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 | Leading women's activist and best selling author Gloria Feldt is a powerful keynote speaker and commentator on leadership, politics, women, reproductive and public health, and media. Gloria can be found on the web at www.GloriaFeldt.com. Her much-quoted Heartfeldt Politics Blog offers a unique take on current events from where the political and personal meet.
Gloria's newest book, co-written with actress Kathleen Turner, is the New York Times best seller, Send Yourself Roses: Thoughts on My Life, Love, and Leading Roles. Her two previous books are The War on Choice: The Right-Wing Attack on Women's Rights and How to Fight Back and Behind Every Choice Is a Story. Her commentary has appeared in The New York Times, USA Today, Democracy: a Journal of Ideas, ELLE, Lilith, and MS magazines among many others, and on-line in Alternet, Salon, The Huffington Post, Daily Kos, WIMNsVoices, Women’s e-News, ilfpost, Majority Post, Women’s Voices for Change, Blogher, WIMNsVoices, and RH Reality Check. Gloria is a sought-after speaker for groups seeking inspiration, motivation, information, and practical leadership skills, whether women's organizations, universities, corporate, or professional groups.
People Magazine called this former teen mom who became the CEO and movement leader of the world's largest reproductive and sexual health care provider and advocacy organization "the voice of experience." She initiated the Prevention First Act and reintroduction of a new, improved Freedom of Choice Act. Among her honors, Vanity Fair magazine named Gloria one of America's "top 200 women legends, leaders, and trailblazers". Glamour magazine honored her as Woman of the Year. She was one of Women's e-News' 2007 "21 Leaders for the 21st Century". Texas Monthly, naming her to its "Texas Twenty"--she hails originally from Temple TX--described her as "part den mother, part businesswoman, part Mae West".
Gloria is a fellow of the International Leadership Forum. She serves on the Women's Media Center board of directors, on the board of the Jewish Women’s Archive, and advisory boards of Our Bodies, Ourselves and of Hygeia PCP. She is a professor of practice at Arizona State University, where she teaches "Women, Power, and Leadership".
Gloria has a unique understanding of the confluence of the personal and the political in American culture. A confluence of the personal and the political propelled her own story too. As a young wife and mother from small-town Texas, she raised three children while attending college. She and her husband, Alex Barbanell, have a combined family of six children, nine grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. They live in New York and Arizona.  Back to Top
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Roxanne Jones
Founding Editor, THE Magazine & Author, Say It Loud, an Illustrated history of the Black Athlete |
 | Roxanne Jones joined ESPN in 1997. She is one of the founding editors of The Magazine that now boasts more than 14.7 million readers and three ASME awards for General Excellence.
Recruited away from NY Daily News, where she had been Assistant Sports Editor, Ms. Jones began her career at ESPN The Magazine as senior editor overseeing the top revenue generating department – the NFL and boxing, making her one of the nation’s highest-ranking women in sports.
Three years later, she was promoted and began to develop The Magazine's ever-expanding sports and lifestyle coverage. In that role, Ms. Jones led a national team of writers and editors who specialized in writing about the culture of sports.
After successfully helping to establish ESPN Magazine as the leading sports and lifestyle read for a new generation of sports fans, Ms Jones was tapped by to ESPN to develop new television programs. In 2001, she was nominated for an Emmy for one of her shows, called “The Life,” which was based on a print column in The Magazine.Ms. Jones is currently responsible for developing new editorial initiatives that extend the magazine’s brand and create new revenue streams.
In 2008, Ms. Jones completed her first book, titled Say It Loud, an Illustrated history of the Black Athlete, which tells the story of hundreds of women and men who are the unsung heroes in sports. The book will be published by Random House and ESPN and goes on sale October 2009.
Ms. Jones is widely considered an expert in sports, entertainment and women’s issues and she is a frequent speaker across the country. She appears regularly on MSNBC, MTV, BET and other networks. An agent of change in her community, Ms. Jones has served on the boards of several organizations including: The National Association of Black Journalists, where she was the first woman to chair the Sports Task Force. She is a member of Women in Sports and Entertainment, the NAACP and the National Council of Negro Women.
Ms. Jones currently sits on the board of trustees for Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College in Terre Haute, IN – the nation’s oldest Catholic college for women.
A firm believer in the power of mentoring, Ms. Jones has received several industry awards including the Legend Award from the Black Women in Sports Foundation, and the Harlem Y National Achiever Award.
Before joining the sports world, Ms. Jones was a writer and editor on the city desk at The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Danbury News-Times. She began her career as a TV news reporter. Ms. Jones is an alumna of Pennsylvania State University and recently completed her executive MBA at UCLA’s Anderson School.
Firmly believing life is more than going to the Super Bowl, Ms. Jones spends her best days with her son, family and friends in Brooklyn not far from Ebbets Field. Back to Top |
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 | In August 1996, Laura Liswood co-founded the Council of Women World Leaders with President Vigdís Finnbogadóttir of Iceland. Ms. Liswood is the Secretary General of the Council, which is composed of women presidents, prime ministers, and heads of government. The work of the Council expands the understanding of leadership, establishes a network of resources for high-level women leaders, and provides a forum for the group to contribute input and shape the international issues important to all people. The Council is a policy program of the Aspen Institute and is currently chaired by President Tarja Halonen of Finland.
In 2001, Liswood was also named Managing Director, Global Leadership and Diversity for Goldman Sachs, a premier global investment bank. Working on issues of globalization and workforce diversity, she is now a Senior Advisor to the firm.
In 1997, Liswood co-founded The White House Project dedicated to electing a woman President in the United States. Her work with women presidents and prime ministers was the inspiration for the Project to change the cultural message in the United States about women as leaders.
From 1992 – 1996, as director of the Women’s Leadership Project, Liswood identified global leadership contributions by women heads of state. She interviewed 15 current and former women presidents and prime ministers, which is chronicled in her book and video documentary, Women World Leaders (1996, 2007, and 2009 Harper Collins). Her quest was to find out what it would take for a woman to become President of the United States.
Liswood’s professional experience includes CEO/President of the American Society for Training and Development, executive-level consulting to Fortune 500 and international companies, executive positions at Rainier National Bank and Group W Cable, a subsidiary of Westinghouse Broadcasting and Cable. She received the Westinghouse Award of Excellence for her contribution to women and minorities in the work place. She is also the author of a book on service quality, Serving Them Right (Harper Business).
Liswood, a nationally recognized speaker, author, and advisor, has contributed to leadership and diversity in the women’s community for more than twenty years as a member of the International Women’s Forum, Leadership America, the board of the First Women’s Bank of California, and the Washington Women’s Political Caucus. Former commissioner of the City of Seattle Women’s Commission, Liswood was the owner/publisher of Seattle Woman and is the founder of May’s List, a bipartisan political donor network emphasizing women’s leadership in the political arena. In 2000, the Secretary of Defense appointed her to a three-year term of the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services (DACOWITS). After the events of September 11, 2001, Liswood became a reserve police officer in Washington, D.C. and is now a Sergeant.
Liswood has also held management positions in the airline industry, including general manager for the Pacific Northwest, for TWA, and was a consultant for the Boston Consulting Group. She holds a M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a B.A. from California State University, San Diego. She holds a J.D. degree from the University of California, Davis School of Law, and is admitted to practice law in California and Massachusetts. Back to Top |
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 | Crystal McCrary Anthony, Esq., began her career practicing entertainment law specializing in theatre production, publishing contracts and director’s agreements with the New York firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison before leaving to pursue a full-time career in writing & producing. Since that time, she has written for several magazines, published two novels, and produced for TV & Film.
She has also been featured in O At Home, Black Enterprise, Town & Country, Newsweek, the New York Times, Mirabella, Essence Magazine, O Magazine, People, Sister-to-Sister, the New York Daily News and USA Today. She was recently named to Crain’s-New York Business 2007 Forty Under Forty. Ms. McCrary Anthony also published the best-selling novel HOMECOURT ADVANTAGE (Avon, 1998); a Literary Guild featured alternate selection, also optioned by Sony/Screen Gem to be made into a feature film. Her second published novel GOTHAM DIARIES (Hyperion, 2004) was a New York Times Best Seller and was the 2005 Blackboard Fiction Book of the Year. She also executive produced the independent film DIRTY LAUNDRY (FOX Films/Codeblack), winning Best Feature Film and Best Actor at the American Black Film Festival. DIRTY LAUNDRY stars Loretta Devine, Rockmond Dunbar, Jenifer Lewis, Teri J. Vaughn, Sommore and Veronica Webb and is due in theatres December 28, 2007. The film's 12-city festival tour was sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign.
Crystal serves as co-creator/executive producer for the BET-J show Real Life Divas. Entering its third season, Real Life Divas is shot documentary/intimate portrait style and profiles African-American women who have shaped our culture artistically, socially and politically. Ms. McCrary Anthony has a number of projects in development/pre-production, including a film version of Nella Larsen’s Harlem Renaissance novel, Passing (2008), a screen adaptation of her novel Homecourt Advantage (2008), and All The Women I’ve Loved based on the acclaimed book of the same title.
Outspoken on women’s issues, literacy, children’s rights and race, she has appeared on several national television shows including Good Morning America, The TODAY Show, the Tavis Smiley Show and as a regular pop culture critic on CNN American Morning. Crystal’s most recent appearance was as guest co-host on ABC’s The View, interviewing U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton. She has also been a legal analyst on numerous television shows including Fox News Channel, CNBC and Court TV as well as a co-host on the BET-J show, "My 2 Cents."
Ms. McCrary Anthony sits on the advisory board of Jumpstart, a national organization dedicated to increasing early childhood literacy particularly in low-income neighborhoods across the country. Her interest in education initiatives was sparked during her time as a substitute elementary school teacher in Detroit, MI, while in law school. She is also a member of the Advisory Committee for Hyperion Books New Imprint VOICE focusing on women 35 and older, offering books that answer today’s women’s needs. Crystal McCrary Anthony joined The New 42nd Street Board of Directors in Fall 2007.
Crystal McCrary Anthony, Esq., is a cum laude graduate of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (B.A., 1991). She then attended Washington College of Law at the American University and New York University School of Law (J.D., 1995). Ms. McCrary Anthony also studied International European Community Law in Paris, France. She resides in New York City with her seven-year-old son, Cole, and her five-year-old daughter, Ella. Back to Top |
