Women's Campaign Forum

Gloria Feldt is an activist and author on women’s rights, health, media, leadership and politics. She led the world’s largest reproductive health care provider and advocacy organization, Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) from 1996 to 2005. She has been dubbed “the voice of experience” by People Magazine. Today, she is a powerful voice for women through her books, keynote speeches, and media commentary.

A former teenage mother from a small-town in Texas, Ms. Feldt raised three children while attending college. Realizing that women’s civil rights depend on having the human right to determine their own reproductive destiny, she joined Planned Parenthood in 1974 as affiliate chief executive. During her 30 years at PPFA, she greatly increased services to local affiliates, which provide services to 5 million individuals annually through their network of almost 900 health centers. Her call to “fight forward” has been the driving force behind contraceptive equality legislation that has passed in 22 states and been the subject of successful legal action. In addition, she expanded PPFA’s international programs, launching Global Partners advocacy and traveling globally in support of direct service programs. She served on the U.S. delegation to the U.N.‘s Cairo plus Five evaluation meeting in the Hague in 1999.  She is the author of three books, Send Yourself Roses: Thoughts on My Life, Love, and Leading Roles, Behind Every choice is a Story, and The War on Choice: The Right Wing Attack on Women’s Rights and How to Fight Back. She has earned the title of “Women of the Year” from Glamour magazine and has been dubbed one of America’s “top 200 women legends, leaders, and trailblazers” by Vanity Fair magazine. Ms. Feldt is a much sought-after public speaker, with her commentary appearing in publications such as The New York Times, USA Today, the wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. She currently serves on the boards of the Women’s Media Center and the Jewish Women’s Archive and the advisory board of Our Bodies, Ourselves.

Paul Gleicher is the founder and president of Gleicher Design Group, a prestigious architectural and design firm in New York. He is the co-author of the book Dreaming Green: Eco-Fabulous Homes Designed to Inspire, which showcases seventeen inspiring homes that are fashioned inside and out with green materials, design, and details. Prior to establishing his own practice, Mr. Gleicher was a Project Architect with the international firm Davis Brody and Associates of New York for six years, where he specialized in new office buildings, theater design and commercial renovations. The Gleicher Design Group is known for their expertise in eco-friendly design technologies. Mr. Gleicher is the recipient of various awards, including the Gold Medal in 2002 Home Book Design excellence Awards. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from the State University of New York at Binghamton, Harpur College.

In November 2009, Stephanie Hausner, 25, was elected to the Clarkstown Town Council. She is the youngest Town Councilperson in the history of Clarkstown, a suburban town of 83,000 twenty miles north of New York City. She is currently the youngest elected official in Rockland County and the youngest female elected in the State of New York.

Ms. Hausner received the most votes in both the Democratic primary and the general election. In the primary Hausner defeated a 37 year incumbent councilman and won his seat on the Town Council. Ms. Hausner was the only Democratic challenger to win office in Rockland County on Election Day. 

The Eleanor Roosevelt Legacy Committee recently recognized Ms. Hausner as a rising star in NY politics. Ms. Hausner currently serves on the National Board of the Young Democrats of America as the Democratic National Committeewoman, which gives her a seat on the Democratic National Committee. She also serves on the Board of Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic and the Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic Action Fund Board. Ms. Hausner graduated from with a BA in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University in 2006, her senior honors thesis was on “Political Institutions, Culture, and Female Executive Power.”

Swanee Hunt is a multi-faceted woman with many accomplishments. Ms. Hunt is the Eleanor Roosevelt Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. In 1997 she founded the Women and Public Policy Program, a research center concerned with domestic and foreign policy, which she directed for more than a decade. At the Kennedy School she is also core faculty at the Center for Public Leadership and senior advisor to The Initiative to Stop Human Trafficking in the Carr Center for Human Rights.

An expert on domestic policy and foreign affairs, Ms. Hunt is president of Hunt Alternatives Fund, through which she has committed more than $120 million in endowments and grants to provoking social change at local, national, and global levels. Ms. Hunt also chairs the Washington-based Institute for Inclusive Security (including the Women Waging Peace Network), which advocates for the full participation of all stakeholders, particularly women, in peace processes. She has conducted research, training, and consultations for women leaders in some 60 countries.

From 1993 to 1997, Hunt served as ambassador to Austria, where she hosted negotiations and international symposia focused on stabilizing the neighboring Balkan states. Later, she became a specialist in the role of women in post-communist Europe; in July 1997, she launched “Vital Voices: Women in Democracy,” a conference convening 320 women leaders in business, law, and politics from 39 countries. The meeting spawned the documentary Voices as well as an ensuing US State Department initiative, led by Madeleine Albright and Hillary Rodham Clinton, and later an NGO with the same name, co-chaired by Senators Clinton (D-NY) and Hutchison (R-TX).

Hunt is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the board of Crisis Group. She holds two master’s degrees, a doctorate in theology, and six honorary degrees. She has received numerous awards from groups as varied as the United Methodist Church, United Way, Anti-Defamation League, American Mental Health Association, National Women’s Forum, International Education Association, Boston Chamber of Commerce, and International Peace Center. In 2007, Hunt was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.

Jeff Pash is the Executive Vice President and General Counsel of the National Football League and was also voted by Business Week Magazine as one of the most 100 influential people in sports. He had previously worked for Paul Tagliabue, a partner at a Washington, DC Law firm Covington & Burlington. Mr. Tagliabue was a senior partner in charge of the NFL account; when Mr. Tagliabue moved to New York to become NFL commissioner in 1989, Mr. Pash helped take over where the senior partner left. Later, in a move encouraged by his former mentor, Mr. Pash signed on with the National Hockey League, where he served four years as general counsel. In 1996 Mr. Tagliabue invited Mr. Pash to work for the NFL.

Lisa Sharkey is the Senior Vice President and Director of Creative Development for HarperCollins Publishers Worldwide, one of the world’s leading English-language publishers and a subsidiary of News Corporation. She joined the company in March 2007 after more than two decades in television. As Director of Creative Development, Lisa has thus far overseen the acquisition of the following books: Out of Captivity - Surviving 1967 Days in the Colombian Jungle, Letters to a Bullied Girl: Messages of Healing and Hope, Pet Food Nation, Loving Natalee, and The Undecided Voter’s Guide to the Next President.

A two-time Emmy Award winner and ten-time Emmy nominee, Ms. Sharkey was most recently, from 2005 to 2007, the President of Al Roker Entertainment one of New York City’s highest profile television production companies. Prior to that Ms. Sharkey was Senior Producer for ABC’s Good Morning America where she oversaw GMA’s on-air contributors and produced the second hour of the show. She ran the GMA medical unit, the financial news unit, headed up the consumer investigative team, the parenting unit, the home improvement and safety areas, and created and implemented multiple magazine partnerships. Ms. Sharkey also seniorproduced GMA’s Weddings as well as many other sweeps specials and big television events for the show. Ms. Sharkey was also a Senior Producer at Inside Edition where she oversaw coverage of big stories like the exclusives with Paula Jones and Mary Kay Letourneau. Sharkey has also written for news programs at CBS News, line produced and Senior produced the news at WCBS, WNYW,WPIX,and KETC TV.

Ms. Sharkey has been honored by a Peabody Award and a DuPont Award for her work at ABC covering the events surrounding September 11th. She has also written for Redbook and Child magazines.

Secretary Jennifer Brunner is running for U.S. Senate in the state of Ohio. Elected Ohio Secretary of State in 2006, Secretary Brunner is the first woman in the state’s history to serve in this capacity. She has since garnered national recognition for her efforts to make the state’s elections free, fair, open, and honest. One of her most significant accomplishments as Secretary of State was to overhaul the operations of the troubled Cuyahoga County Board of Elections in Cleveland, ensuring a smooth 2008 presidential election. As part of an overall effort to restore trust to elections, Secretary Brunner spearheaded a massive voting machine study to solve problems with the security and reliability of voting machines.

Ann McLane Kuster is running for the U.S. House of Representatives in New Hampshire (2nd District).  Partner in the Concord, N.H. law firm of Rath, Young and Pignatelli, Ms. Kuster is Director of the firm’s Education and Non-Profit Law Practice Group. She focuses her legal practice primarily on nonprofit, education, and health policy. In recent years, she has been active in a number of significant health and education policy issues, including the creation of the N.H. Medication Bridge Program and the N.H. UNIQUE College Savings Program. In addition, Ms. Kuster is a member of the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys and maintains a private adoption practice.  In 2001, she was the recipient of one of the New Hampshire Democratic Party’s most prestigious honors, the Eleanor Roosevelt Award.  Ms. Kuster also served on the statewide steering committees for John Kerry for President in 2003-2004 and Barack Obama for President in 2007-2008.

An advocate of women’s issues for more than 30 years, Marie C. Wilson is founder and President of The White House Project, co-creator of Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work ® Day and author ofClosing the Leadership Gap: Why Women Can and Must Help Run the World (Viking 2004).

In 1998, Wilson founded The White House Project in recognition of the need to build a truly representative democracy – one where women lead alongside men in all spheres.  Since its inception, The White House Project has been a leading advocate and voice on women’s leadership.

Before she took the helm at The White House Project, Wilson was, for nearly two decades, the President of the Ms. Foundation for Women.  She is an honorary “founding mother” of the Ms. Foundation.  In honor of her work, the Ms. Foundation has created The Marie C. Wilson Leadership Fund.

Former State Representative Robin Kelly is running for Illinois State Treasurer. Known for her leadership, experience, and commitment to the people of Illinois, Kelly currently serves as Chief of Staff for the Illinois State Treasurer’s Office. In addition to supervising and overseeing all departments within the Treasurer’s Office, Kelly is also a primary advisor on all policy, political, and operational matters. Since joining the office, Kelly has led the charge in transforming the agency by demanding stronger ethical guidelines, improving operations, and introducing new and innovative programs. Prior to joining the Treasurer’s Office, Kelly served as Illinois State Representative from 2003-2007. She advocated and supported policy that enhanced the quality of life for all Illinois residents. Kelly also served as Director of Community Affairs for the Village of Matteson. A resident of Matteson, Kelly holds B.A. and M.A. degrees from Bradley University and a Ph.D. from Northern Illinois University.