Women's Campaign Forum

Born-and-raised in Arizona, Ann Kirkpatrick’s earliest roots are found in Eastern Arizona. Born in McNary on the White Mountain Apache Reservation, the first words to come from her mouth were not, in fact, English, but Apache. Ann graduated from Blue Ridge High School in the White Mountains and then went on to the University of Arizona, where she earned a bachelor’s degree and then a law degree from the University of Arizona College of Law.

Since earning her law degree, Ann has served the people of Arizona in a wide variety of positions. First, in 1980, she became Coconino County’s first female Deputy County Attorney, keeping criminals off the streets and bringing justice to the residents of Northern Arizona. Then Ann served the people of Sedona as a City Attorney.  And in 2004, she began teaching Business Law and Ethics at Coconino Community College.

In November 2004, Ann was elected to the Arizona House of Representatives to represent Legislative District 2, which includes Flagstaff and the Havasupai, Hopi, Hualapai, Navajo, and San Juan Southern Piute Nations.  At the State Capitol, Ann has been a champion of fiscal accountability as she worked to protect tax payers’ dollars in her position as the Ranking Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee.  The mother of two college-age daughters, Ann knows the roots of future success are found in a good education and has worked to improve the quality of education for all Arizona’s youth through her service on the Education K-12 Committee. 

Ann’s dedication to making a real difference in her community extends far beyond the legislature.  She is active in community service, having been the former president of United Way of Northern Arizona and the Flagstaff Symphony Association. She also served on the Board of Directors of Big Sisters, the Flagstaff Library Foundation, and Lowell Observatory.

Representative Kirkpatrick is the only candidate that can bring to the job a lifetime of knowledge and experience in the First District. “This District is where I was born. This is where I have always lived, and this is where I raised my two daughters,” Rep. Kirkpatrick said. “This is a district that deserves trustworthy representation by someone who will protect our clean air and our open spaces, while bringing jobs, opportunity and economic development to our communities. To do this we need our representative to know our issues and to care about our people.  I know that I am the person who will restore honest and dedicated representation to the people of the First District”

Nan Aron, President of both the Alliance for Justice (AFJ) and its partner advocacy organization, the Alliance for Justice Action Campaign (AFJAC), has been a leading voice in public interest law for over 30 years.  She founded AFJ in 1979 and continues to guide the organization in its mission to advance the cause of justice for all Americans, strengthen the public interest community’s influence on national policy and foster the next generation of advocates. In 1985, she founded AFJ’s Judicial Selection Project, now the country’s premier voice for a fair and independent judiciary and a major player in the often-controversial judicial nominations process. In addition to increasing judicial advocacy, Ms. Aron has led AFJ for Justice to expand its programs to support the participation of nonprofit and foundation staff in public life. Throughout the nation, Ms. Aron is unequivocally recognized for her vast expertise in public interest law, the federal judiciary and citizen participation in public policy.

Adam Bonin is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Netroots Nation, and is a member of the law firm of Cozen O’Connor in Philadelphia. At Cozen O’Conner, Mr. Bonin represents clients in campaign finance, election law and lobbying compliance matters and has been a leader in efforts on behalf of the rights of online speakers. In March 2006, he achieved a major victory before the Federal Election Commission on behalf of major political bloggers, securing significant new rights for speakers on the internet to engage in online political speech and advocacy.  For his work, he was named a 2006 Lawyer on the Fast Track by American Lawyer Media.

With Netroots Nation, Mr. Bonin has helped to expand the role of this young organization from an annual conference bringing together national political leaders with the online progressive community into a provider of a series of year-round regional salons and forums to help build progressive infrastructure. He also serves as Co-Chair of the Philadelphia Lawyers’ Chapter of the American Constitution Society, which seeks to promote rights and liberties, genuine equality, access to justice, democracy and the rule of law through a variety of events.

He earned his B.A., magna cum laude, from Amherst College in 1994. He earned his law degree from the University of Chicago Law School in 1997.

Amy Ferris is an author, screenwriter and editor. She primarily writes about all things women, including the very popular book Marrying George Clooney: 3:00 a.m. Musings from a Midlife Crisis, which has been described as “honest, brave, and hilarious.” She is on the Advisory Board of The Women’s Media Center, she serves on the Executive Board of Directors at Peters Valley Art, Education, and Crafts Center, and is a member of New York Women in Film and Television (NYWIFT). Ms. Ferris is also the Co-chair of Safe Haven, Inc., an organization that works to create domestic peace for women, children, and men. She lives in Northeast Pennsylvania with her husband, Ken, and two cats, Bella and Lotus. 

Nichola Gutgold is professor of communication at Penn State University. She is an advocate for expanding women’s voices. In her books, she chronicles the lives and communication styles of women in male dominated fields. She has written about women presidential candidates, broadcasters, and is always considering what women need to do to position themselves for greater opportunities. Dr. Gutgold has authored many books, including Paving the Way for Madam President; Seen and Heard: The Women of Television News and Almost Madam Presdient: Why Hillary Clinton ‘won’ in 2008. She blogs as “TalkDoc” on Wordpress.com and her commentaries appear in newspapers, on the Women’s Media Center Website, and on Huffington Post.

Dr. Gutgold earned her B.A. in English and Mass Communications from King’s College, her M.A. in Speech Communication from Bloomsburg University and her Ph.D. in Speech Communication from Penn State University.

Alex Jamieson is a professionally trained healthy gourmet chef, having studied at New York City’s Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts. She refined her techniques by cooking professionally in Milan, Italy, as well as at a variety of popular New York City restaurants. She is the author of The Great American Detox Diet, and has been featured on “Oprah,” “The Final Word,” “30 Days,” and “The National Health Test with Bryan Gumble.” In addition, Ms. Jamieson is a certified health and nutrition counselor. She studied with ground-breaking pioneers in the field of nutrition at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, which is accredited by Columbia University’s Teacher’s College and by the American Association of Drugless Practitioners. She also traveled the world, visiting over 20 countries, premiering Super Size Me, an Oscar-nominated documentary, acting as a messenger for the power of holistic nutrition and healthy detoxing. Though she readily and ably shares her message with all, her passion is helping professional women enhance their ability to excel and achieve, using healthy food as a catalyst. A healthy and energetic vegan herself, Ms. Jamieson lives in New York City with her family and a lively boy cat named Sue. She is currently working on her next book and proves that living a healthy life is most definitely far from boring.

Rita Henley Jensen is Founder and Editor in Chief of Women’s eNews, an independent daily news service covering issues of particular concern to women, which has won 32 journalism awards, including the PASS Award from the National Council on Crime and Delinquency and the Rosa Cisneros Award from the International Planned Parenthood Federation, Western Hemisphere Region. Ms. Jensen also was named by the New York Daily News one of the 100 most influential women in New York. A former senior writer for the National Law Journal and columnist for The New York Times Syndicate, she has more than 30 years of experience in journalism and journalism education, as well as an armload of awards, including the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism Alumni award, the Hunter College Presidential Grant for Innovative Uses of Technology in Teaching, the Alicia Patterson fellowship, and the Lloyd P. Burns Public Service prize. Jensen is also a survivor of domestic violence and a former welfare mother who earned degrees from Ohio State University and Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. She is the grandmother of four, two granddaughters and two grandsons.

Jennifer Weiner is the author of the novels Good In Bed (2001), In Her Shoes (2002), which was turned into a major motion picture starring Cameron Diaz, Toni Collette and Shirley MacLaine; Little Earthquakes (2004), Goodnight Nobody (2005), the short story collection The Guy Not Taken (2006), Certain Girls (2008), the sequel to Good in Bed, and her most recent, Best Friends Forever (2009). Her next book, Fly Away Home, will be published by Atria Books in July, 2010. There are more than 11 million copies of her books in print in 36 countries. Ms. Weiner is a frequent public speaker who has appeared on “The Today Show,” “The CBS Early Show,” “The Martha Stewart Show” and a number of defunct national talk shows. She has been published in Seventeen, Salon, Redbook, Glamour, Good Housekeeping, Elle, and InStyle. She writes occasionally for the Huffington Post and on her own blog at www.jenniferweiner.blogspot.com. She graduated with a B.A. in English Literature from Princeton University. She lives in Philadelphia with her family.

Claire Weisz is a founding partner of WXY Architecture. She has been recognized for work that integrates great architectural design with sustainability.  An innovative practice using new green and recycled materials with digitally driven design, her firm’s work has been published in a variety of national and international magazines. Her awards include AIA Honor Awards, Design Innovator by Chrysler/House Beautiful, the Waterfront Center Award, Young Architects and New York Designs. She is currently on the faculty of New York University’s Wagner School of Public Policy and a trustee of Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation and The Design Trust for Public Space.

Jocelyn Benson is running for Secretary of State in Michigan. Ms. Benson is currently an Assistant Professor of Law at Wayne State University, where she specializes in teaching Election Law. Prior to attending law school, she worked as an investigative journalist at the Southern Poverty Law Center. She has led both statewide and national election protection programs. In late 2009, Ms. Benson’s book, Democracy and the State Secretary of State, will be published by Ashgate. The book highlights best practices of Secretaries of State from throughout the country and seeks to inform voters about how Secretaries of State from either side of the political spectrum can work to advance democracy and election reform. Her research for this book, combined with her lifelong career as an election expert and reformer, inspired her to run. Ms. Benson promises to eliminate barriers to voting and to promote access and accountability in order to preserve the integrity of Michigan’s elections.

Rosemary Palmer is running for Ohio State House of Representatives (16th District). Ms. Palmer is the co-founder of Capitol News Services, which reports on state government affairs for newspapers in northeastern Ohio. She holds a Master of Arts in education, teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL). She directed and designed English as a Second Language (ESL) programs at Bloomfield College, expanding the program from serving 40 students to serving nearly 300. After the death of her son, Rosemary co-founded Families of the Fallen for Change, a nonpartisan, non-profit organization that has sought a responsible end to the Iraq War. As a State Representative, Ms. Palmer will work to bring innovative solutions to increase Ohio’s environmental sustainability and decrease the cost of higher education.

Moby was born in new york city, but grew up in Connecticut, where he started making music when he was 9 years old. He started out playing classical guitar and studied music theory, and then went on to play with seminal Connecticut hardcore punk group ‘the Vatican commandos’ when he was 14. He then played with post-punk band ‘awol’ while studying philosophy at the University of Connecticut and SUNY Purchase. he started dj’ing while attending college, and was a fixture in the late 80’s new york house and hip-hop scenes, dj’ing at clubs such as mars, red zone, mk, and the palladium.

He released his first single, ‘Go’ in 1991(listed as one of rolling stones best records of all time), and has been making albums ever since. his own records have sold over 20,000,000 copies worldwide, and he’s also produced and remixed scores of other artists, including David Bowie, Metallica, the Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, among others.

Moby has toured extensively, playing well over 3,000 concerts in his career. he has also had his music used in hundreds of different films, including ‘Heat’, ‘Any Given Sunday’, ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’, and ‘The Beach’, among others.

Currently he’s touring in support of his most recent album, ‘Wait for Me’, as well as working closely with a variety of different charities, including the humane society and the institute for music and neurologic function.