Women's Campaign Forum

Geraldine Fabrikant is a senior writer for Business Day at The New York Times.  She joined the paper as a reporter in 1985 and has won six publishers awards since that time.  In 1996, she won the Loeb Award for deadline reporting. Before joining The Times, Ms. Fabrikant had been the media editor for Business Week magazine since 1981. While there, she received an award for her cover story on the Capital Cities/ABC merger.

From 1978 to 1981, Ms. Fabrikant was a reporter for Variety; from 1976 to 1978, a reporter for The Hollywood Reporter; from 1973 to 1976, a freelance writer, and from 1966 to 1972, a film editor. In 1999, she was named a Knight-Bagehot Fellow in economics and business journalism by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Donna Hanover, journalist, actress, and former First Lady of the City of New York, is a regular contributor and film critic for WOR Radio.  As an actress, she received critical acclaim for her portrayal of Ruth Carter Stapleton in The People vs. Larry Flynt, directed by Milos Forman.  Her other films include Ransom, Series 7, Superstar, Someone Like You, and Just the Ticket.  She starred off-Broadway in The Vagina Monologues and is seen on TV in a recurring role on Law and Order.  She has anchored and produced news programs for TV stations nationwide, including WPIX-TV and WNYW-TV in New York City.  Ms. Hanover has hosted shows on The Food Network and she was also host and producer of the nationally syndicated TV series Famous Homes & Hideaways for Hearst Entertainment.

Ms. Hanover is known for her dedication to Komen’s Race for the Cure, Project A.L.S., The March of Dimes, and the fight against heart disease.  She has two children, Andrew and Caroline, and her husband is attorney Edwin A. Oster.  They were high school sweethearts who married on August 3, 2003 and their reunion after more than 30 years apart is one of the stories recounted in her best-selling book My Boyfriend’s Back: 50 True Stories of Reconnecting with a Long-Lost Love.

On November 3rd, 2009, Bill de Blasio was elected New York City’s third Public Advocate. For the prior eight years, Mr. de Blasio served in the New York City Council where he fought to make City Hall more responsive and accountable to New Yorkers. Mr. de Blasio began his work in New York City government as an aide to Mayor David Dinkins.  During the Clinton Administration, he was appointed Regional Director for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, where he served under former Secretary Andrew Cuomo. In 1999, Mr. de Blasio was elected to the School Board for District 15 in Brooklyn. In 2000, he managed Hillary Rodham Clinton’s successful campaign for U.S. Senate. The following year, he was elected to the New York City Council where he represented District 39 in Brooklyn for eight years. Mr. de Blasio holds a Bachelors degree from New York University and a Masters in International and Public Affairs from Columbia University. Mr. de Blasio and his wife, Chirlane McCray, met while working together in the Dinkins Administration. They live with their two children, Chiara and Dante, in Brooklyn.

Marcia L. Fudge is the Democratic Congresswoman for Ohio’s 11th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives. The district includes most of downtown and eastern Cleveland and many of the eastern suburbs in Cuyahoga County, including Euclid, Cleveland Heights, and Shaker Heights. Prior to her election to Congress she served as the mayor of Warrensville Heights. She was victorious in her first ever run for elective office, becoming the first woman and first African-American elected Mayor of the town. Congresswoman Fudge also served as the President of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, and is a co-chair of the sorority’s National Social Action Commission.

Congresswoman Fudge is an attorney who previously worked in the Cuyahoga County prosecutor’s office. She was chief of staff to 11th District Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones during Jones’ first term in Congress. She has also served on the board of trustees for the Cleveland Public Library. In 2003, Congresswoman Fudge was a member of the Shaker Heights Alumni Association’s Hall of Fame Class.  Congresswoman Fudge earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business from Ohio State University in 1975. She went on to receive her law degree from Cleveland Marshall College of Law, part of Cleveland State University. 

A native New Yorker and FIT graduate, Charles Nolan has arrived as one of America’s top fashion designers. After apprenticing with Bill Blass and Christian Dior, among others, Mr. Nolan joined Ellen Tracy in 1990, becoming its chief designer and taking it from a well regarded clothing manufacturer to a significantly more successful fashion label. By the time he left in 2001, Ellen Tracy had been number one in its market for six years. Recognizing his talent, the parent of Anne Klein, about to enter bankruptcy, hired Nolan to rejuvenate its line. In short order, the buzz was indeed back, and the company, reemerged from bankruptcy, was sold for $163 million. Along the way, Nolan was elected to membership in the Council of Fashion Designers. His collections drew widely favorable print and TV reviews and he was even featured in a double-page IBM ad that ran in dozens of publications, from Architectural Digest to the Wall Street Journal. After his work with Anne Klein Mr. Nolan opened his collection with six windows at Saks Fifth Avenue in September, 2004. His own shop, which he designed in every detail (even the furniture, which is for sale), opened in Manhattan’s trendy meatpacking district in December.

Patricia Russo serves as First Vice President at the Women’s Campaign School at Yale University. For over twenty five years, she has been a social activist focused on improving the quality of life for women in Connecticut and the United States, and has held numerous leadership positions in public, private and not for profit sector arenas centered on women’s rights. She has also held leadership positions in federal, state and local political campaigns. In addition to her work on behalf of the Women’s Campaign School, Ms. Russo also serves on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Commissions for Women Foundation based in Washington, DC. She is Vice President of the Board of the Foundation for Connecticut Women, and the Advisory Council of Women’s Health Research at Yale. She is Commissioner Emerita for the Connecticut Permanent Commission on the Status of Women, and recently joined the Board of Trustees of the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame. Ms. Russo also co-chaired the U.S. State Department’s mentoring program for Japanese women attending graduate school in the United States.

Candace Straight is a private investor and investment-banking consultant specializing in the insurance industry.  Throughout her successful career she has worked for numerous corporations including, Merck & Co. Inc.and Bankers Trust Company. Prior to her work as a private investor, she was appointed by Governor Thomas Kean to be a Trustee of the Public Employees Retirement System of the State of New Jersey, where she served until 1988.  Ms. Straight was Co-Chair of Governor Christine Todd Whitman’s Budget Advisory Committee and served on Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s Budget Transition Team. Appointed by Governor Whitman to the Board of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority in 1994, Ms. Straight was Vice Chairman from 1996 to January 2003.  She also served on Mayor Guiliani and Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Private/Public Initiatives Council and is a former trustee of the New Jersey Network Foundation and a past President of the Financial Women’s Association of New York.

Ms. Straight served as the Co-Chair of the Republican Party of the State of New Jersey in 2004 and was a member of the Bush-Cheney 2004 National Finance Committee. She is the past President and co-founder of the WISH List, a national donor network that supports pro-choice Republican women for high political office. She is also a founder of the Christine Todd Whitman Series Excellence in Public Service. She received her B.A. from Wilson College and her M.B.A. from New York University.  In June of 1994 Wilson College awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters to Ms. Straight.

Debbie Walsh joined the staff of the Center for American and Politics (CAWP) in 1981. In her role as Director, she has organized more than a dozen national conferences for women officials, ranging from small meetings focused on issues such as women’s legislative caucuses, women in legislative leadership and training programs for newly elected women legislators to CAWP’s quadrennial national Forum for Women State Legislators, to which every woman state legislator in the country is invited.

Ms. Walsh currently serves on the New Jersey Advisory Commission on the Status of Women, which she was appointed to by Governor James E. McGreevey and reappointed to by Governor Jon S. Corzine. In 1984 she served as the Associate Producer of a documentary film “Not One of the Boys” which aired on the PBS series, Frontline, and had a viewership of six million people.

She earned her B.A. in political science from SUNY Binghamton and her M.A. in political science from Rutgers, where she was an Eagleton Fellow.

Councilwoman Beth Krom is running for U.S. House of Representatives in California’s 48th District. Councilwoman Krom previously served as the Mayor of Irvine from 2004 until she was term-limited out of office. Under her leadership, the City of Irvine was named the “Safest City in America” four years in a row and was also recognized as one of the “Greenest Cities in America.” Congresswoman Krom has brought her experience as a teacher, business owner, community volunteer, and mother to her work as an elected official. As a member of Congress, she hopes to continue this invaluable work and be a voice for the people of California’s 48th District.

Andrew Tobias is an American journalist, author, and columnist. His main body of work is on investment, but he has written on numerous subjects. For several years he had a column in Time and has frequently appeared in Parade, the widely read Sunday supplement. His work has also appeared in such places as The New York Times Sunday Magazine and on the cover of Harvard Magazine. His twelve books include three New York Times best-sellers Fire And Ice, a biography of Revlon founder Charles Revson; The Invisible Bankers, about the insurance industry; and The Only Investment Guide You’ll Ever Need, which, with more than a million copies sold and recently translated into Chinese, proved to be the only investment guide *he’d* ever need.

In addition to his work as a writer, Mr. Tobias has done a lot of work in the fight against tobacco companies. His anti-smoking commercials have run throughout the former Soviet Union. Here in America he hired planes with anti-smoking banners to fly up and down Long Island beaches in pursuit of the Newport Cigarettes planes.

He has appeared on such shows as Today, Tonight, Tomorrow, Good Morning America, and Face the Nation. With Jane Bryant Quinn, he co-hosted Beyond Wall Street, an eight-part PBS documentary.

He has received the Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism, Harvard Magazine’s Smith-Weld Prize, GLSEN’s first Valedictorian Award, and the Consumer Federation of America Media Service Award.

Mr. Tobias has also acted as the treasurer for the Democratic National Committee since 1999.