African Americans; Women of Influence Award presented by the Business Journal; Peak Performer Award presented by Junior Achievement; Trailblazer Award from North Milwaukee State Bank; Entrepreneurial Spirit Award presented at the Multicultural Prism Awards; Essence magazine?s Top 10 Black Female Entrepreneurs; Black Enterprise magazine?s Women of the B.E. 100; The Heritage Award from Spiritual Perspective; and the Business Award given by the National Rainbow Coalition. Her company, V & J has received awards such as the Top 500 Women-Owned Businesses (Working Woman Magazine); Top 200 Restaurants in the U.S. (Restaurant Finance Monitor); and numerous other accolades, both locally and nationally.

Sylvia Hatchell accepted the job of her dreams in 1986 and since then has posted a record of 358-175 in 17 seasons as the women?s basketball coach at the University of North Carolina. With a career record of 630-255 in 28 seasons as a head coach, she ranks sixth in total wins among active Division I women?s basketball coaches. She is one of just eight coaches with more than 600 career victories.

A North Carolina native who grew up a Tar Heel fan, Hatchell has led Carolina to an NCAA Championship (1994) and four Atlantic Coast Conference crowns (1994, ?95, ?97and ?98). In 1994, USA Today and College Sports magazine named her the National Coach of the Year. In 1997, she was named ACC Coach of the Year after guiding the Tar Heels to a 15-1 conference record and their first regular-season ACC title.

Hatchell has led the Tar Heels to 11 NCAA Tournament appearances, 10 of them over the past 12 years. Carolina finished the 2002-03 season with a record of 28-6, reaching the 25-wins mark for the seventh time in the past 10 years. Including 2003, UNC has played in the ACC Tournament championship game eight times in the past 10 years.

Prior to taking over the Tar Heel program, Hatchell coached Francis Marion to a 272-80 mark over 11 seasons. She led the 1986 Lady Patriots to a remarkable 36-2 record and a NAIA national championship. Her 1982 team also won a national championship, in the AIAW small college division. She is the only women's basketball coach to lead teams to national championships on the AIAW, NAIA and NCAA Division I levels.

Hatchell also has extensive international coaching experience. In August 1995, she led the U.S. to a silver medal at the World University Games in Fukuoka, Japan. During the summer of 1994, she directed the United States team to the gold medal in the R. William Jones Cup. She has been the assistant coach for five gold-medal-winning teams, including the 1988 Olympic team. She was a court coach at the U.S. Olympic basketball tryouts in both 1984 and '92 and also worked on the Olympic Games basketball events staff in Los Angeles in 1984.

Hatchell is actively involved in shaping modern women's basketball and served as president of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association during the 1996-97 academic year.

Lydia H. Kennard was appointed Executive Director of Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) in March 2000, after acting as Interim Executive Director since August 1999. Kennard is the highest-ranking woman General Manager in the history of the City of Los Angeles. She is also one of the highest ranking women in aviation management in the world, running the second largest system of airports. LAWA airports include Los Angeles International, Ontario International, Van Nuys and Palmdale Regional.

Kennard joined LAWA in 1994 as Deputy Executive Director for Design and Construction. In that capacity, she managed an annual capital improvement budget of over $600 million and oversaw the activities relating to planning, design, engineering, construction, real estate and facilities at LAWA?s four aviation facilities. She also administered a $100 million budget for soundproofing and a multi-million dollar real estate acquisition program.

Lydia Kennard has a Bachelor of Arts from Stanford, a Masters from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a law degree from Harvard. Before joining LAWA, she was President of KDG Development Construction Consulting, a Los Angeles-based firm specializing in land-use planning, development, programming and construction management for public and private sector clients.

Kennard also serves on the UniHealth Foundation Board and has been a member of the California Medical Center Foundation Board and the Equal Opportunity Advisory Council for Southern California Edison. She was named 1995 Woman of the Year by the Los Angeles Chapter of the Women?s Transportation Seminar. Additionally, in 2000, the National Association of Women Business Owners-Los Angeles named her the Civic Leader of the Year. In 2001, she received the Los Angeles Urban League Rising Star Award. In 2002, Kennard was named Distinguished Honoree by Allstate Insurance Co. She also was honored with the Transportation and Real Estate Hero Award by the March of Dimes, and the Public Service Award by the Greater Los Angeles African American Chamber of Commerce.

Kathy Elizabeth Magliato, M.D. is giving patients with a failing heart a new lease on life. She is Staff Surgeon in Cardiothoracic Surgery, Heart/Lung Transplantation and Ventricular Assist Devices at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, and Staff Surgeon, Cardiothoracic Surgery at Brotman Medical Center in Culver City.

Dr. Magliato is one of only a few dozen women to perform cardiac surgery. She is one of only a handful who does heart transplants. Most remarkably, she is a leading expert at the forefront of heart failure cardiology and heart failure surgery in the pioneering field of ventricular assist device implantation. These mechanisms provide a ?bridge to transplant? for a failing heart, bringing new hope as well as enhanced portability for patients who otherwise might not survive the wait for a suitable donor.

A native of upstate New York, Dr. Magliato came to Cedars-Sinai from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, where she specialized in heart transplantation, lung transplantation and ventricular assist devices. She received her MD with Alpha Omega Alpha honors from Cleveland?s Case Western Reserve University, and completed internship and residencies at Akron General Medical Center and Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Illinois.

During her career, Dr. Magliato has received numerous honors and awards including the Milton B. Schweid Memorial Award for Excellence in Cardiovascular Diseases. She has an extensive research background and her work has been published in a variety of scientific journals. A respected and sought-after lecturer, she is frequently asked to present findings at medical conferences on ventricular assist devices and other topics. Dr. Magliato takes special interest in women?s health, and many of her numerous media appearances have focused on women?s health issues.

Mavis Nicholson Leno is the Chair of the Feminist Majority Foundation?s Campaign to Help Afghan Women and Girls, and has been the United States? most outspoken critic of the Taliban?s horrific treatment of women. Leno joined the Board of Directors of the Feminist Majority Foundation in 1997, after playing an active role in the effort to defeat Proposition 209, the anti-affirmative action initiative on the 1996 California ballot.

Leno assumed her role as Chair of the Campaign to Stop Gender Apartheid in Afghanistan in 1997, less than one year after the Taliban?s brutal treatment of women began. She testified on gender apartheid in March 1998 before Senator Diane Feinstein of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and has consistently urged the Clinton and Bush Administrations as well as the U.S. Congress to do more to restore women?s human rights in Afghanistan. Her involvement in the Feminist Majority?s Campaign was also instrumental in defeating the energy company UNOCAL?s efforts to construct an oil pipeline across Afghanistan that would have supplied the Taliban with over $100 million and dramatically increased their control in the region.

She is currently a leader in the effort to make the restoration of women?s rights a nonnegotiable element of a post-Taliban Afghanistan, and has been at the forefront of insuring that the plight of Afghan women is included in the world?s reporting of the war in Afghanistan. Recent television appearances include Larry King Live, The Today Show, CNN with Paula Zahn, Hardball with Chris Mathews, MSNBC Nightly News and the Tonight Show. Mavis has also been featured in articles in TIME, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, Vanity Fair, US magazine and People magazine.

Peggy Tsiang Cherng, Ph.D., president and CEO of Panda Restaurant Group, Inc. (PRG) is one of the few female presidents in the competitive restaurant industry. With her diverse educational background and business savvy, Cherng continues to play an instrumental role in the increasing success of the Rosemead, California-based company while establishing PRG as the largest Chinese foodservice provider in the nation.

In 1998, Cherng became president of PRG and she leads strategic planning, developing and coordinating departmental goals and implementing a variety of training programs. Through her leadership, PRG has gained a large share of the quick service market with its Panda Express concept. There are currently more than 550 Panda Express locations throughout 35 states, Puerto Rico and Japan.

Burmese born, Cherng and her family later moved to Hong Kong where she resided until leaving for Baker University in Kansas to pursue her undergraduate studies. During this time, Peggy met Andrew J.C. Cherng, a man who would later become her lifelong partner, both in marriage and business.

Following graduation, Cherng joined McDonnell Douglas as a member of the technical team. Later Cherng worked at Comtal-3M, where her highly technical background quickly led her up the corporate ladder to become software development manager. During this time her husband and father-in-law, Master Chef Ming Tsai Cherng, opened Panda Inn in Pasadena, California, a unique restaurant featuring gourmet Mandarin and Szechuan cuisine.

The Panda business steadily grew, and in 1982, Cherng decided to join the family business. As executive vice president she created the vision, mission and value statements for PRG helping to set a solid corporate foundation for further growth.

Cherng is active in a variety of professional organizations including the National Restaurant Association, the Executive Committee and the American Compensation Association. She serves as a member of the board of visitors for the Peter F. Drucker Graduate School of Management at Claremont Graduate University and is a member of the board of directors for the Los Angeles United Way chapter and Childrens Hospital.

During 1999, Cherng received the Asian American Entrepreneur award from Minorities in Business Magazine and was inducted into the Los Angeles Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners? Millennium Hall of Fame. Cherng?s other honors include receiving a prestigious Golden Chain award from Nation?s Restaurant News and the ?Spirit of Life? award from the City of Hope in 2000. In 2001 she was inducted into the Los Angeles Business Journal ? Minority and Women Owned Businesses Hall of Fame and was the Honoree of the Year of the National Association of Women Business Owners in 2002.

Kay Koplovitz is the founder of USA Networks and the first woman network president in television history. A pioneer in cable television networks and new media ventures, she is a visionary woman who led the emergence of cable television from the backcountry of America to challenge the mighty broadcast networks for coveted audiences. She continues to be a visionary in raising venture capital for women entrepreneurs and in launching new programming companies that challenge the frontiers of the digital age. She is the author of, Bold Women, Big Ideas (May ?02), which she wrote to inform and inspire women entrepreneurs to create wealth through equity.

Koplovitz served as Chief Executive Officer of Working Women Network from January 2000 to July 2001, implementing the transformation of the workingwoman brand into a multi-media resource of goods and services to serve the fast-growing sector of career-committed, entrepreneurial, corporate and professional woman.

Koplovitz was appointed in 1998 by President Clinton to be Chairman of the National Women?s Business Council (NWBC), the influential advisory board for women-owned business. In her own experience, Koplovitz recognized that the key to empowering women in the business arena is to give them access to what matters most: capital. She recognized the need for venture capital for high growth businesses when she discovered that in 1997, only 1.7% of the venture funding in the U.S. went to fund women-led businesses. That?s why Koplovitz created Springboard 2000, a unique initiative to accelerate women?s access to the equity markets as both entrepreneurs and investors. Since its launch in January of 2000, Springboard has generated more than $750 million of investment capital and funding for women-owned businesses. In March 2001, Springboard was registered as Springboard Enterprises, which continues to develop and implement all of the Springboard policies on a national basis. Koplovitz also created and co-founed Boldcap Ventures, a New York-based investment club for high net worth women to foster the growth of early stage companies.

When Shirley L. Gross-Moore moved into the driver's seat at Barrington Dodge in November 1988, some people said she would last only six months; others didn't give her that long. Now, over 15 years later, Barrington Dodge in suburban Chicago has not only survived, it has thrived. Moore has expanded to a second location nearby, and Barrington Dodge is now a Five-Star dealer, the highest ranking possible from the manufacturer.

Moving from low expectations to the highest standard of excellence in the male-dominated world of automobiles has been gratifying for Moore. "It's quite a feeling of accomplishment knowing that you've done this in a predominantly male world," says Moore. "I don't see why any woman can't do this; all it takes is some hard work and common business sense."

A native of Detroit, Moore worked for the Internal Revenue Service for 11 years. It was through this experience at the IRS that Moore first thought of the idea of business ownership. In 1986 while she worked as the public affairs director at a Detroit television station, a fellow student in a graduate class at Central Michigan University suggested that she look into the dealer development programs offered by the Big Three automakers.

Through the program she was trained in all aspects of the operation, including the "dirty work." Moore arrived at Barrington Dodge as the general manager in November 1988 and served in that capacity for two years. She purchased the dealership in 1995. What was at first a struggling business in one building with a staff of 21 that sold an average of 45 cars per month expanded into two locations, 50 employees and an average of 145 cars sold per month. The company had an estimated $ 63 million in sales for 2001.

At 13 years old, Donna de Varona had a knack for breaking barriers and overcoming obstacles. Barely a teenager, she became the youngest competitor at the 1960 Olympic Games. Just four years later she broke an unprecedented 18 world swimming records and won two Olympic Gold Medals. By age 17, she was voted Most Outstanding Female Athlete in the world by both the Associated Press (AP) and the United Press International (UPI).

De Varona retired from competitive sports in 1965. However, this U S Olympic Hall of Famer decided to use her broad range of skills to pursue other things while continuing to open doors and meet challenges with the strength and stamina that she gained as an Olympic swimmer. In 1965 de Varona became the first female sports broadcaster on network television and in so doing paved the way for future female athletes and journalists.

As an ABC Sports on-air analyst, commentator, host, writer and producer she earned an Emmy Award nomination for ?Keepers of the Flame? a TV special and received an Emmy for her story about a Special Olympian. She also won the Gracie Award two consecutive years for her Sporting News Radio show: ?Donna de Varona on Sports?.

Ms de Varona is a founding member of the Women?s Sports Foundation and first president, she served four terms on the President?s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, and was a moving force in Congress? passage of the 1978 Amateur Sports Act and the landmark ?Title IX? legislation.

Some of the many honors bestowed on Ms de Varona include: The International Swimming Hall of Fame Gold Medallion, The Olympia Award for her contribution to the Olympic Movement, The Olympic Order, which is the highest award given by the International Olympic Committee and most recent the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Theodore Roosevelt (Teddy) Award

Marion Luna Brem had her near-perfect home life shattered when she was diagnosed with a terminal illness and told she had only 2 to 5 years to live.

Battling life-threatening breast cancer with no health insurance, no employment and no resume, Marion Luna Brem, newly divorced, the head of her household and the mother of two young sons, decided to try her hand at sales. Selling her first automobile at 32, she was by age 36 President and CEO of her own auto dealership, Love Chrysler, Inc. Founded in Corpus Christi, TX in 1989, her dealership ranks nationally in Hispanic Business and Working Woman magazine?s Top 500.

Marion has since opened 6 additional companies including a second auto dealership, an ad agency and a real estate holding company. Her book, The 7 Greatest Truths About Successful Women, was ranked as one of the ?Top Ten Business Books? for 2001.

Appointed by former Texas Governor George W. Bush to the Texas Workers Compensation Board, she is also one of 40 woman worldwide named the Leading Women Entrepreneurs of the World for 2001. She has also been honored by the White House Office of Women?s Initiatives, and holds the Avon Women of Enterprise Award.

As one of Hispanic Business magazine?s ?100 Most Influential Hispanics in the United States,? Marion directs her influence to the fight against breast cancer as well as the improvement of education, having founded and funded a program to recognize civic-minded high school students. As part of this program, her company has awarded several new cars to ?Love Chrysler?s Top High School Students.?

Marion?s inspirational story has been profiled in The Washington Post, Reader?s Digest and USA Today, and she has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show and ABC?s Good Morning America.

As President and CEO of E! Networks, the world?s largest producer and distributor of entertainment news and lifestyle-related programming, Mindy Herman leads a team that oversees the ongoing growth and development of the company?s flagship network, E! Entertainment Television, plus its latest channel venture, Style, the fashion, beauty, home and entertaining network. Since joining the company, Mindy has been instrumental in all aspects of Style?s evolution, from content and branding to talent and on-air look. Under her leadership, Style, which launched in October 1998, is expected to reach the 40 million subscriber mark by 2004. Mindy is also responsible for the development and launch of additional cable networks for E!, directing the activities of E! online, the Web?s most successful entertainment destination, exploring new business initiatives, as well as managing the company?s international business ventures that span some 120 countries reaching over 400 million viewers globally.

Before joining E! Networks, Mindy was President and CEO of Demand LLC (fomerly Viewer?s Choice), where she led the company?s campaign to establish the first national consumer brand identity for the cable television pay-per-view experience. By building on the cable industry?s aggressive rollout of digital services and responding to greater competition for viewers, she constructed a new business model that continues to help shape the changing cable television landscape.

Among the highlights of her long cable media career, in 1993, as Senior Vice President, Business Affairs at FX Networks, Mindy played a key role in the launch of Fox?s first cable network. She was active in all areas of the new network?s business, including programming, branding and strategic positioning, as well as negotiating key MSO affiliating and retransmission agreements which fueled post-launch growth of the network. In addition she developed the programming and business strategy for Fox?s commercial-free movie service: FXM: Movies From Fox..

Mindy is the recipient of the 2002 Woman of Vision in Cable Award. A former practicing lawyer, she holds a BS in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania?s Wharton School, and holds a JD and an MBA in Finance from UCLA.

Chris Casson Madden is the force behind a home furnishing and design empire that spans three divisions ? publishing, television and merchandising. With 14 published books (the 15th, New American Living Rooms, to arrive Spring 2003); a weekly television series for HGTV, Interiors by Design (in its eighth season); television appearances on The Today Show, Later Today and Oprah, among others; a growing list of licensed products from prestigious companies such as Bassett Furniture, Mohawk Home and Austin International; and a weekly column for Scripps Howard News Service that reaches more than 380 newspapers and is syndicated through United Features, Chris Madden is a woman on a mission. That mission is to spread the message of ?home as haven? and to provide well-designed, affordable, quality products that help people create living spaces that reflect their own personal style.

Chris Madden?s early passion for design led to a scholarship to The Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. Madden then entered magazine publishing, where she learned the basics of journalistic photography. Stints at major book publishers followed, including Random House, G. P. Putnam & Sons, and Farrar, Straus & Giroux, where Madden was Director of Publicity. She has written for numerous publications, including The New York Times Magazine, Ladies? Home Journal, The World of Interiors, and Self Magazine. After a decade in publishing, Madden returned to her roots and passion ? interior design. Her first design book, Interior Visions, an insider?s view of America?s top designer showcase houses, became a best seller.

In the early ?90s, Chris was inspired to write her second major design book, Rooms With a View: Two Decades of Outstanding American Interior Design From the Kips Bay Decorator Showhouses. Kitchens and Bathrooms followed to solid acclaim, but with the publication of A Room of Her Own: Women?s Personal Spaces in 1997, Madden?s vision and message were fully realized.

More titles have followed to resoundingly positive reviews: Chris Madden?s Guide to Personalizing Your Home, Getaways, and Bedrooms.

Chris and her husband, Kevin, live in Westchester, New York, with their two sons and two dogs.

Ms. Cobell is the Executive Director of the Native American Community Development Corporation a non profits affiliate of Native American Bank. She also served as Chairperson for the Blackfeet National Bank, the first national bank located on an Indian reservation and owned by a Native American tribe. Ms. Cobell was one of its lead organizers of the bank and was instrumental in the formation of the Blackfeet Reservation Development Fund, Inc. Her work on the Individual Indian Monies Trust Correction and Recovery Project has won admiration by many. This is a project to reform the U.S. Government on the management of Individual Indian Trust Assets. Ms. Cobell is a recipient of the 1997 ?Genius Grant? from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation?s Fellowship Program.

Ms. Cobell?s professional, civic experience and expertise includes serving as a Board Member for the Tides Foundation, the Northwest Area Foundation, First Interstate Bank, the Montana Community Foundation, a Trustee of the National Museum of the American Indian, as well as a member of other boards. Ms. Cobell served for thirteen years as the Treasurer for the Blackfeet Indian Nation in Montana.

In addition to operating a working ranch with her husband, which produces cattle and crops, she is active in local agriculture and environmental issues, founding the first Land Trust in Indian Country and servers as a Trustee for the Nature Conservancy of Montana.

Elouise Cobell is a graduate of Great Falls Business College and attended Montana State University where she recently received an Honorary Doctorate Degree; her professional background is in accounting and community development. Ms. Cobell received the 2002 International Women?s Forum award for ?Women Who Make a Difference? in Mexico City. She is a member of the Blackfeet Indian Tribe of Montana.

Lesley Visser, a pioneer among women sports journalists, returned to CBS Sports in August 2000 as a contributor to THE NFL TODAY, college basketball and the U.S. Open Tennis Championships, as well as for special projects with CBS Sports and CBS News. This season marks her 30th covering the NFL.

She was a contributor to the CBS Television Network's coverage of Super Bowl XXXV in January 2001. She also serves as a reporter for HBO Sports' "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel."

During the 2001 NFL season Visser marked another first in sports broadcasting becoming the first woman to be an analyst for NFL broadcasts when she returned to covering ?Monday Night Football? as an analyst for Westwood One/CBS Radio Sports along with Howard David and Boomer Esiason for selected games.

Visser returned to CBS Sports after nearly seven years with ABC Sports, the last two as the sideline reporter for "Monday Night Football." She was the first woman assigned to the series and the first female sideline reporter for the Super Bowl. While at ABC Sports, Visser was a reporter for college football bowl games and NFL playoff games. She also contributed to the network's coverage of Triple Crown horse racing, "ABC's Wide World of Sports," Major League Baseball (including the World Series) figure skating, the Special Olympics, skiing and the Pro Bowl. Among her additional credits are the ABC series "A Passion To Play" and the "Millennium Tournament of Roses Parade," which she hosted. She also covered the NCAA basketball Final Four and the Super Bowl for ESPN.

Visser first worked at CBS in 1984 and became full time in 1987 with assignments including "The NBA on CBS," college basketball, Major League Baseball, college football, the U.S. Open Tennis Championships and the Olympic Winter Games. In addition, she was a regular on THE NFL TODAY pre-game show. In 1992, she became the first woman to cover the post-game presentation ceremony at the Super Bowl. In 1989, she covered the fall of the Berlin Wall, focusing on how sports would change in East Germany.

She began her career in sports journalism in 1974 as a member of the Boston Globe sports staff on a grant from the prestigious Carnegie Foundation. Two years later, she was assigned to cover the New England Patriots, becoming the first female NFL beat writer. While at the Boston Globe, she covered the NCAA Final Four, Super Bowl, NBA Finals, World Series, Wimbledon, the Olympics and college football.

Visser was voted the Outstanding Women's Sportswriter in America in 1983 and won the Women's Sports Foundation Award for Journalism in 1992. In 1999, she won the first AWSM Pioneer Award.

Visser earned a bachelor's degree in English at Boston College. She is married to Fox/Turner sportscaster Dick Stockton and lives in Boca Raton, Fla. Her birth date is Sept. 11

As chief executive of Starcom North America, Renetta McCann is ultimately responsible for the largest office within Starcom MediaVest Group, one of the top brand communication networks in the world. Entrusted with planning and investing more than $6 billion in client dollars each year, McCann manages a workforce of more than 600 employees in the U.S. and Canada.

McCann has earned a reputation for cultivating Starcom into one of the top strategic planning ?think tanks? in the industry and has acquired an extensive collection of awards and honors during her illustrious 25-year career. In addition to winning numerous Effies and Cannes Lions, Ebony named her one of 2002's "57 Most Intriguing Blacks? while Black Enterprise designated her ?2002 Corporate Executive of the Year." She was chosen by the Women's Advertising Club of Chicago as the 2002 "Advertising Woman of the Year? and was named a ?Media Maven? by Advertising Age in 2001. She has also received such honors as Business Week 's Media Strategies Award; the Chicago Magazine Association's Vanguard Award; Ebony 's Outstanding Women in Communications Award; and Essence magazine named her one of ?50 Women Who Are Changing The World? in 2003.

She currently serves as chair of the American Association of Advertising Agencies? Media Policy Committee, and sits on the board of the Audit Bureau of Circulations and the Advisory Board of the Media Management Center at Northwestern University. She is a member of the American Advertising Federation?s Multicultural Business Practices Leadership Council and is on the board of Chicago United, a metropolitan coalition of business leaders focused on increasing capital and educational opportunities for diverse communities.

McCann first joined the agency, which was then part of Leo Burnett, in 1978 as a client service trainee. She was named a vice president in 1988 and, in early 1989, became a media director. She was elected a senior vice president in 1995 and has served as chief executive of Starcom North America since 1999.

McCann earned a Bachelor of Science degree in speech from Northwestern University. She and her husband live in Chicago with their two children.

Val Ackerman is the President of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The League is owned by the 29 member teams of the National Basketball Association and includes 16 teams located in Charlotte, Cleveland, Detroit, Houston, Indiana, Miami, Los Angeles, Minnesota, New York, Orlando, Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento, Seattle Utah and Washington.

Ackerman joined the NBA in 1988 as a staff attorney and served as Special Assistant to Commissioner David Stern from 1990 to 1992. She was named Director of Business Affairs in 1992 and Vice President of Business Affairs in 1994.

As a member of the Board of Directors of USA Basketball, Ackerman helped create the 1995-96 USA Basketball Women's National Team program, which culminated with a gold medal performance at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

Ackerman currently serves on the USA Basketball Executive Committee and is a member of the Board of Trustees for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Ackerman graduated from the University of Virginia in 1981, where she was a four-year starter for the women's basketball team and a two-time Academic All-American. She played one season of professional basketball in France before attending UCLA School of Law, from which she received her law degree in 1985.

Following graduation, she worked as an associate at the New York law firm of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. She and her husband, Charlie Rappaport, have two daughters, Emily and Sally.

Colleen C. Barrett is currently President, Chief Operating Officer, and Corporate Secretary for Southwest Airlines Co., a high-frequency, low-fare, point-to-point airline which prides itself in its excellent Customer Service qualities.

In that capacity, she oversees management, leadership, and budget responsibilities over the following areas/groups: each of the Company?s three Executive Vice Presidents and their respective areas (operations; customer service; corporate services; human resources; training; etc.); the Senior Vice President Marketing; the Vice President-General Counsel; the Vice President-Internal Audit and Special Projects; the Vice President-Corporate Communications; and the Executive Office staff. She is a member of the Company?s Board of Directors, as well as a member of the Company?s Executive Planning Committee, and she chairs numerous special teams, task forces, and committees relating to internal and external Southwest Customers.

Prior to joining Southwest (in 1978), she worked for several years as an Executive Assistant to Herb Kelleher (Southwest?s current Chairman) at his law firm.

For Southwest Airlines, she has served as Secretary of the Corporation since March 1978; and served as Vice President Administration from 1986 to 1990 and Executive Vice President Customers from 1990 to 2001.

Colleen is divorced; has one son and one grandson; is active in numerous civic and charitable organizations in Dallas, Texas; is active in various state political campaigns; and has served on numerous boards and commissions. She graduated with highest honors from Becker Junior College in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1964.

Born in Spanish Harlem and raised in the nations poorest congressional district, Deborah's strategies for success have gotten her from tough inner-city beginnings to award-winning entrepreneur and advisor to Fortune 500 CEO's.

She is the founder of Dream Big! Enterprises and Umbrellas Plus, a multi-million dollar wholesaler and importer of fashion and sun accessories. Umbrellas Plus has delivered successful projects to accounts that include Costco, Kraft General Foods, M&M Mars and Toys-R-Us. Today her merchandise can be found in 2,100 Wal-Mart stores.

An international speaker, Deborah advises the top executives of several Fortune 500 retail and consumer products companies on issues ranging from marketing to diversity. She serves on several non-profit advisory boards including the Friito-Lay Hispanic Latino Advisory Board and the Office Depot Women?s Council and was twice-appointed a Commissioner with the New Jersey ?Commission on the Status of Women?.

Deborah?s strategies for success have been featured in Business Week, Family Circle, Forbes, "O" The Oprah Magazine, USA Today and many others. She is a frequent television and radio guest and has appeared on ABC, CNN, FOX and NBC affiliates nationwide. In addition, her achievements have been used as case studies in several textbooks.

In 2001, Deborah became the first Latina author of a self-help book to get published by a major publisher. In 2002, Simon & Schuster added a Spanish language version of her critically acclaimed book, Dream BIG!, entitled Sonar en Grande!

Deborah has been recognized with numerous awards including the Small Business Administration and Avon ?Women of Enterprise Awards,? the ?Free Enterprise Legend Award?, Hispanic Magazine?s ?Entrepreneur of the Year Award?, the Dialogue on Diversity ?Entrepreneurial Excellence Award, the "Madam C.J.Walker Award" and the National Foundation for Women Legislators ?Entrepreneur of the Year Award?. Her most recent honor was being named ?Hispanic Business Woman of the Year? by the National Hispanic Business Group.

Deborah is a graduate of Barnard College and lives in New Jersey with her three teenage sons.

An advocate of women?s issues for more than 30 years, Marie Wilson is founder and president of The White House Project, co-creator of Take Our Daughters to Work Day and author of Closing the Leadership Gap: Why Women Can and Must Help Run the World (Viking 2004). Wilson founded The White House Project in 1998 in recognition of the need to build a truly representative democracy ? one where women lead alongside men in all spheres.

Wilson started The White House Project while she was still president of the Ms. Foundation for Women, a position she has held since 1984. She recently announced that she would step down as president of the Ms. Foundation on June 30th, 2004 to devote her full energy to The White House Project. She was president of both organizations for six years. In honor of her work, the Ms. Foundation has created The Marie C. Wilson Leadership Fund, which will be under her sole advisement.

Since its inception, The White House Project has been a leading advocate and voice on women?s leadership. Under her stewardship, innovative research and initiatives have been hallmarks of the organization. Highlights of the last six years include groundbreaking research on young women?s political participation, an analysis of women?s appearances as guests on the influential Sunday political talk shows, the convening of women CEOs and executives for two national leadership summits, a conference of international women leaders, a partnership with The Girl Scouts to launch the Ms. President patch and initiatives centering on influencing popular culture.

In March, in conjunction with Wilson?s national book tour for Closing the Leadership Gap, she announced the launch of Vote, Run, Lead, which provides a roadmap for addressing the issues she raises in her book. Through the initiative, The White House Project will recruit and train 1,000 women to run for political office, along with more than 25,000 women to get-out-the-vote for the 2004 election.

Over the last thirty years, Wilson?s accomplishments span becoming the first woman elected to the Des Moines City Council as a member-at-large in 1983, co-authoring the critically acclaimed Mother Daughter Revolution (1993, Bantam Books), and serving as an official government delegate to the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing, China in 1995. And in the year 2000, in conjunction with Mattel, Wilson brought the world President Barbie.

As president of the Ms. Foundation for Women, Wilson increased the Foundation?s budget from $400,000 to $8.6 million, established an endowment fund, which now stands at $22 million and created innovative and sustainable programming.

Wilson has been profiled in The New York Times ?Public Lives? column, has appeared on The Today Show, CNN, National Public Radio and other national programs and is quoted widely for her expertise. Born and raised in Georgia, Wilson has five children and four grandchildren.

Valerie Red-Horse, founder and majority common shareholder of Red-Horse Securities, LLC, a female Native American owned Investment Bank, currently serves as its Chairman & CEO. Ms. Red-Horse began her securities industry career in 1978 in the Investment Banking and High Yield Bond departments of Drexel Burnham Lambert.

In 1998 she formed Native Nations Securities, one of the first Native American owned investment banks on Wall Street. That entity today has evolved into Red-Horse Holding Corp., which includes subsidiaries, Red-Horse Asset Management (?RHAM?) and Red-Horse Securities LLC (?RHS?), member NASD, SIPC, and MSRB. Offering a full spectrum of financial services, the family of companies is specifically aimed at serving the financial needs of the Native American community.

She is cum laude alum from UCLA?s Theater Arts Department and also studied at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute. Her extensive television and film work as an actress includes leading roles on SANTA BARBARA, ANYTHING BUT LOVE, THE DENNIS MILLER SHOW, UNSOLVED MYSTERIES, ABC?s THE SECRET OF LIZARD WOMAN, BABYLON FIVE and she co-starred in the pilot of FOX?s primetime series, FIREFLY. She most recently appeared in the feature film, SIN opposite Ving Rhames.

Frustrated with stereotypical roles available to Native Americans, Valerie turned to writing, developing and producing in 1993. Her original screenplay, LOZEN, was selected for the prestigious Sundance Institute?s Writers Lab in 1995. In 1995, Ms. Red-Horse created the story for the Emmy-winning CBS Special, MY INDIAN SUMMER and in 1996, produced an American Film Institute project, LOOKS INTO THE NIGHT.

Later that year, Ms. Red-Horse formed her own production company, RED-HORSE NATIVE PRODUCTIONS, INC. The premiere project, the independent film, NATURALLY NATIVE, is a contemporary Indian women?s story which Red-Horse wrote, produced, co-directed, starred in, and distributed. NATURALLY NATIVE was funded entirely by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation of Connecticut, premiered at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival, received multiple festival awards and a U.S. theatrical release.

Red-Horse Native Productions recently completed, in association with Gale Anne Hurd?s Valhalla Motion Pictures (Armageddon, Aliens, Terminator, Dante?s Peak), TRUE WHISPERS, a documentary about the Navajo Code Talkers, written, directed and produced by Ms. Red-Horse, which aired in a PBS national TV broadcast in 2002/2003. She also produced, wrote and directed POP HUNTER?S DEW DROP INN for NAPT/PBS and was selected to participate in the FOX Network Diversity Writers Program. Previous projects include WINDOWS ON MARS (NEA), BEAUTY (NBC/Overbrook) and LIVING VOICES (NMAI).

Ms. Red-Horse was awarded the ?Eagle Spirit Award? and ?Producer of the Year? by the American Indian Film festival, was a Girls, Inc. honoree, a Changing Images in America Honoree and a Cherokee Medal of Honor Awardee. She is a current member of the Directors Guild of America, the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild. Ms. Red-Horse served as the live model promoting the Pocahontas doll for Mattel, and heads a Presbyterian ministry team as founder and choreographer, focusing on dance rehabilitation of inner city ethnic women in downtown Los Angeles.

Ms. Red-Horse is married to former NFL football player, Curt Mohl since 1982, and together they have three children.

The Executive Vice President of the Trump Organization, Carolyn Kepcher?s popularity has recently soared with her roll on the NBC hit reality series, The Apprentice. Known as both ?Trump's sidekick? and ?henchwoman,? the 35 year-old Kepcher is the Chief Operating Officer and General Manager for the Trump National Golf Club in Briarcliff Manor, New York and The Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey. She has been with the Trump Organization since 1994 and currently oversees the day to day operations of over 250 employees at both Trump golf properties.

In Briarcliff Manor, NY and Bedminster, NJ, Kepcher played a crucial, hands-on role in the acquisition, development, marketing and startup operations. Today, there are over 450 members consisting of high profile business executives, professional athletes, political leaders, and celebrities. In 2003, Trump National Golf Club in Briarcliff Manor was rewarded with the prestigious Five Star Diamond Award from the American Academy of Hospitality Sciences. With Kepcher?s vision and leadership these courses have become venues for high-profile celebrity events and tournaments.

Kepcher?s role in the dynamic golf industry demands excellent organizational and managerial skills, along with a keen insight into the game?s trends. Within the Trump Organization, she has gained a reputation for creating aggressive sales and operating budgets and exceeding them. She is a member of many prestigious golf organizations including the Club Manager?s Association of America, the Metropolitan Club Manager?s Association, Professional Club Marketing Association and National Golf Course Owners Association.Before her employment with the Trump Organization, Kepcher was the Director of Sales and Marketing for the Beck Summit Hotel Management Group, where her responsibilities included formulating budgets, implementing operational systems, negotiating management contracts, and creating marketing programs.

Described by Donald Trump as a ?professional and a perfectionist,? Kepcher is talented, well-respected and competent, and ?never does anything less than a great job.? A tireless worker and a firm believer that perseverance leads to accomplishment, Kepcher speaks with authority on a variety of issues such as a woman?s role in corporate America, leadership, change, balance, overcoming stereotypes and obstacles, and management.

Arianna Huffington is a nationally syndicated columnist and author of ten books. From her childhood years in Greece, Arianna has always been surrounded by politics. As a young man, her father joined the resistance to the Nazi occupation of Greece by editing an underground newspaper. He was caught and spent the rest of the war in a German concentration camp. Her mother was also a part of the resistance. At age 16 Arianna moved to England and attended Cambridge University, graduating with a M.A. in Economics. At 21 she became President of the famed debating society, the Cambridge Union.

Arianna has since gone on to write ten books. Her first book, The Female Woman (Random House, 1974), on the changing roles of women, was translated into 11 languages. In 1978 she published After Reason, a book on political leadership and the intersection of politics and culture. Her biography of Maria Callas: The Woman Behind the Legend (1981), was an international bestseller. Her fourth book, The Gods of Greece, celebrated the power of myths as guides to forgotten dimensions of life and ourselves, and has been republished by Atlantic Monthly Press, with paintings by Fran?oise Gilot.

Her biography of Pablo Picasso, Picasso: Creator and Destroyer, was a major international bestseller and was translated into 16 languages. The book was reissued by Avon Books to coincide with the release of the feature film based on the book, starring Anthony Hopkins as Picasso. In 1994 she published The Fourth Instinct, on the longing for meaning in a secular world. Her seventh book, Greetings From the Lincoln Bedroom, a book of political satire, was published in 1998 by Crown. How to Overthrow The Government on the corruption of our political system and the need for reform, was published in 2000 by Regan Books (Harper Collins). Pigs at the Trough: How Corporate Greed and Political Corruption are Undermining America, was published in January 2003 and became a New York Times bestseller.

Arianna has never been content to merely write about the issues of the day. Instead, she has always seen herself as a crusading journalist/activist in the tradition of her hero, Upton Sinclair. She has always walked her talk. In 2000, she helped organize the Shadow Conventions to put the media spotlight on key issues neither major party was willing to address: the way money is corrupting our politics; the ever-widening gulf between the Two Americas; and the nation?s failed $40 billion-a-year ?war on drugs.? Two years later, she co-founded the Detroit Project, a grassroots campaign to prod Detroit to stop building gas-guzzling SUVs and our political leaders to break our addiction to foreign oil. Shortly thereafter, she created the Bermuda Project to expose corporate America?s growing use of shady offshore tax havens as a way to avoid paying its fair share -- a theme that was embraced by all the Democratic presidential candidates. She has also campaigned to reform our country?s failing public education system and champions the empowerment of parents and the public charter school movement.

It was in this spirit that she embarked on her 2003 run for governor of California as an Independent. Her experience on the campaign trail brought her face to face with the inadequacy of criticism and outrage alone. She realized that in order for the Democrats to win, they will have to reach out to voters with a vision that recaptures the idealism and generosity of spirit that have marked our greatest leaders, from Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt to FDR and Bobby Kennedy. In her latest book, Fanatics and Fools: The Game Plan for Winning Back America (April 2004), Arianna offers up her own vision of ?New Responsibility.? Starting with a chilling diagnosis of the fanaticism driving the Bush White House, she goes on to examine the foolishness and errors of the Democrats before laying out her vision of tomorrow?s America, including her ?Contract for a Better America? and a comprehensive 10-point agenda that resets our nation?s priorities.

Arianna believes that our next leader will also have to call on us to get involved in our communities, especially in the lives of the least fortunate among us. Arianna has attempted to personally meet this challenge. Her ongoing commitment to community service and volunteerism has led to her work with numerous charitable organizations, including The Points of Light Foundation and A Place Called Home, which works with at-risk children in South Los Angeles. She also serves on the Board of Trustees for the Archer School for Girls, the advisory board of the Council on American Politics at George Washington University, and the board of the Reform Institute that works on campaign and election reform issues.

Arianna has always believed that the best way to change hearts and minds is by first engaging audiences with humor. This love of punchlines with a purpose has been showcased in Arianna?s many appearances on Politically Incorrect and Real Time with Bill Maher, as well as her memorable Strange Bedfellows teaming with Al Franken during the 1996 presidential campaign. She has appeared on numerous other shows, including The O?Reilly Factor, Hannity & Colmes, Larry King, Oprah, Nightline, Inside Politics, Charlie Rose, Crossfire, Rivera Live, Hardball, Firing Line, Good Morning America, and The Today Show.

Charlotte Beers was sworn in as the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs on October 2, 2001. Her charter was to engage the world on behalf of the United States' policies and values. Guiding a department newly integrated into State required instilling a new urgency and responsiveness in the many complex entities of public diplomacy. It was also necessary to bring in modern marketing and communication techniques to jump start a dialogue with a large part of the world in which there was only silence or hostility toward the United States.

When Mrs. Beers stepped down in the spring of 2003 the Department had fielded and evaluated stories of shared values in television, radio and magazines, launched an Arabic youth magazine, funded the creation of "American Rooms", and new television programming for the Middle East. On her departure, Secretary Powell awarded Charlotte Beers the Distinguished Service Medal, the highest honor the State Department gives.

Prior to this appointment, Charlotte Beers was the only executive in the advertising industry to have served as Chairman of two of the top-ten worldwide advertising agencies: J. Walter Thompson and Ogilvy & Mather. In 1999, Mrs. Beers was Chairman of J. Walter Thompson Worldwide. She was Chairman and CEO of Ogilvy & Mather from 1992-1997.

Starting in Houston, Texas, she was the first female Product Manager for Uncle Ben's Rice. She then became the first female Senior Vice President for J. Walter Thompson when she moved to the advertising business in Chicago. In 1988 she was the first woman in the 99 years of the American Association of Advertising Agencies to be named Chairman.

In 1992, Glamour magazine recognized her as one of their "Women of the Year" for the distinction of "cracking the glass ceiling in advertising." In 1997 Fortune Magazine put her on their cover in their first issue to feature the most powerful women in America.

Actress, lecturer, activist, and humanitarian, Cicely Tyson is one of the most respected and honored talents in American theater and film. From her starring role on Broadway in "The Blacks" to the Emmy-nominated 1999 HBO film "A Lesson Before Dying," her esteemed career has continually brought her critical praise.

Ms. Tyson is perhaps best known for her performance in the coveted title role of "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman," in which she played a slave woman ranging in age from 19 to 110, and for which she received an unprecedented two Emmys as Best Actress and as Actress of the Year. In addition, she won an Emmy-award for Best Supporting Actress in the T.V. film "The Oldest Confederate Widow Tells All," and, was nominated for an Emmy award for NBC's series "Sweet Justice."

Her other prominent performances include the following: "Harriet Tubman" in the televised special "A Woman Called Moses," for which she received the Nymph Award as a Best Actress Internationally in 1979; "Binta," the mother of Kunta Kinte, in "Roots;" "Marva Collins," the innovative Chicago schoolteacher, in "Welcome to Success: The Marva Collins Story;" and "Coretta Scott King," the wife of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in "King" all of which earned her Emmy nominations.

Her critically acclaimed performance as "Rebecca" in the feature film "Sounder" garnered her Best Actress awards from the Atlanta Film Festival, the National Society of Film Critics, The New York Film Critics, an Oscar Nomination, and a nomination from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Among her other feature film credits are: "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter," "A Man Called Adam," "The River Niger," "Hoodlum," and "Fried Green Tomatoes."

In addition, Ms. Tyson has starred in the following made-for-television movies: "Acceptable Risks," ABC; "Samaritan: The Mitch Snyder Story," CBS; "Intimate Encounters," CBS; "Playing With Fire," CBS; and "The Women of Brewster Place," ABC; "Blessed Assurance," CBS; "The Road to Galveston," and "Mama Flora's Family." In July 1990, the 25th anniversary of the Watts Rebellion was commemorated by the powerful docudrama, "Heat Wave," TNT, which also starred Ms. Tyson and for which she won an ACE Award. She has starred in two CBS mini-series, "Aftershock" in 1999, and "Jewel" in 2000. She also appeared in "The Rosa Parks Story," which premiered in February, 2002 on CBS.

During the filming of "Cry Freedom," the 1987 movie based on the life of South African Steve Biko, Ms. Tyson flew to Zimbabwe at the request of John Johnson, Publisher of Ebony Magazine, to cover the making of the film as a photojournalist. A high point in her career came when she was invited to perform at the White House before two presidents: President Shegari of Nigeria and President Carter. In 1985, as Chairperson of UNICEF, she traveled throughout Africa on a fact-finding mission. In 1988, President Mugabe of Zimbabwe invited her to participate in the conference for "Children on the Front Line." At the behest of Madame La President Houphouet-Boigny, she also flew to the Ivory Coast to assist in the fundraising for the formation of the children's organization, "Ndaya."

On the occasion of the Mandelas' first visit to America, Cicely Tyson served as mistress of ceremonies at a tribute to Winnie Mandela at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and was invited by Mayor Bradley to speak at the tribute to Nelson Mandela in Los Angeles. At the 1988 economic summit of world leaders in Texas, Ms. Tyson was chosen by President Bush to serve as Mistress of Ceremonies.

Because of her deep concern to communicate with young people on a personal basis, each year Ms. Tyson sets aside one month from her working schedule to talk to students on college campuses across the country. She has spoken to over 500 colleges and universities, covering a wide range of topics, such as human rights, education, race relations, and teen pregnancy.

On November 3, 1996, The New Jersey Board of Education unanimously voted to change the name of a public middle and high school to the Cicely Tyson School of Performing and Fine Arts. The school, located in East Orange, New Jersey, has a student body of some 700 primarily underprivileged students. Ms. Tyson feels that among her many accolades, this is one of the most meaningful. She teaches a master class in acting, and continues to be involved in many aspects of the student?s education.

Along with Arthur Mitchell, its artistic director, Ms. Tyson founded the internationally celebrated ballet company, The Dance Theater of Harlem, now in its 30th year. She currently serves on the board of the DTH, as well as the American Film Institute, Urban Gateways, the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, with Harry Belafonte among others. The success of the first National Black Arts festival in Atlanta which she co-chaired in 1988 led to an invitation to co-chair the second Festival in July 1990. She is a member of the Advisory Board of the Archbishop Tutu Peace Foundation and is a member of the Women's Campaign Fund.

In recognition of her talent and dedication to human rights, Cicely Tyson has been the recipient of numerous honorary doctorates. She holds a record twelve Image Awards as Best Actress from the NAACP, the National Council of Negro Women Award, and has received awards from such Civil Rights organizations as PUSH, CORE, the SCLC, and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center, among others. Harvard University celebrated her with a Cicely Tyson Day, and Sony named her 1990 Master Film Innovator. Ms. Tyson has written numerous articles for The New York Times and Ebony Magazine, and the Smithsonian hosted a tribute featuring a retrospective of her film career. In 2001, President Clinton asked her to serve as Mistress of Cermonies for the "Welcome to Harlem" event. She also served as Emcee for the Democratic National Committee's "A Night at the Apollo" fund-raiser for voter registration.

A founding member of the Coalition for a Healthy and Active America, in 2002, Ms. Tyson was appointed by President George W. Bush as a Commissioner of the National African American Museum of History and Culture. In 2003, Ms. Tyson was selected by the Metropolitan Museum of Art to provide the audioguide narration for their exhibition "African-American Artists 1929-1945: Prints, Drawings & Paintings." In 2004, Ms. Tyson was honored by the Metropolitan Musuem of Art with an evening entitled "Cicely Tyson: The Renaissance Spirit."

?ESSENCE is not only an exceptional magazine; it is also a very powerful vehicle that isn?t afraid to address the issues that face the African-American community. We?re at a peculiar point in our history?we marvel at and embrace our many new and wonderful success stories, and yet we realize that our youths are still hurting, our families are still hurting. So though we will certainly continue to celebrate our achievements, at the same time we will work to come up with solutions and ideas to help us overcome our obstacles. It?s a wonderful opportunity.? Such is the singular perspective of Diane Marie Weathers who, as editor-in-chief of ESSENCE magazine, the country?s leading lifestyle magazine for African-American women, brings a wealth of diverse publishing experience and a dynamic worldview to the ever-expanding ESSENCE brand.

A veteran reporter, writer and editor for such magazines as Newsweek and Black Enterprise, Weathers returns to ESSENCE after serving as senior editor, news features, at Redbook magazine and as an associate editor at Consumer Reports. She was a member of the senior editorial team at ESSENCE from 1993 to 1997, during which time she developed story ideas, worked with freelancers and frequently wrote feature stories on a broad variety of social issues. She also headed a team of editors and researchers who worked on the acclaimed twenty-fifth-anniversary issue of ESSENCE.

Weathers began her publishing career at Black Enterprise in 1975 covering subjects of interest to African-American professionals and small-business owners. Three years later, she moved to Newsweek, first as a writer covering fashion, lifestyle and religion, and then as one of the newsweekly?s Washington-bureau correspondents. After five years in D.C., Weathers joined the United Nations (U.N.) World Food Program as its information officer. Based at the organization?s headquarters in Rome, Weathers was a press liaison to international media covering food relief operations in various countries. From 1987 to 1992 she gained a unique and broad viewpoint of world happenings as she visited sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

As a freelance writer Weathers has had her articles appear in numerous publications including The New York Times, The Financial Times, Family Circle and several U.N. publications. Weathers and her husband, Ronald Smothers, a veteran reporter for The New York Times, reside in Newark, New Jersey, with their two daughters, Valdorah and Sabreal.

After tremendous success as a stage and screen actress, Jane Fonda now focuses her efforts on community service and social change ? with much of her work devoted to the program she founded in 1995, the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention (G-CAPP). Fonda chairs this statewide effort to reduce the high rates of adolescent pregnancy in Georgia through community, youth and family development, sustainable economic development, and legislative advocacy.

Fonda has long been known for activism and advocacy on environmental issues, human rights, and the empowerment of women and girls. Among the scores of community projects she has spearheaded is the Laurel Springs Children?s Camp. This summer program ran for 15 years at her ranch in Santa Barbara, California, using performing arts to build self-esteem and cooperation among children of all races and socio-economic backgrounds. When Fonda moved to Atlanta in the early 1990?s, this experience provided a natural springboard for creation of the Performing Arts Program for Youth (PAPY) ? which ran for six years in cooperation with Atlanta?s Alliance Theatre and with the Atlanta City Schools. In 2000, Fonda joined with Georgia State?s Center for Excellence in Urban Education to form the Atlanta Partnership for Arts in Learning (APAL).

In 2000, Ms. Fonda traveled to Nigeria and produced a film, in collaboration with the International Women's Health Coalition, entitled "Generation 2000: Changing Girls' Realities."

At the Emory School of Medicine Fonda established the Jane Fonda Center for Adolescent Reproductive Health which will engage in research, education and training activities that have the potential for creating needed social change as well as enhancing service delivery to children, youth and families, including adolescent reproductive health. In addition, Ms. Fonda's gift will endow a faculty chair in the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics in Emory University School of Medicine named the Marion Howard Chair in Adolescent Reproductive Health.

Fonda also serves as a trustee and Vice President of the Turner Foundation, the private grant-making organization founded by R. E. Turner, Vice Chairman of Time-Warner, Inc. The Foundation provides funding for projects, dealing with water quality, prevention and control of toxins, climate, habitat, energy and population. In 1994, Ms. Fonda was named Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Population Fund.

Fonda was born in New York City in 1937, the daughter of Henry Fonda and Frances Seymour Fonda. She attended the Emma Willard School in Troy, New York, and Vassar College. In her late teens, Fonda studied with renowned acting coach Lee Strasberg and became a member of the Actors Studio in New York.

Her subsequent work on stage and screen earned numerous nominations and awards, including Oscars (Best Actress in 1971 for Klute and in 1978 for Coming Home) and an Emmy for her performance in The Dollmaker. Along with starring roles in dozens of highly acclaimed productions, Fonda also took on responsibilities as a film and television producer. Her credits include Coming Home, The China Syndrome, Nine to Five, Rollover, On Golden Pond, The Morning After and The Dollmaker.

Fonda revolutionized the fitness industry with the release of Jane Fonda?s Workout in 1982. She followed with the production of 23 home exercise videos, 13 audio recordings, and five books ? selling 16 million copies all together. The original Jane Fonda?s Workout video remains the top grossing home video of all time.

Fonda is currently writing her memoirs, which will be published by Random House. Fonda?s interests include reading, writing, horseback riding, hiking, fly fishing and yoga.

Bernadine Healy, a physician with a career in medical education, research, patient care, and health policy, has led the Research Institute at The Cleveland Clinic, the National Institutes of Health, the College of Medicine and Public Health of Ohio State University, and the American Red Cross. She is Medical and Health Columnist for US News and World Report, and serves on the President?s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Dr. Healy also chairs the Ohio Commission to Reform Medicaid.

Dr. Healy became the president of the American Red Cross on September 1, 1999. There she worked to upgrade blood services with a major focus on the safety and availability of the American blood suppy, expanded bilateral and multi-lateral international work in Africa, India and Turkey and created organization wide action and Congressional support for the inclusion of the Magen David Adom (Israeli Red Cross) into the International Red Cross movement. For more than a year she oversaw the development of a weapons of mass destruction (WMD) response program, and then, unexpectedly, led the response of the American Red Cross to the 9/11 events, mobilizing volunteers, blood and financial support for the range of services triggered by the President?s activation of the Federal Response Plan. These efforts included recovery and response work in New York, Pennsylvania and the Pentagon, creation of a 200 million dollar family grant program for victim?s families, grieving and healing programs in chapters throughout the country, an international response for the families of foreign nationals caught in the disaster, expansion of the armed forces emergency preparedness activities for deployed military, reservists and their families and the initiation of a strategic blood reserve from ?extra? blood collections. To assure transparency and accountability, Dr. Healy established a separately designated Liberty Fund to be used exclusively for response and readiness for 9/11 and its aftermath including future threats and attacks, obligations mandated by federal charter and the Federal Response Plan.

Prior to the American Red Cross, Dr. Healy served as the Dean of the College of Medicine and Public Health and Professor of Medicine at the Ohio State University, starting in 1995. Under Dr. Healy?s leadership, the College expanded its talent and programs in cancer research and tumor genetics, developed its Heart and Lung Institute, received national designation as a Center of Excellence in Women?s Health, and obtained accreditation for its new Public Health School, the first and only School of Public Health in Ohio. Dr. Healy chaired The Ohio State University Research Commission, a task force on university-wide research.

Dr. Healy was a past director of the NIH, appointed by President George H. W. Bush to that post in 1990 and the Senate confirmed in early 1991. Under her leadership, the NIH embarked on its first strategic planning process, involving a broad cross-section of NIH constituencies, and guided many of the innovations of her tenure. Dr. Healy established a major intramural laboratory for human genomics at NIH and recruited a world renowned scientific team headed by Dr. Francis Collins to lead the Human Genome program; she oversaw the elevation of nursing to an Institute for Nursing Research, as well as the reentry of the three behavioral institutes including the National Institutes of Mental Health into the NIH enterprise, a separation that had been created years before largely because of the stigma associated with mental illness.

At NIH Dr. Healy conceived of and launched the NIH Women?s Health Initiative, a $625 million effort to study the causes, prevention, and cures of diseases that affect women at midlife and beyond. The WHI was the largest clinical research study ever established and integrated the work of ten disease oriented institutes and forty clinical research sites in its execution. One part of that trial stunned the medical community last summer when, counter to what was seen as medical dogma, combined hormone replacement therapy was linked to more not less heart attacks and strokes. The study will continue to provide studied information on the full range of women's health and disease well into this century. Prior to her appointment at NIH, Dr. Healy was chairman of the Research Institute of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, where she directed the research programs of nine departments, including cardiovascular disease, neurobiology, immunology, cancer, artificial organs, and molecular biology. With an active program of recruitment, fund raising, and strategic planning, the Research Institute more than doubled in size and expanded into newly built research facilities.

In early 1984, Dr. Healy became deputy director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy at the White House. Her appointment, made by President Reagan and confirmed by the Senate, involved her in life science and regulatory issues at the Federal level. She served as chairman of the White House Cabinet Working Group on Biotechnology, was executive secretary of the White House Science Council?s Panel on the Health of Universities, and served as a member of several advisory groups, including the Councils of the National Hearth, Lung, and Blood Institute, as well as the White House Working Group on Health Policy and Economics.

From June 1976 until February 1984, Dr. Healy served on the faculty of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Hospital, where she became Professor of medicine and cardiology, director of the Coronary Care Unit, and was dedicated to patient care, research, and teaching. Dr. Healy also served as assistant dean for post-doctoral programs and faculty development in the medical school.

Among her other professional affiliations, Dr. Healy has served on the American Board of Internal Medicine, the Board of Governors of the American College of Cardiology, and as president of the American Federation of Clinical Research from 1983-1984. She served as president of the American Heart Association (AHA), a volunteer role, in 1988-1989, having been a member of its Board of Directors since 1983. As AHA president, she initiated the Women and Minorities Leadership Task Force and a Women and Heart Disease program that took hold in affiliates nationwide and is still in force today. Dr. Healy was elected as a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 1987 and is a Master of the American College of Physicians. She has been a member of the Board of Overseers of Harvard University, the Board of Trustees of Vassar College, several public and private advisory groups and corporate boards, and has received numerous honorary degrees and awards.

The author or co-author of over 220 peer review manuscripts in cardiovascular research and health and science policy. Dr. Healy has served on several editorial boards. She is the former Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Women?s Health. Her book, entitled, ?A New Prescription for Women?s Health,:? was published in 1996 by Viking/Penguin. For six years Dr. Healy was medical consultant and commentator for CBS News.

Dr.Healy is married to Dr. Floyd Loop and has two daughters, Bartlett and Marie.

Pamela Thomas-Graham is President and Chief Executive Officer of CNBC, the global leader in business news. She is responsible for CNBC's operations worldwide, including programming, business development and the brand synergy across CNBC's television and Internet platforms. CNBC provides business news programming and financial market coverage to more than 201 million homes worldwide, including more than 86 million households in the U.S. and Canada.

Prior to assuming this role, Thomas-Graham served as President and Chief Operating Officer of CNBC. Previously, Thomas-Graham had served as President and Chief Executive Officer of CNBC.com, where she was responsible for the online activities of CNBC.

Before joining NBC in September 1999, Thomas-Graham was a Partner at McKinsey & Company, and one of the leaders of its Media and Entertainment practice. She joined McKinsey, the global management consulting firm, in 1989 and became its first black woman partner in 1995.

Thomas-Graham has received numerous honors and awards including the 2003 NAMIC Vision Award; National Urban League's 2001 Leadership Award, the 2001 Matrix Award from New York Women in Communications for her contributions in the field of new media, and the "Woman of the Year" award from the Financial Women's Association.

In 2004, Thomas-Graham was among the ?100 Most Powerful Black Americans? featured in Ebony magazine. In 2003, Ms. Magazine selected Thomas-Graham as one of their "Women of the Year" deeming her "the most influential African American woman in cable television." In 2002, she was selected as one of Fortune's "50 Most Powerful Black Executives in America" and was named one of Television Week's "12 to Watch in 2003." Crain's New York Business recently named her as one of the "100 Most Powerful Minority Business Leaders" and has included her in its "Forty Under Forty" list of rising young business leaders. In 2001, Glamour selected her as one of their "Women of the Year" and Black Enterprise named her "Corporate Executive of the Year." She has been profiled by Time and Fast Company, and is a frequent commentator on business and marketing issues in the U.S. and abroad.

In addition to her corporate work, Thomas-Graham is the best-selling author of the critically-acclaimed "Ivy League Mystery Series," which includes two novels published by Simon & Schuster: A Darker Shade of Crimson and Blue Blood. Her next book, Orange Crushed, will be published in June 2004. Thomas-Graham is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard College, Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School, where she served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review. Thomas-Graham serves on the boards of the New York City Opera, the American Red Cross of Greater New York and the Visiting Committee for Harvard College.

She lives in Westchester County with her husband, attorney and author Lawrence Otis Graham, and their three children.