Women's Campaign Forum

Brooklyn-born Ken Dashow is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Ken has become a fixture of New York rock radio, having worked at WNEW-FM for 17 years, then the last 11 years at Q-104.3, NY’s ONLY Classic Rock station, where Ken is the 2-7PM afternoon “drive-time” host, rated #1 in New York with Men 25-54 and nominated for a NY A.I.R. award for best afternoon show. “It’s my passion for living in this city – good and bad, that I love to share with my audience; We’re ‘Noo Yawkahs,’ through and through.” Ken also hosts the wildly popular “Breakfast With The Beatles” program Sunday mornings, 8-10AM, where he has interviewed everyone from Paul McCartney to Donald Trump (who’s a big fan).

Theatrically, “Da-Show Must Go On,” a six-play collection of Ken’s one-act plays, has been published by The Dramatist’s Play Service after a successful Off-Broadway run, and his play “The Wingding Doodle Club” had audiences in stitches at The NY Fringe Festival last summer.

Ken has also been featured recently on “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” The feature-length film “The Naked Detective,” and numerous TV hosting gigs, from MSG Network to Bravo.

Throughout her career, Jehmu Greene has skillfully worked with the media to build powerful social justice movements. A frequent commentator on CNN, MSNBC, Fox News and elsewhere, Greene helmed Rock the Vote, the largest youth voter registration group. Under her leadership, its membership grew from 1500 to over 1 million. Earlier this year, Greene participated in the WMC’s nationally recognized leadership and media training program, Progressive Women’s Voices, which has trained over 60 progressive thought leaders who have achieved over 4000 media hits in the two years that the program has existed.

A native of Austin, Greene got her start working in the fertile ground of Texas politics including an early stint with Governor Ann Richards’ campaign in 1994. Greene later played key roles at both the Center for Policy Alternatives and the Democratic National Committee, where she ran the women’s office.  An advisor and national surrogate for the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, Greene has worked on over 20 political campaigns at the local, state and national level. The recipient of many awards from organizations including Essence Magazine, the National Conference for Community and Justice, the National Council of Research on Women, the American Association of University Women and others, Greene has served on numerous boards of directors for various media, politics and social justice organizations.

Oskar Eustis is the Artistic Director of The Public Theater and has worked as a director, dramaturg, and artistic director for theaters around the country. From 1981 through 1986 he was resident director and dramaturg at the Eureka Theatre Company in San Francisco, and Artistic Director until 1989, when he moved to the L.A.’s Mark Taper Forum as Associate Artistic Director until 1994. Mr. Eustis then served as Artistic Director at Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island for eleven years. In 2005 he took the helm at New York’s Public Theater.

Throughout his career, Mr. Eustis has been dedicated to the development of new plays as both a director and a producer. At The Public he directed the New York premiere of Rinne Groff’s The Ruby Sunrise and Hamlet. At Trinity Rep, he directed the world premiere of Paula Vogel’s The Long Christmas Ride Home (Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Production); Homebody/Kabul (Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Production); the world premiere of Rinne Groff’s The Ruby Sunrise; Angels in America, Part I: Millennium Approaches (Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Director); Angels in America, Part II: Perestroika; as well as world premieres of plays by Philip Kan Gotanda, David Henry Hwang, Emily Mann, Suzan-Lori Parks, Ellen McLaughlin, and Eduardo Machado. He commissioned Tony Kushner’s Angels in America at the Eureka Theatre Company in San Francisco and directed its world premiere at the Mark Taper Forum. He was a professor of Theatre, Speech and Dance at Brown University, where he founded and chaired the Trinity Rep/Brown University Consortium for professional theater training. He received an honorary doctorate from Brown in 2001 and currently serves as Professor of Dramatic Writing and Arts and Public Policy at New York University.

Kerry Healey served as the 70th Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007. As Lieutenant Governor, she lead successful efforts to increase protection for victims of child abuse, gang violence, sexual assault, and domestic violence. After leaving office, she was a Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Institue of Politics and Center for Public Leadership. She currently co-chairs the Political Parity Project, a bi-partisan effort to increase women’s representation in elected and appointed leadership positions. Dr. Healey holds an AB from Harvard College in Government and a Ph.D. from Trinity College, Dublin in Law and Political Science.

Dr. Deborah C. Peel, MD, is a practicing physician and national expert on medical privacy. She founded Patient Privacy Rights in 2004 to educate and empower Americans to preserve and protect their fundamental human and civil rights to medical privacy. She became active in privacy rights at the federal level in 1993 when the Clinton Healthcare initiative required every doctor-patient encounter to be entered in a federal health database. She has presented at national panels and Congressional briefings and has provided state and federal testimony. She is widely quoted in trade journals and the national press. She is also the co-chair of the Committee on Government Relations and Insurance of the American Psychoanalytic Association. Dr. Peel holds a MD from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.

Ellen Kuras, director/cinematographer, is one of the few women to shoot major studio features as well as independent films.  She is an Academy-Award nominated filmmaker, and the recipient of the Sundance Best Dramatic Cinematography Award (an unprecedented three times), the Kodak Crystal Award, a NY Women in Film Muse Award, and the Gotham Award for outstanding leadership and creativity in the world of cinema.  Her films include Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Away We Go, Analyze That, Summer of Sam, Bamboozled, Blow, and The Betrayal.

Mary Glassman is running for Governor of Connecticut. Glassman has experience at all levels of government and the private sector. She has won races by being a strong voice for what matters to people in Connecticut – quality education for children, employment, affordable housing, and the opportunity for everyone to succeed. Glassman is perhaps best-known for having won the fight to become the Democratic nominee for Lieutenant Governor, overwhelmingly winning the Democratic primary for that seat. She has also served with the first female Speaker of the House of Representatives Moira K. Lyons and Senate President Kevin B. Sullivan. She has also served as chief of staff in the Lieutenant Governor’s Office following the resignation of Governor John Rowland. Glassman worked her way through the University of Connecticut majoring in journalism and then earning a law degree. She and her husband, Andy, have three grown children.