Previous Women to Watch Honorees

Read more about our extraordinary legacy of honorees. All are inspirational and leaders in their fields. Please note, biographies are current from the year they were honored.

2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998

2011 Honorees

Mia Bauer
Founder & Chief Creative Officer, Crumbs Bake Shop
New York, NY
Formerly a lawyer with a successful career in New York City politics, Bauer decided to “try something new” in 2003 and, with her husband, opened a bakery on the Upper West Side of Manhattan that specialized in large, lavishly frosted cupcakes. Today Crumbs is a publicly traded company that produces some 150 varieties of kosher cupcakes for 36 locations nationwide. Bauer is also in charge of the company’s philanthropic endeavors, which have included donating to synagogues, senior citizen centers and children’s organizations. She is responsible for nearly all the company’s recipes, and spend her days testing new flavors and varieties in her kitchen. Bauer also published her first children’s book, Lolly LaCrumb’s Cupcake Adventure, in 2008.

Abby Greensfelder
Founder, Owner & Executive Producer, Half Yard Productions
Washington, DC
Half Yard Productions is an entertainment production company which develops and produces television specials and series. Greensfelder left her job as senior vice president of programming and development for the Discovery Channel in 2006 to start her own production company with business partner Sean Gallagher. Five years later, Half Yard Productions has become an entrepreneurial success story, responsible for some of the best-known reality shows on top television networks, including TLC’s Say Yes to the Dress, Bravo’s The Real Housewives of D.C., the History Channel’s How the States Got Their Shapes and the Discovery Channel’s American Loggers. With offices in Maryland and New York, Greensfelder spends her days brainstorming with her staff, pitching networks and overseeing the production of new shows.

Kim Morris Heiman
President, SK Textile & Managing Director, Standard Textile Company
Cincinnati, OH
one of the leading producers of textiles for the hospitality and healthcare industries. The company has 24 factories and service to more than 60 markets worldwide, and Heiman is responsible for its international business development, which has included opening factories in Israel and Jordan and fostering economic ties between the countries. A former stockbroker, Heiman considers the employment of women around the world, who are often from disadvantaged communities, to be the most rewarding part of her job. She was named a “Woman of the Year” by the Cincinnati Enquirer for her philanthropic work; volunteers reguarly Hebrew Union College, Yad Vashem, the American Jewish Committee and her local Jewish day school; is a past president of the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati; and runs a family foundation with her husband, Gary.

Alexis Kashar
Activist Attorney for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community.
New York, NY
A civil rights lawyer skilled in special education advocacy, Kashar applied her expertise toward making the Jewish community more accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing. Today, she is president of the board for the New York-based Jewish Deaf Resource Center (JDRC), a nationwide organization dedicated to transforming institutions to enable deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals to fully participate in Jewish life. Together with JDRC, Kashar secured a grant from her local Jewish Federation that provides funding for American Sign Language interpreters in synagogues and other Jewish organizations. A full-time activist, Kashar also serves as president of the board of trustees for the New York School for the Deaf and chairs the public policy committee for the National Association for the Deaf.

Kathy E. Manning
First Woman Chair of the Board of Trustees of The Jewish Federations of North America
Greensboro, NC
Soon after she and her husband joined the Greensboro, N.C. Jewish Federation’s young leadership group, they got involved in Operation Exodus, the campaign to help Jews leave the Soviet Union, which dovetailed nicely with Manning’s prior experience as an immigration lawyer. She rose through the ranks of the Greensboro Jewish Federation leadership to the position she holds today. Manning travels frequently to strategize with Federation boards and speak at community events about the importance of philanthropy, and about women’s career advancement and mentoring female volunteer leaders. In addition to her work with the Greensboro Jewish Federation, Manning has twice chaired the board of the local Jewish day school, and was instrumental in founding a regional theater and a local arts festival.

Rynthia Rost
Vice President of Public Affairs, Government Employees Insurance Company (GEICO)
Bethesda, MD
She is responsible for the company’s cause marketing and community affairs, and also spearheaded the GEICO Corporate Community Citizens program, where GEICO employees devote time each month to volunteer work. Previously Rost has worked as a U.S. attorney, assistant general counsel for National Public Radio, doing appellate work for the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and as a board member for The Greater Washington Urban League, Mentors, Inc., and the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Greater Washington. She also, with her daughter Katie, runs the Ronald F. Rost Foundation, which helps families enroll their children in extracurricular programs. Rost became involved in Jewish life through marriage, and when she converted to Judaism in 1992, discovered that her great-great-grandmother was Jewish.

Rabbi Julie Schonfeld
Executive Vice President, Rabbinical Assembly
New York, NY
The first woman to professionally lead a rabbinic organization, Schonfeld is fiercely committed to both Jewish tradition and innovation as she works to uphold and build the vitality of the Conservative movement. She has spoken to groups of rabbis nationwide, overseen the publication of new prayer books that add modern commentary to traditional text, and is launching social networks for Rabbinical Assembly members and Conservative Jews worldwide. Schonfeld taught playwriting in New York City public schools, then received her ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary and served as rabbi of the New York Citybased Society for the Advancement of Judaism, where she pioneered several influential programs. In 2001, she became the Rabbinical Assembly’s director of rabbinic development, spearheading a groundbreaking study on women’s advancement in the rabbinate.

Ellen Stone
Senior Vice President, Marketing, Bravo Media
New York, NY
She spent years honing her marketing skills at advertising agencies – including J. Walter Thompson and Bozell Worldwide – and Lifetime Entertainment Services, before joining the management team at Bravo, the cable television network known for its edgy, lifestylefocused reality programs. She oversees the network’s brand strategy, consumer marketing, ad sales and all licensing/merchandising initiatives. Stone’s successful multimedia, multimillion-dollar campaigns for The Real Housewives franchise, Top Chef, The Millionaire Matchmaker and other hit shows have helped Bravo become the 11th-most-watched network in the 18- to 49-yearold demographic, with a reputation for tech-savvy innovation and digital partnerships.

Abbie Weisberg
CEO/Executive Director, Keshet
Chicago, IL
She first joined Keshet, a nonprofit guided by Jewish values, serving individuals with developmental disabilities, as a Sunday school teacher, and steadily rose through the ranks to become its CEO and executive director. Along the way Weisberg ran Keshet’s Sunday school, summer camp and recreational programs, and helped implement an educational philosophy designed for autistic and other handicapped children known as TEACCH, or “Structured Teaching,” which lies at the core of every Keshet program. Most recently, in partnership with her local JCC and a kosher restaurant, she launched the KJ Café, staffed entirely by young adults who have participated in Keshet’s programs. Weisberg now spends her days talking to donors, working with her management team and overseeing a comprehensive array of educational, recreational and vocational programming for children and young adults.

Esther B. Newman
Community Leadership Award
Founder & Executive Director, Leadership Montgomery
Rockville, MD
Leadership Montgomery is a 22-year-old nonprofit Newman has grown from a single-community leadership program to a nationally recognized model including youth, senior, executive and member programs. A resident of Montgomery County, Md., Newman decided to establish her own organization in 1988 that would promote greater diversity in her county’s leadership. Since then, Leadership Montgomery has graduated more than 1,700 people from its four educational and professional development programs designed for community leaders, business executives, youth and seniors. Graduates have gone on to serve on hundreds of nonprofit boards and on county and state committees. Newman also volunteers for a wide variety of causes and sits on numerous boards. She established a scholarship fund at Montgomery College, the alma mater that served a springboard for her own successful career.

2010 Honorees

Dana Bash
CNN Congressional Correspondent
Washington, DC
Dana Bash is CNN’s senior congressional correspondent, responsible for covering the activities of both the U.S. House and Senate. While at CNN, she also has served as a White House correspondent, the Capitol Hill producer and an editor in the Washington bureau. She started out working in CNN’s tape library in 1993 and rose through the ranks by continually volunteering to do things that went beyond her job description. Over the years she has covered the Bush White House during the war in Iraq, traveled the world with the former president covering summits from Asia to the Middle East and conducted lengthy interviews with Sen. John McCain during the 2008 election.

Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin
Executive Director of the Baltimore Tree Trust
Baltimore, MD
Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin is executive director of the Baltimore Tree Trust as well as a rabbi, author and founder of non-profit organizations. A trailblazer in the fields of Jewish feminism, healing and liturgy, the Baltimore native grew up in a family devoted to Jewish communal work. She founded the New York City-based Jewish Women’s Resource Center in 1978 and belonged to the first class of women allowed to attend the Jewish Theological Seminary’s rabbinical school in 1984. Cardin has been an active and unconventional spiritual leader, working over the years as advisor to students in the Rabbinical School of the Jewish Theological Seminary; editor of Sh’ma: A Journal of Jewish Responsibility; founding associate director of the National Center for Jewish Healing; director of Jewish life at the JCC of Greater Baltimore; and writer or editor of more than 10 books.

Nicole Feld
Executive Vice President and Producer at Feld Entertainment, Inc.
New York, NY
Nicole Feld is executive vice president and producer of Vienna, Va.-based Feld Entertainment, Inc., where she manages the largest live family entertainment production company in the world. Her grandfather bought Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey in 1967, and Feld spent her childhood in the Washington, D.C., area playing with off-duty clowns. After she graduated from New York University with a degree in photography and worked at People magazine for a while, Feld began to miss the circus she’d grown up with, and officially joined the family business in 2001. Today she is the first female producer in Ringling Bros. history and also oversees the Disney On Ice productions. Responsible for keeping the content of these productions fresh and relevant every year, she travels all over the world looking for new talent, attends hundreds of rehearsals and loves nothing more than watching a finished show.

Arna Poupko Fisher
Lecturer and Scholar
Cincinnati, OH
Arna Poupko Fisher is a sought-after expert on the Jewish lecture circuit with a diverse career as a scholar, lecturer and Jewish community leader. Currently on the faculty of the University of Cincinnati Jewish Studies department and for the Wexner Heritage Foundation, Fisher recently served for four years as president of the Cincinnati Jewish Community Relations Council. She was raised in Edmonton, Canada and embraced observant Judaism as a teenager, going on to study at a yeshiva in Israel for two years, receive a teaching certificate from Touro College in New York and a master’s degree in medieval Jewish philosophy from Yeshiva University. She pursued doctoral programs in Jewish thought before accepting a groundbreaking position in 1993 as a “Judaic consultant” for Montreal’s Jewish Federation, where she taught Jewish perspectives to members of the Federation’s agencies. As a volunteer, Fisher has served on the boards of Hillel, AIPAC and other organizations.

Meryl Frank
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women
Highland Park, NJ
Meryl Frank was appointed by President Obama last year to serve as ambassador and deputy U.S. representative to the Commission on the Status of Women. She also works as a master trainer with Women’s Campaign International (WCI), an organization that promotes female political participation in emerging democracies and post-conflict zones. Frank worked for the World Health Organization in Copenhagen and became one of the key activists responsible for getting the Family and Medical Leave Act signed into law by President Clinton in 1993. She was a stay-at-home mom for 12 years before becoming the (first female) mayor of Highland Park, N.J. in 2000. Frank has also served as president of the American Jewish Congress’ Women’s Division and on the board of the Democratic National Committee’s Women’s Leadership Forum.

Lisa Malat
Vice President of Barnes & Noble College Booksellers
West Caldwell, NJ
Lisa Malat is vice president of Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, where she ensures that the company’s 650 campus bookstores are always evolving. In addition to overseeing corporate communications, learning and development, consumer marketing and overall store operations, Malat also spearheads strategic projects like launching more than 600 e-commerce websites and developing a social media strategy to better connect with today’s college students. After working briefly on Wall Street and for a team of Broadway producers, she joined the executive training program at Macy’s flagship store in New York City and quickly graduated to senior management positions. Malat also leads as a volunteer: A breast cancer survivor, she raises money for the Avon Foundation and its annual breast cancer walk, and coordinates Breast Cancer Awareness events at more than 600 campuses.

Kim Oster-Holstein
President/CEO of Kim and Scott’s Gourmet Pretzels
Chicago, IL
Kim Oster-Holstein is president/CEO & chief inspiration officer of Kim & Scott’s Gourmet Pretzels, a business she started from scratch with husband and business partner Scott Holstein in 1995, and which now sells more than 15 pretzel varieties in groceries nationwide. Kim & Scott’s is a multimillion-dollar business with a 38,000- square-foot bakery, some 100 employees and a commitment to philanthropy as its central mission. Oster-Holstein was named Entrepreneurial Woman of the Year in 2009 by the Chicago Women’s Business Development Center, and received an award this year from the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council. In addition to spending her days in management meetings and brainstorming new pretzel flavors, she devotes much of her time to Pretzels With a Purpose, the philanthropic arm of her business. Over the years, she has created the Pink Ribbon Pretzel to support breast cancer research; the Pretzel Dough Program, which donates money to schools; and Pretzel Power, which offers internships to high school students

Dominique Schurman
CEO of Schurman Retail Group
Fairfield, CA
Dominique Schurman is CEO of Schurman Retail Group, the second-largest specialty retailer in the American personal expression industry and creator of the internationally recognized Papyrus brand. Schurman began answering the phones in 1982 and since has built her family’s business from a small niche company into a leading international retailer that owns 430 stores and four retail brands – PAPYRUS, Carlton Cards Retail, American Greetings Retail and Paper Thread. Schurman is passionate about the company’s philanthropic and environmental initiatives, such as using recycled paper and partnering with Earth Share, an organization that helps companies target donations to environmental charities.

Alexandra Shapiro
Senior Vice President of Brand Marketing and Digital for USA Networks
New York, NY
Alexandra Shapiro is senior vice president of brand marketing and digital for USA Network. Though she is trained as a performer, Shapiro found creative fulfillment in a career behind the scenes and earned a reputation as an innovative television executive. She launched the promotional campaigns of numerous award-winning USA series and played a key role in creating the network’s “Characters Welcome” brand, as well as the overhaul of its online presence. Recently, Shapiro spearheaded the channel’s new Characters Unite brand initiative, a multimedia program that partners with nonprofit organizations to combat prejudice and discrimination. In her free time, Shapiro has helped to produce a number of short films and theater productions, and serves on the board of Scenarios USA, an organization that empowers underprivileged youth through writing and filmmaking projects

Jane Fairweather
Community Leadership Award
Realtor and Community Leader
Bethesda, MD
Jane Fairweather ran her own management consulting firm for 12 years before embarking on a career in real estate. Today she is one of the top Coldwell Banker agents in the country, named Bethesda Magazine‘s “Best Realtor” five years in a row. Philanthropy and community leadership are a priority for Fairweather – she devotes free time and energy to causes and organizations including the Jane Fairweather Community Service Scholarship Award for public school students involved in community service; work with the Bethesda Chevy Chase Rotary Club and the Bethesda Chevy Chase Rescue Squad (she created the Strut Your Mutt festival to raise money for both organizations); and involvement on the boards of the Bethesda Chamber of Commerce, Imagination Stage children’s theater company and the environmental organization Bethesda Green. Fairweather also is co-chair of the Weizmann Institute of Science for the Washington region and has spent the past decade mentoring a girl who immigrated from Nigeria and now attends American University on a full scholarship.

2009 Honorees

Rabbi Sharon Brous
Founder and leader of the nondenominational congregation IKAR.
Los Angeles, CA
Rabbi Sharon Brous is the founder of IKAR, a Los Angeles-based organization drawing thousands of young Jews - many of them previously unaffiliated - with uplifting prayer services, volunteer and social justice programs and innovative events. Brous has become a nationally recognized leader in Jewish outreach: She appeared on Newsweek’s top 50 rabbis list two years in a row, and IKAR was listed this year in Newsweek as one of America’s 25 most vibrant Jewish congregations.

Yanina Fleysher
President of Yanina & Co.
Cedar Grove, NJ
Yanina Fleysher is a custom jewelry designer and President of Yanina & Co. She began designing her own jewelry while still in high school, and started her own jewelry business at only 19 years old. Yanina & Co. has been voted top jeweler in New Jersey many times and was named National Jeweler’s America’s Best Jeweler in the Couture category in 2009.

Laurie Ann Goldman
CEO of Spanx, Inc.
Atlanta, GA
Laurie Ann Goldman is the CEO of Spanx, Inc.. Since 2002 she has helped transform the small Atlanta-based hosiery and undergarment company into a multimillion-dollar business with more than 80 employees and 200-plus products available in stores all over the world. Honored by AdAge as one of the Top 50 Marketing Executives. Goldman also serves on The Committee of 200, an organization dedicated to advancing female leadership in business.

Ruth Marcus
Weekly Columnist for the Washington Post
Washington, DC
Ruth Marcus is a veteran reporter, editor, and Washington Post columnist, with a writing style equally suited to both the personal and the political. Marcus received a Pulitzer nomination for commentary in 2007, and has covered the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings, followed Bill Clinton on the campaign trail and stood on the South Lawn of the White House for the historic handshake between Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat in 1993.

Julie Morgenstern
Organizing and time management expert and best selling author
New York, NY
Julie Morgenstern is one of the country’s leading experts on organization, business productivity and time management. The author of five best-selling books, a consultant to large corporations and a sought-after speaker, Morgenstern has appeared on Oprah and NBC’s Today show, and helped thousands of people transform their homes, businesses and attitudes about every kind of clutter. The New York City-based Julie Morgenstern Enterprises has been successfully in business for 20 years.

Estee Portnoy
Marketing and Business Manager for Michael Jordon
Bethesda, MD
Estee Portnoy has spent the last 13 years running the day-to-day operations of Michael Jordan, Inc. As business manager and spokesperson, Portnoy handles all of the basketball legend’s media requests, runs his annual charity golf tournament in the Bahamas and manages his business affairs, which includes working closely with Nike, Gatorade and other sponsors. Portnoy also founded KEEN USA, which sponsors sports programs across the country for physically and mentally disabled children.

JJ Ramberg
Host of MSNBC show Your Business & co-founder of GoodSearch.com
New York, NY
JJ Ramberg is a New York City-based broadcast journalist and co-founder of GoodSearch.com, a Yahoo-powered search engine that helps users give to the nonprofit or school of their choice. Currently she hosts the weekly MSNBC Sunday morning show Your Business. She has worked as a reporter on CNN, and was part of two Emmy Award-winning production teams at NBC News.

Melissa Arbus Sherry
Assistant to the Solicitor General
Washington, DC
Melissa Arbus Sherry is Assistant to Solicitor General Elena Kagan, representing the U.S. government in cases argued before the Supreme Court. She was formerly a clerk to Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. Sherry spent four years at the law firm Latham & Watkins LLP, where she specialized in appellate litigation. Sherry was named one of the top 30 layers under 30 by Bisnow in 2008.

Ellen Stovall
President and CEO of the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship
Silver Spring, MD
Ellen Stovall is one of this country’s leading advocates for cancer survivors - and a three-time, 37-year survivor of the disease herself. Stovall has served as president and CEO of the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship, an organization that has influenced federal legislation, produced publications that have impacted cancer research and treatment, and provided educational and support materials to cancer survivors.

Jillian Copeland
Community Leadership Honoree
Founder of the Diener School
Potomac, MD
Jillian Copeland founded the Diener School, a school for special-needs children that integrates educational and therapeutic models tailored to each student. The Potomac, Md.-based Diener School now has 32 students in kindergarten through the fifth grade. Copeland does everything from administrative work to presiding over teacher meetings to fundraising and public relations.

2008 Honorees

Stephanie S. Abrutyn
Vice president and senior counsel at Home Box Office, Inc.
New York, NY
Stephanie Arbutyn is vice president and senior counsel, litigation at Home Box Office, Inc., which owns and operates the HBO and Cinemax programming networks. Shealso serves on the board of directors of the Media Law Resource Center Institute, a non-profit that sponsors First Amendment education and research nationwide. Stephanie was previously an attorney at Tribune Company – where she represented journalists from daily newspapers including Newsday, The Hartford Courant, and The Baltimore Sun – for ABC, and at the Washington, DC offices of law firm Baker & Hostetler.

Linda Cohn
Anchor of ESPN’s SportsCenter; author of Cohn-Head: A No-Holds-Barred Account of Breaking Into the Boys’ Club
Bristol, CT
Linda Cohn is one of the most recognized faces on ESPN, known primarily as an anchor on SportsCenter for the last 16 years. In 1987, she made sports casting history as the first full-time U.S./female sports anchor on a national radio network, when she was hired by ABC. Linda is an inductee of both the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame and the SUNY Oswego athletic Hall of Fame. In addition to balancing work (at a 24-hour sports network) and quality time with her two children, she also authored a book – Cohn-Head: A No-Holds-Barred Account of Breaking into the Boys’ Club –released in September 2008.

Karen J. Kessler
President and co-founder of Evergreen partners, Inc.; vice-chair of New Jersey healthcare system Atlantic Health
Scotch Plains, NJ
Karen Kessler, president and co-founder of Evergreen Partners, Inc., was the first woman commissioner of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, served as vice president of corporate communications for the American Stock Exchange, has received numerous accolades from the New York Times, Star-Ledger and W magazine and has received awards from the YWCA and the Public Relations Society of America. She currently serves as vice chair of Atlantic Health, the leading New Jersey healthcare system.

Susan G. Kornstein, M.D.
Professor of psychiatry and OB/GYN, and head of the Institute for Women’s Health, at Virginia Commonwealth University
Richmond, VA
Susan G. Kornstein, M.D. is an internationally known psychiatrist, researcher, and pioneer in women’s health. A professor at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, she is co-founder and executive director of the VCU Institute for Women’s Health. She edited the first comprehensive textbook on women’s mental health and is currently editor-in-chief of the Journal of Women’s Health and president of the International Association for Women’s Mental Health. A groundbreaking researcher in depression and premenstrual syndrome, she has authored over 100 scientific articles and book chapters and has been widely quoted in the media.

Rabbi Naomi Levy
Founder and spiritual leader of spiritual outreach and social action service Neshuva
Venice, CA
Rabbi Naomi Levy is founder of Nashuva, a Los Angeles-based organization dedicated to spiritually uplifting prayer, social action work and outreach to unaffiliated Jews. Listed this year as one of the country’s top 50 rabbis in Newsweek, she has authored two best-selling books about prayer and healing, appeared on Oprah and NBC’s Today Show, and belonged to the first class of women allowed to attend the Jewish Theological Seminary’s rabbinical school. Rabbi Levy also broke another glass ceiling as the first female rabbi to lead a West Coast Conservative synagogue – Congregation Mishkon Tephilo in Venice, Calif.

Amanda Lipitz
Tony-nominated Broadway Producer
New York, NY
Amanda Lipitz is a Tony-nominated Broadway producer. She is the executive producer of MTV’s hit series Legally Blonde the Musical: The Search for the next Elle Woods. She produced her first musical at age 24 with Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Other producing credits include Legally Blonde the Musical (Broadway), Modern Orthodox, Tisch on Broadway and GORK! (NY Fringe Festival). Ms. Lipitz is responsible for some of the most innovative sponsorships on Broadway, including Tiffany & Co., PBTeen, and Apple. She has a musical development company, Brillstein-Lipitz, which includes her partner Bernie Brillstein. Ms. Lipitz graduated with a BFA in theater from Tisch School of the Arts.

Jaime Berman Matyas
Executive vice president and chief operating officer of National Wildlife Foundation
Reston, VA
Jaime Berman Matyas is executive vice president and chief operating officer at National Wildlife Federation, where she oversees all operations, helps set strategy, leads marketing efforts and finds new revenue opportunities. As part of NWF’s commitment to wildlife, the environment, and connecting people with nature, and as a mother of two young daughters, she has been an outspoken advocate for outdoor play time for kids and families. Matyas was one of 1,000 people trained by Vice President Al Gore as part of The Climate Project. In 2006, she was one of Washington Business Journal’s 25 “Women Who Mean Business.”

Lisa Rudes Sandel
Creator and founder of Not Your Daughter’s Jeans
Los Angeles, CA
Lisa Rudes Sandel is the founder of Not Your Daughter’s Jeans, a denim company that caters to women over 40 with real curves. Her patented Tummy Tuck Jeans, designed to flatten the belly, flatter the hips and offer women a comfortable fit, are sold in top department stores and have attracted a devoted following. The Los Angeles-based business – which Rudes-Sandel runs with her sister and their sportswear-designer father –grossed more than $50 million in sales in 2008.

Addie Swartz
Principal creator and CEO of B*tween Productions, Inc.
Lexington, MA
Addie Swartz, founder and CEO of B*tween Productions, Inc, created the award-winning Beacon Street Girls book series to provide positive role models for tween girls. Swartz also founded educational software company BrightIdeas and has held senior positions at The Walt Disney Company, Lotus Development, and Reebok. She has been featured in numerous business and family publications; delivered keynote addresses at the Annual Women’s Leadership Conference at Babson College and Harvard Business School’s Dynamic Women in Business Conference; and been honored by the Girl Scouts as a “Leading Woman.”

Suzi Weiss-Fischmann
Executive VP and artistic director of OPI Products, Inc.
Los Angeles, CA
Suzi Weiss-Fischmann, known as the First Lady of Nails, is the executive vice president and artistic director of OPI Products Inc., where she single-handedly creates every OPI Nail Lacquer shade. The daughter of Holocaust survivors, Suzi is committed to Jewish education and is a board member of the Abraham Joshua Heschel Day School. Her local and global philanthropy includes the American Heart Association, Broadway Cares / Equity Fights AIDS, Chabad of the Valley synagogue, Gilda’s Club Worldwide, Oceana, Starlight Starbright Children’s Foundation, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, and many more.

Sharon Einbinder Friedman
Community Leadership Award
Executive Director, Mental Health Association (MHA) of Montgomery County
Silver Spring, MD
Sharon Einbinder Friedman, LCSW-C has worked at Mental Health Association of Montgomery County for over 12 years – the last 11 as executive director, and oversee¬ing growth of the agency’s education, advocacy and direct services. Sharon has also been a champion for employee wellness, and uses MHAas the proving ground for work/life pro¬gramming. She has been widely honored for her work in community and employee mental health, including the Bank of America Neighborhood Excellence Local Hero Award, the Athena Award for Professional Excellence, and the WETA Hometown Hero Award.

2007 Honorees

Mary Jo Barrett, MSW
Executive Director/Co-Founder, The Center for Contextual Change
Chicago, IL
Mary Jo Barrett, MSW, a leading authority on trauma and violence, is the executive director and co-founder of the Center for Contextual Change of Metropolitan Chicago, created to helping families and communities recover from trauma and violence. She has co-authored two books and published more than 100 works. She has led thousands of train¬ings on her treatment model, The Collaborative Stage Model, eating disorders, Compassion Fatigue and other related topics. She is adjunct faculty at the University of Chicago, School of Social Service Administration. Mary Jo has been passionately dedicated to her teaching and her clinical work in the field of family violence since 1974.

Miri Ben-Ari
Grammy Award-winning Hip Hop Violinist
New York, NY
Miri Ben-Ari was honored for her work as a Grammy Award-winning violinist and philanthropist. A native Israeli, she has thrown bows with Kanye West, Jay-Z, Patti LaBelle, John Legend and more, and released her album “Miri Ben-Ari: The Hip Hop Violinist” on Universal Records in 2005. Miri’s new single, “A Symphony of Brotherhood,” features Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream.” A third generation Holocaust survivor, Miri created the Gedenk Campaign to raise global youth awareness about the Jewish Holocaust via music and entertainment.

Elisa Spungen Bildner
Co-Founder, Foundation for Jewish Camping
Past Chair, Jewish Funders Network
Former CEO, food manufacturing company
Montclair, NJ
Elisa Spungen Bildner is co-founder and co-president of the board of trustees (with Rob Bildner) of the Foundation for Jewish Camping, which supports and promotes non-profit Jewish overnight camps throughout North America. The ten-year-old Foundation is now the preeminent voice in the community for the effectiveness of Jewish camping, and its budget is more than $16 million. Perennially active in national Jewish life and philanthropy, Elisa is also the former chair of the Jewish Funders Network and currently on the executive committee of the JTA(Jewish Telegraphic Agency). She is a former lawyer, journalist and professor, and more recently served as CEO of a leading fresh-cut produce company.

Toby Graff
Vice President for Public Affairs, Lifetime Television Network
New York, NY
Toby Graff is vice president, public affairs at Lifetime Networks, where she oversees the Emmy Award-winning My Lifetime Commitment public awareness and advocacy campaigns. Graff works with leading nonprofit organizations on efforts to end violence against women, stop breast cancer, promote girls’self-esteem, focus on women’s heart health and encourage women to become more engaged in the political process as voters, leaders and future candi¬dates. Her campaigns have received numerous accolades, including the prestigious Gover¬nors Emmy® Award for the “Stop Violence Against Women” initiative. She was named one of Broadcasting & Cable’s 2005 “Next Wave of Women” in the industry.

Marla R. Letizia
Co-inventor of the Sidekick & Owner of Big Traffic
Las Vegas, NV
Marla R. Letizia, now president and CEO of Big Traffic Mobile Billboards Worldwide, began her career 30 years ago as a well-known face in Las Vegas television broadcasting. After starting a family, Marla stepped away from the camera to raise her children, create the Parenting Network and sit on the founding board of The Meadows School, a private educational facility in Las Vegas. Eventually she came back to business with “Mobile Billboards of Las Vegas,” and has since grown one woman, one truck and one driver into 40-plus employees, a fleet of 12 mobile billboard trucks, and an international hub in Mexico City. Marla was honored with the 2005 Women in Business award for Marketing.

Molly Levinson
Former Political Director, CBS Evening News
New York, NY
Molly Levinson joined CBS News in August 2006 as political director, overseeing all coverage of the 2008 Campaign and Election for the network. Before joining CBS she was acting political director for CNN, where she oversaw the network’s political coverage, polling and political research programs. Prior to that, Levinson served as deputy political director and deputy political editor for CNN’s Washington-based Political Unit (2004-06), during which time she helped to produce and shape editorial content for the network’s on-air and online coverage of the 2004 election and other political events. Before CNN she worked for GQR Research as an analyst of opinion research and as a development assistant at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs.

Monica Levinson
Executive Producer, Borat
Beverly Hills, CA
Monica Levinson, a film producer in Los Angeles, Calif., began her career working in television news. Shifting her sights to feature films, she worked on “The Pelican Brief,” “Howard Stern’s Private Parts,” “28 Days” starring Sandra Bullock, Michael Mann’s “The Insider” and Ben Stiller’s hit comedies “Zoolander” and “Dodgeball.” Most recently, she was executive producer of the international sensation “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan,” which won numerous awards and was named one of the American Film Institute’s Top 10 Films of 2006.

Jamie McCourt
Vice President, LA Dodgers
Los Angeles, CA
Jamie McCourt, the highest ranking female executive in baseball today, is vice chairman and president of the Los Angeles Dodgers. In this position, McCourt oversees the strategic planning and development for the franchise. A member of the Washington Speakers Bureau and a visiting professor at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, teaching a course entitled “The Pursuit of Leadership: A Female Perspective,” McCourt is an active member of the Los Angeles business community and serves on numerous boards and com¬missions. She was recently honored by the American Friends of Hebrew University with the prestigious SCOPUS Award for her philanthropic efforts.

Debra A. Neiman, CFP
Principal, Neiman & Associates Financial Services, LLC &
Co-author of Money Without Matrimony: The Unmarried Couples’ Guide to Financial Security
Arlington, MA
Debra A. Neiman, CFP, was for her work as a certified financial planner who has focused on the underserved market of unmarried and nontraditional couples and families. Principal of Neiman & Associates Financial Services, LLC, she co-authored the widely-used resource Money Without Matrimony: The Unmarried Couples’ Guide to Finan¬cial Security. Neiman shares her knowledge with professionals and consumers by teaching courses at Boston University and Harvard University. She also co-founded PridePlanners™, a national organization dedicated to keeping financial professionals aware of the changing and unique financial planning needs of nontraditional couples and families.

Lynn Shapiro Snyder
Health Care Attorney, Epstein Becker & Green P.C.
Washington, DC
Lynn Shapiro Snyder was for her roles as both a senior member of the law firm of Epstein Becker & Green, PC, and as the founder and president of the Women Business Leaders of the US Health Care Industry Foundation (WBL)™. She is recognized as one of the most powerful people in the health care industry, as creator of WBL and for her legal work for the nation’s health care companies. Through her leadership at WBL, Lynn advances the role of business women in the health care industry and increases the number of women who serve on the boards of directors of companies nationwide.

2006 Honorees

Michelle Bernstein
Chef and Owner, Michy’s Restaurant
Miami, FL
Miami’s award-winning chef and restaurateur Michelle Bernstein draws on her Latin-Jewish roots – Argentine and French – for culinary inspiration in her various and successful endeavors: owner of Miami hotspot restaurant Michy’s and Michelle’s at Carysfort, cookbook author, and consulting chef for Delta Air Lines. Michelle trained as a dancer but switched to culinary arts midway through college. She studied with famed chef Jean-Louis Palladin and gained fame with her signature contemporary American fusion cuisine as the chef at Azul at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Miami. Michelle has appeared on the Today show, been featured in Bon Appetit and the New York Times, and co-hosted the Food Network’s Melting Pot show for two years. She has been nominated twice for Best Chef of the South from the James Beard Association.

Wendy C. Drucker
Co-CEO, Drucker & Falk, LLC
Newport News, VA
As co-CEO of Drucker & Falk LLC, a property management and real estate investment services company, Wendy C. Drucker directs the management, supervision and construction of apartment communities. She grew up working with her mother on large philanthropic projects in the Newport News, Va. area; today she dedicates much of her professional life to non-profit endeavors. Wendy is equally skilled at fund-raising and philanthropic networking, and has led her company’s outreach to residents in low-income communities, offering opportunities to get health screenings, visit a bookmobile or meet local police and fire officials.

Dr. Perri Klass
Professor of Journalism and Pediatrics, New York University
New York, NY
Dr. Perri Klass is a prolific journalist, a pediatrician specializing in infectious diseases and the author of 10 books of fiction and nonfiction. She is the president and medical director of the child literacy program Reach Out and Read, which trains pediatricians to promote early literacy among their patients, and recently became a professor of journalism and pediatrics at New York University. In Spring 2006, Dr. Klass and her mother, English professor and novelist Sheila Solomon Klass, published their first collaboration as writers, Every Mother Is a Daughter. Dr. Klass’ newest book, Treatment Kind and Fair: Letters to a Young Doctor, was published this past June.

Susan Manheimer
Chief of Police, San Mateo Police Department
San Mateo, CA
As chief of police in San Mateo, Calif., Susan Manheimer commands 175 members and is one of 15 women (and two Jewish women) out of California’s 338 municipal police chiefs. Her community-based approach to law enforcement partners police with other criminal justice agencies and resources (such as public health and substance abuse counselors) equipped to address the problems for which police are often the first responders. Prior to serving the city of San Mateo, Susan worked for the San Francisco Police Department for 16 years, working her way up through a variety of assignments to captain of San Francisco’s toughest district. She serves as a Vice President of the statewide California Police Chiefs Association, and is the president of the San Mateo County Police Chiefs and Sheriffs Association.

Marcella Kanfer Rolnick
New Ventures Director, GOJO
Chair and President, Lippman Kanfer Family Foundation
Akron, OH
Marcella Kanfer Rolnick found success as a management consultant in New York in her family’s business, GOJO Industries in Akron, Ohio, where she helped launch PURELL® Instant Hand Sanitizer and created an e-business unit. She then decided to build upon her family’s commitment to Jewish communal service and spent two years at Boston-based Jewish content publisher Jewish Family & Life! Now back with GOJO, Marcella runs a venture investment program that includes Israeli technology ventures. She is also spearheading the re-launch of Joshua Venture, a fellowship program for Jewish social entrepreneurs, and co-creating the Lippman Kanfer Institute for Innovation in Jewish Learning and Engagement, developed through her family’s foundation.

Marcella L. Roenneburg, M.D.
Urogynecologist, The Weinberg Center for Women’s Health & Medicine at Mercy Medical Center
Baltimore, MD
Dr. Marcella Roenneburg is a nationally recognized expert in urinary incontinence and pelvic reconstructive surgery. Four years ago, she joined a medical mission to the West African nation of Niger to work with girls as young as 12 who had suffered childbearing-related wounds and were left incontinent and ostracized by their families and communities. In Niger, Bangladesh and Sierra Leone, she has operated on scores of young women with vesicovaginal fistulas – holes between the bladder and the vagina – and provided instruction to native physicians on how to make the repairs. Although rare in the United States, fistulas are a tremendous international health problem. Dr. Roenneburg also sees patients in the nationally renowned Weinberg Center for Women’s Health and Medicine at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, Md.

Susan N. Shankman
Associate Rabbi, Washington Hebrew Congregation
Washington, DC
Rabbi Susan Shankman is an Associate Rabbi at Washington Hebrew Congregation. Along with officiating at services, life cycle events and pastoral care and counseling, Rabbi Shankman also focuses on adult education, youth programming, social action, outreach, programming for young families, and Sisterhood. She is Co-chair of the URJ Regional Outreach and Membership Committee, and a regional rabbinic advisor to NFTY-MAR. She was ordained by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) in Cincinnati in 2001. As a rabbinical student, Rabbi Shankman served student pulpits in Valparaiso, Ind., and Columbus, Miss., providing their sole rabbinic support. She worked as an intern in both the Youth Programs Department and the Outreach Department of HUC-JIR. Upon ordination, Rabbi Shankman received the Ferdinand M. Isserman Prize, recognizing her contributions toward the development of community relations.

Carol Shapiro
President and Director, Family Justice
New York, NY
Over the past 30 years, Carol Shapiro has devised numerous approaches to improving public safety and family well-being in the fields of drug abuse, mental health, housing and law enforcement. As the Founder and President of Family Justice, a national family-focused justice reform agency, Carol serves as an advisor to many governmental and citizen sector initiatives. In 2001, Carol was named an Ashoka Innovator for the Public Fellow. In 2002, Family Justice’s neighborhood family support center La Bodega de la Familia, in partnership with the New York State Division of Parole, was named a winner of Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government Innovations in American Government Award. Carol is also the recipient of the 2006 Maud Booth Correctional Services Award from Volunteers of America.

Cindy Spiegel
Senior Vice President, Spiegel & Grau
New York, NY
Cindy Spiegel, senior vice president and publisher at Spiegel & Grau (a division of Random House’s Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group), has published such bestsellers as Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner and James McBride’s The Color of Water. She has also discovered a number of prominent Jewish writers, including Aryeh Stollman and Gary Shteyngart. Formerly publisher of Penguin’s Riverhead Books, Spiegel considers herself lucky to have worked with people who respect her judgment. Her experience and success, coupled with this sentiment, inform the working philosophy – to allow editors to develop their own vision and simply ‘do their job’ – that has guided her to the top of her field.

Aviva Tessler
President and Founder, Operation Embrace
Potomac, MD
Aviva Tessler was inspired to create Operation Embrace, a non-profit that responds to the needs of injured victims of terror in Israel, while delivering Purim boxes to hospitalized Israeli survivors in 2001. In addition to serving as founder and president of the organization, Aviva is a licensed marriage and family therapist, teaches monthly Rosh Chodesh classes, weekly Torah portion classes, writes a weekly Torah column and lectures nationally and internationally on topics related to psychology, spirituality and Judaism. She has been a faculty member of the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School and the Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy, and teaches at Beth Sholom in Potomac, Md., where her husband Rabbi Joel Tessler leads the congregation.

Lorey Zlotnik
Vice President of Marketing and On-Air Promotions, Fox Reality
Los Angeles, CA
Lorey Zlotnick is the senior vice president of consumer marketing and on-air promotions at Fox Reality, Fox Cable Networks’ 24-hour reality television channel. She launched the marketing and on-air efforts for the network in Spring 2005, keeping her hands in everything from strategy to publicity to branding. Early in her career, Lorey won awards for her branding and marketing initiatives for the Los Angeles Times. Since then, she has spearheaded the promotional strategy behind hit Bravo TV show launches like Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and Project Runway, and has achieved incredible success launching advertising and promotional campaigns for Disney, Sony, NBC Universal and other entertainment giants.

2005 Honorees

Dr. Nieca Goldberg
Author and Medical Director
NYU Women's Heart Program
New York, NY
Founder of the Woman's Heart Program at New York City's Lenox Hill Hospital and former Chief of their Women’s Cardiac Care program, Dr. Nieca Goldberg is currently the Medical Director of the NYU Women’s Heart Program. She is the author of The Women’s Healthy Heart Program (originally published as Women Are Not Small Men: Life-Saving Strategies for Preventing and Healing Heart Disease in Women) and such an outspoken advocate for women's cardiac health that her face now appears on the back of several million boxes of Chex cereal. Her award-winning book has empowered women to better navigate the healthcare system. Dr. Goldberg is publishing her second book in January 2008, called Dr. Nieca Goldberg’s Complete Guide to Women’s Health.

Amy B. Harris
Writer and Producer for Film and Television
New York, NY

Rosalyn Jonas
Abortion Rights Activist
Since she was elected to the national board of NARAL Pro-Choice America in 2002, Rosalyn Jonas has been dedicated to the organization and its mission to guarantee every woman the right to make her own decisions about the full range of reproductive choices. She served for three years as chair of the national board and continues her work there while also serving on the board of NARAL Pro-Choice Maryland. As a member of the board of directors of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington and as its president, Roz created Sarah’s Sisters, an ongoing series of programs designed to enrich the lives of Jewish women, and worked to create a culture of receptivity to women’s involvement as agency lay leaders.

Stacy D. Phillips
Senior Partner, Phillips, Lerner, Lauzon & Jamra
Los Angeles, CA
A founding partner of Phillips, Lerner, Lauzon & Jamra, LLP, in Los Angeles, Stacy D. Phillips helps educate clients to make informed decisions at the most difficult times in their lives. Stacy specializes in family law and handles cases of divorce, custody, paternity and other areas of matrimonial litigation and mediation for an A-List client roster. She is considered one of the nation's premier experts in family law, offering lectures in law schools, bar associations and professional groups, commentary on television news shows, radio programs and quotes and articles in national publications. Her first book, Divorce: It's All About Control, How to Win the Emotional, Psychological and Legal Wars, was released in August.

Hannah Rosenthal
Executive Director, Chicago Foundation for Women
Chicago, IL
As Executive Director of Chicago Foundation for Women, Hannah Rosenthal oversees one of the largest women’s funds in the world. The Foundation’s priority issues include comprehensive access to health services and information, freedom from violence and abuse, and economic self-sufficiency. Prior to joining Chicago Foundation for Women, Hannah served as executive director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA), making history as the only woman heading a major national Jewish organization in 2000. Hannah has been named one of the 21 Leaders for the 21st Century by Women’s eNews and was included in the 2006 “Who’s Who Among Foundation Executives” in Crain’s Chicago Business.

Rabbi Amy Schwartzman
Senior Rabbi of Temple Rodef Shalom
VP of the Washington Board of Rabbis
Falls Church, VA
In 1998, Rabbi Amy Schwartzman broke ground when she became senior rabbi of Temple Rodef Shalom in Falls Church, Va., the largest congregation in the country headed by a woman rabbi at that time. She is involved in the leadership of many Jewish organizations including the Central Conference of American Rabbis and the Rabbinic Alumni Association of the Hebrew Union College and was the co-coordinator of the Women’s Rabbinic Network from 1997-1999. She has worked with many community organizations including the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, national and local housing organizations, and has been active in community AIDS projects. She also has served as president of the McLean Clergy Association.

Rachel Simmons
Author, Odd Girl Out
Founding Director, The Girls’ Leadership Institute
Brooklyn, NY
As a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, Rachel Simmons discovered her life’s calling when she started to study aggression in girls. She withdrew from Oxford and wrote the best-selling book Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls, based on hundreds of interviews with girls and the universal experiences that came to light in the process. Rachel has written a follow-up book, Odd Girl Speaks Out: Girls Write about Bullies, Cliques, Popularity, and Jealousy. She is an expert on the subject of female bullying among youth, and has spoken to schools across the country and appeared on television shows including “Oprah” and “Dateline NBC.” Rachel is the founder of the summer camp program, the Girls Leadership Institute, and is currently working on a third book, a guide to empowering girls.

Dr. Catherine Steiner-Adair
Clinical Psychologist and Researcher
Cambridge, MA

Susan W. Turnbull
Chair, Jewish Women International Board of Trustees (as of June 2009);Chair, Maryland Democratic Party
Bethesda, MD
A life-long community activist who is involved with a myriad of professional paid and unpaid activities, Susan W. Turnbull is a small business woman who devotes countless hours to both political and philanthropic organizations. The Chair of the Maryland Democratic Party, and former Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee, Ms. Turnbull also serves in leadership roles with the Jewish Social Service Agency of Metropolitan Washington, The Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Hillel the Foundation for Jewish Campus Life and the University of Maryland Institute for Citizenship and Politics. Susan joined JWI’s Board of Trustees in 2006 and was Chair of the 2007 Women to Watch event.

Debra Weinberg
Coordinator, ACHARAI: The Shoshana S. Cardin Leadership Development Institute
Baltimore, MD
Debra Silberman Weinberg has facilitated leadership programs in the Jewish community for the past 15 years, currently as the coordinator of ACHARAI: The Shoshana S. Cardin Leadership Development Institute, and previously as executive director of the Darrell Friedman Institute for Professional Development (formerly the Baltimore Institute for Jewish Communal Service). As a social worker in the 1980s, she worked to resettle immigrants from the former Soviet Union. Debra is the past Chair of a volunteer committee that helped revitalize Jewish life in the former Soviet metropolis of Odessa. Currently, she is Chair of the HBI (Hadassah Brandeis Institute), which looks at gender and Judaism in fresh ways through scholarly research and artistic projects.

Ivy Zelman
Stock Analyst/Broker
Moreland Hills, OH
After 17 years working as a stock analyst, including 10 years at Credit Suisse First Boston and 7 years at Salomon Brothers, Ivy Zelman is opening her own securities broker/dealer with her husband David. The company, Zelman Partners, LLC, opens for business in early October 2007. While at Credit Suisse, Ivy covered 22 home-building, building products and furniture companies, and earned an enviable reputation for the accuracy of her stock predictions. The May 2005 issue of Forbes magazine ranked her number one among 3,300 analysts in all of Wall Street. She has been rated the number-one analyst in the housing industry by the Institutional Investors All American Research Team since 1999, and by the Greenwich Associates Institutional Research Services Poll since 2000.

2004 Honorees

Bonnie Bernstein
National Sports Reporter & Host, ABC/ESPN
New York, NY
At 36, Bonnie Bernstein has risen to the top of a traditionally male-dominated field and is a reporter and host for ABC Sports and ESPN. Once a competitive gymnast at the University of Maryland, Bonnie was the first female weekday sports anchor in Reno, Nev., and spent eight years as one of the most visible faces at CBS Sports prior to joining ABC/ESPN in 2006. One of the few female sportscasters at the Network level, Bonnie has covered nearly every professional and collegiate sport, including football, basketball, baseball, gymnastics, track, tennis and figure skating.

Dr. Joslyn (Joey) Fisher, MD, MPH
Physician
Houston, TX
Dr. Joslyn (Joey) Fisher is a physician and an Assistant Professor of Medicine and Medical Ethics at Baylor College of Medicine. She practices and teaches medical students and residents at Ben Taub General Hospital, the largest provider of indigent care in Harris County (Houston, Tx.). Her academic focus is on women’s health and in particular domestic violence. She is the founder of the VIVA (Volunteer Initiative vs. Violent Acts) Project, which teaches healthcare professionals how to identify and intervene in cases where patients have experienced domestic violence. She also is the co-founder and President of the Texas Medical Center Women’s Health Network, a non-profit dedicated to advancing women’s health through inter-disciplinary, inter-institutional collaborations.

Zehava Gal-On
Member of Knesset
Jerusalem, Israel
Zehava Gal-On, the first-ever female head of a Knesset faction (Meretz-Yachad), is changing the world, one law at a time. Zehava is renowned for her record on women's issues and human rights. A founder of the human rights watchdog organization B'Tselem, she has passed laws that provide mandatory prison terms for sexual offenders and abusive husbands; give women leaving battered women’s shelters financial assistance to help them start new lives; and require the representation of women in all sports organizations. Zehava also has initiated laws against human trafficking and serves as chairperson of the SubCommittee on Trafficking in Women.

Lauren Greenfield
Photographer and Documentary Filmmaker
Venice, CA
Lauren Greenfield is considered a preeminent chronicler of youth culture as a result of her groundbreaking projects Girl Culture and Fast Forward. Her photographs have been widely exhibited and are in many museum collections including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago. She was named by American Photo as one of the 25 most influential photographers working today. Her latest work, Thin, is Greenfield’s first feature-length documentary film (HBO) and a companion photography book (Chronicle Books), both of which have won several awards including an Emmy Nomination for Outstanding Directing and the Best Documentary Award at the London Film Festival.

Rabbi Karyn Kedar
Author & Pulpit Rabbi
Congregation B'nai Jehoshua Beth Elohim
Glenview, IL
Rabbi Karyn Kedar leads Congregation B'nai Jehoshua Beth Elohim in the Chicago suburb of Glenview, Ill., one of only seven or eight women in the world to serve as senior rabbi in a congregation of 800 members or more. She was previously director of the Great Lakes Region of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, overseeing 62 Reform congregations in five Midwest states. She holds the distinction of being the first woman rabbi in Jerusalem. Kedar has also authored three books, The Bridge to Forgiveness, God Whispers: Stories of the Soul, Lessons of the Heart (Jewish Lights Publishing, 2000) and Our Dance With God (originally called The Dance of the Dolphin and retitled for the paperback edition, Jewish Lights Publishing, 2001).

Dr. Amy Kossoff
Sibley Hospital
Unity Healthcare
Founder, "Womenade"
Chevy Chase, MD
Dr. Amy Kossoff began working with indigent patients immediately after medical school and often gave those patients money for prescriptions and other basic needs. She currently serves as the staff physician at Unity Healthcare and medical staff at Sibley Hospital in Washington, D.C. She also is the founder of Womenade, a fundraising model in which women get together with a dish to eat and a check to give to the needy. Since 2000, Womenade has raised tens of thousands of dollars and has been replicated in communities nationwide.

Laura Heller Lauder
Venture Philanthropist
Atherton, CA
Laura Heller Lauder is a venture philanthropist who, in 2001, founded DeLeT (the Hebrew word for “door”), Day-school Leadership through Training. DeLeT is a fellowship program to recruit and train top-quality teachers for careers in Jewish day schools. In 2002, with 12 co-funders, the program began to train 20 fellows each year. Graduates are now enriching the lives of students in Jewish schools nationwide. Lauder is the wife of venture capitalist Gary Lauder, whose family is known for its cosmetics brand and generous philanthropy work.

Stacy Madison
Co-founder, Stacy's Pita Chip Company
Randolph, MA
After a four-year career in social work and living in California, Stacy Madison met Stacy’s Pita Chip Company Co-Founder Mark Andrus. They decided to go into business together and moved back to the east coast, where they founded Stacy's Pita Chip Company. Stacy was invited to the White House in 1999 as a leading woman-owned business. The company also received the 2004 Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce “Small Business of the Year” award and was honored with the Fleet Bank Entrepreneur of the Year award. Stacy is a frequent public speaker, presenting to organizations including the Harvard-Radcliffe Women’s Leadership Conference, Northeastern University Entrepreneurship Club and the Financial Women’s Association. Stacy also participated in the New York/Boston AIDS Ride – riding 350 miles to help support the fight against AIDS.

Dr. Deborah Marin
Chief Medical Officer, The Mount Sinai Medical Center
New York, NY

Julie Bender Silver
President, Bender Foundation, Inc.
Washington, DC
Julie Bender Silver is president of the Bender Foundation, Inc., the Washington, D.C. family foundation started by her grandfather that annually contributes to more than 70 nonprofit groups. Her experience with volunteering and leadership began with the Service Guild of Washington, a group of Jewish women who volunteer for community projects, which she served as president from 1986-1988. For the Jewish Community Center, she led the creation of the Bender-Dosik Parenting Center, where parents find support, learn about Jewish values, and seek advice from child development experts. Julie also was instrumental in launching the second site at Glen Echo for Discovery Creek children's museum. Her fundraising skills have benefited numerous institutions, including the Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, the Jewish Social Service Agency, the National Children's Hospital, and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Linda Kaplan Thaler
Founder, CEO and Chief Creative Officer, Kaplan Thaler Group
New York, NY
As CEO and Chief Creative Officer for the Kaplan Thaler Group, Linda Kaplan Thaler is the creative force behind such marketing icons as AFLAC’s talking duck, the Toys-R-Us "I Don't Want to Grow Up" song, and Clairol's Herbal Essences shampoo campaign. Under Linda’s leadership, the Kaplan Thaler Group has been ranked by industry publications as the fastest-growing ad agency in the country. Linda has co-written two books with Robin Koval: the best-selling book, Bang! Getting Your Message Heard in a Noisy World and The Power of Nice: How to Conquer the Business World with Kindness. Linda and her husband, composer Fred Thaler, have created numerous pro bono films for the United Jewish Communities that have helped raise millions of dollars.

2003 Honorees

Gila Bronner
President and CEO, Bronner Group, LLC
Chicago, IL
Gila J. Bronner, CPA, is president and CEO of Bronner Group, LLC, a woman-owned, multi-disciplined professional services company for federal, state and local government entities. Gila is a nationally recognized authority on governmental auditing, compliance and oversight and a thought leader on public sector implementation and compliance issues associated with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. She serves or has served on numerous civic and professional boards as well as several independent oversight and advisory commissions, including the Illinois State Government Accountability Council, where she led a high profile government-wide customer service improvement initiative. Gila was appointed by President Clinton to the governing board of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum and by NASA to serve on the NASA Advisory Council, Financial Audit Committee.

Shifra Bronznick
Principal, Bronznick & Co., LLC
Founding President of Advancing Women Professionals and the Jewish Community
New York, NY
Shifra Bronznick, president of Advancing Women Professionals and the Jewish Community and founder of change management firm Bronznick & Co., has built a career out of her innovative approaches to help shatter the glass ceiling and offer a new model for leadership in not for profit organizations. The co-author, of Leveling The Playing Field: Advancing Women in Jewish Organizations, Shifra has spent the last decade creating initiatives that promote gender equality, diversity and flexibility in a range of influential Jewish organizations. Her consulting work with organizations, such as The White House Project, American Jewish World Service and the Nathan Cummings Foundation, has focused on leadership and social change.

Diana Cantor
Executive Director, Virginia College Savings Plan
Glen Allen, VA
Diana Cantor is the executive director of the innovative Virginia College Savings Plan that has inspired similar programs throughout the U.S. A CPA and attorney, Diana left a career in investment banking at Goldman Sachs to build the state’s 529 program from scratch into a $27 billion agency with more than 4 million accounts. At the end of 2007, Diana will be leaving her position after 11 years to join banker Howard Milstein and his New York Private Bank and Trust. Because of Diana’s pioneering success in Virginia, countless families nationwide are learning how to save for the escalating costs of education, and finding it easier to do so.

Ruth Faden
Executive Director, Phoebe R. Berman Bioethics Institute
Baltimore, MD
Ruth R. Faden, Ph.D., M.P.H., is the Philip Franklin Wagley Professor of Biomedical Ethics and Executive Director of The Phoebe R. Berman Bioethics Institute at Johns Hopkins University. She is also a Senior Research Scholar at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University. She is the author and editor of numerous books and articles on biomedical ethics and health policy including Social Justice: The Moral Foundations of Public Health and Health Policy (with Madison Powers), AIDS, Women and the Next Generation (Ruth Faden, Gail Geller and Madison Powers, eds.), and HIV, AIDS and Childbearing: Public Policy, Private Lives (Ruth Faden and Nancy Kass, eds.). Dr. Faden is a member of the Institute of Medicine and a Fellow of the Hastings Center and the American Psychological Association.

Cherie Kirschbaum
President, City Projects, Inc.
Denver, CO
Cherie Kirschbaum is president of City Projects, Inc., a company committed to leading change that transforms people, places and communities. City Projects specializes in assisting private, public and government clients in identifying new and innovative financial resources for real estate development projects in housing, education, healthcare and transit. Cherie is a member of the Advisory Board of Seedco Financial Services Denver and is the immediate past president of the Board of the Mile High Housing Fund, a $13 million community development investment fund located in Denver. In addition, Cherie is producing a short-film documentary, “Boomer Creatives: Facing Change Head On©.”

Sherri Mandell
Founder, The Koby Mandell Foundation
Israel

Maria Ramos
Attorney & Consultant on Multiculturalism
Mill Valley, CA
Maria Ramos-Chertok is a lawyer and an advocate for victims of family violence. She is the author of a benchbook for judges on cultural considerations in domestic abuse cases and a consultant to non-profit organizations on communication, multiculturalism and conflict resolution. Her childhood home became one of the nation's first domestic violence shelters when her mother began taking in boarders to help those in need. Raised by a Jewish mother converted to Catholicism, Ramos reconnected with Judaism in adulthood.

Rochelle Shoretz
Founder, Sharsheret
Teaneck, NJ
Rochelle Shoretz founded Sharsheret, a national non-profit providing support and resources for young Jewish women facing breast cancer, following her own diagnosis at age 28. As Executive Director of Sharsheret from 2001-2006 and now as a member of Sharsheret's Board of Directors, she lectures about breast cancer before audiences across the country. Rochelle’s pioneering efforts in establishing Sharsheret have been recognized by Joshua Venture, a fellowship that supports the efforts of a new generation of young Jewish leaders. In 1999, she served as a law clerk to United States Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and is currently an associate in the Investment Management Group at Debevoise & Plimpton, LLP, a law firm in New York City.

Audrey Weiner
President and CEO, Jewish Home & Hospital Life-Care System
New York, NY
Audrey S. Weiner, DSW, MPH is president and CEO of the Jewish Home & Hospital Lifecare System in New York, a continuum serving 10,000 elders a year. She also serves as Chair of the Ethics Commission of The American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging and the Continuing Care Leadership coalition, the New York area non-profit long term care provider association. Audrey is a past president of the Jewish Communal Services Association, Vice President of the World Council of Jewish Communal Services, a member of the Advancing Women Professional’s Board and recently completed her term as co-chair of the Women’s Executive Circle of UJA-Federation of New York. In 2006, she edited the first special issue of the Journal of Jewish Communal Service on aging in the Jewish community.

Jennifer Weiner
Author
Philadelphia, PA
Jennifer Weiner worked as a newspaper reporter in Central Pennsylvania, Lexington, Ky., and Philadelphia before publishing her first novel, Good in Bed in 2001. She has since published three additional novels: In Her Shoes (2002), Little Earthquakes (2004), and Goodnight Nobody (2006), as well as a collection of short stories, The Guy Not Taken, published in September 2006. In October 2005, the film version of In Her Shoes, starring Cameron Diaz, Toni Collette and Shirley MacLaine, was released. Jennifer’s next novel, the sequel to Good in Bed, will be published in the spring of 2008.

2002 Honorees

Col. Michelle Ross
U.S. Army
Edgewood, MD

Maggy Siegel
President, Delman and Nina Kids
New York, NY
Maggy Siegel is currently President of Delman and Nina Kids Footwear, both divisions of Nina Footwear Corp. Prior to Delman, she was the President and CEO of Judith Leiber LLC until 2005. Maggy has held several other senior management positions within the luxury goods industry including Vice President of Fine Jewelry and Watches at Chanel; President of Baume & Mercier; Vice President of International for Coach; and President of Tiffany’s Swiss Watch Center and Vice President of Merchandising for Tiffany & Company. Maggy serves as Vice President of the Board of Trustees of CancerCare and is a member of its Executive, Gala and Program Advisory and Oversight Committees. She also is a member of the Dean’s Council for Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business.

Dr. Rachel Brem
Director, Breast Imaging
George Washington University Medial Center
Owings Mills, MD
Dr. Rachel Brem is the director of Breast Imaging and Intervention as well as a Professor of Radiology at The George Washington University Medical Center. She has been instrumental in developing new technologies for the improved and earlier diagnosis of breast cancer including using artificial intelligence to detect earlier cancers on mammograms as well as molecular breast imaging using Breast Specific Gamma Imaging. Dr. Brem has received numerous awards, honors and recognition, including the Journal of Women’s Imaging’s “Editor’s Recognition Award” and the International Biographical Center’s “Woman of the Year.” She serves as a reviewer to numerous journals including The Journal of National Cancer Institute, the American Journal of Roentgenology, The Breast Journal, the Journal of Nuclear Medicine and the Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

Nikki Tesfai
Director, African Community Resource Center
Los Angeles, CA

Deborah Drattell
Composer-in-Residence, NYC Opera
Brooklyn, NY

Linda Addison
Partner, Fulbright & Jaworski, L.L.P.
Houston, TX
Linda Addison is an internationally-recognized litigator and corporate counselor who serves on the Executive Committee of Fulbright & Jaworski LLP. Described by Lawdragon as “equally skilled at keeping CEOs out of the courtroom as she is representing them once there,” she was named one of the “50 Most Influential Women Lawyers in America” by the National Law Journal in 2007 and one of only 17 women named as one of the “100 Most Influential Lawyers in America” in 2006. Honored as the United Way of the Texas Gulf Coast 2006 Woman of the Year, she serves on the United States Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad, and on the boards of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center Foundation and the Holocaust Museum Houston.

Andrea Kalin
Documentary Filmmaker
Washington, DC
An award-winning filmmaker, Andrea Kalin is currently directing two new documentaries, Prince Among Slaves and Soul of a People: Voices from the Writers’ Project, scheduled to be released by fall and spring 2008, respectively. Andrea’s PBS documentary Partners of the Heart won several awards and was named Best History Documentary by the Organization of American Historians in 2004. Her recent documentary The Pact has collected rave reviews on the festival circuit and will air on public television in 2008. Andrea has produced several programs for cause-related campaigns, including a featurette on eliminating animal research and promoting preventive medicine and a film about increasing religious pluralism. She also produced a retrospective about being Jewish in Washington featuring Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and NY Times Columnist Frank Rich.

Rabbi Yael Ridberg
West End Synagogue
New York, NY
Rabbi Yael Ridberg, the dynamic leader of the West End Synagogue in New York, is in her tenth year with that congregation. Her leadership skills and progressive ideas are helping transform her synagogue and the Reconstructionist movement. She serves on the executive committee of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association and she serves as a commentator for the movement’s Guide for Jewish Practice. Rabbi Ridberg has been invited to speak and lead workshops across the denominational spectrum and has recently contributed to the forthcoming, Life, Faith, and Cancer to be published this fall by the Reform Press.

Pearl Gluck
Documentary Filmmaker, Palinka Pictures
New York, NY
Pearl Gluck carries the Hasidic tradition of her youth into her filmmaking. Her first film “Divan” (2004) tracks her great-grandfather’s rabbinic couch from its origins in Hungary to Brooklyn’s Hasidic community. “Williamsburg: Inside/Out” (2007), broadcast in France, is a documentary tour of Hasidic culture from inside the community to its artistic arbiters in the “outside world.” Her work has been supported by the Fulbright Grant to Hungary, the National Foundation for Jewish Culture, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Sundance Institute, the Hadassah Brandeis Institute, among others. Her video art, short films, and features have premiered internationally in venues such as the Sundance Channel, Film Forum, Cannes Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, and Lincoln Center. Her work continues through Palinka Pictures.

Ruth Bar-On
Founder, SELAH—Israel Crisis Management Center
Tel Aviv, Israel
Ruth Bar-On and her organization, SELAH, have sought to fill the void in counseling and social services for Israeli immigrants since 1993. The Israel Crisis Management Center helps the families and children of those killed in terror attacks and the injured themselves. They assist the children left behind in an unfamiliar country and also help new immigrants affected by fire, flood, car accidents or family violence. Ruth is a lifeline for those victims who live without a support network. Prior to leading SELAH, she was the executive director of the Israel Public Council for Soviet Jewry.

2001 Honorees

Susan Bressler, M.D.
Professor of Ophthamology, Johns Hopkins University Hospital
When Dr. Susan Bressler was promoted to professor of ophthalmology at the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins University, she became the second woman to hold that position. In May 2004, she was inducted as the inaugural recipient of the Julia G. Levy, PhD Professor of Ophthalmology. She has published 150 peer reviewed articles and 50 book chapters. Her main research interest has been collaborative efforts in clinical trials, with specific emphasis on the treatment of choroidal neovascularization in age-related macular degeneration. She has received several awards in her field, including a Senior Achievement Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology and the Honor Award from The American Society of Retina Specialists.

Amy B. Dean
Co-Founder, Building Partnerships USA
San Jose, CA
Amy Dean is co-founder of Building Partnerships USA (BPUSA), a national non-profit organization dedicated to increasing civic and political participation to strengthen democracy and advance social and economic justice at the regional level. Amy is currently co-authoring a book entitled, Toward a More Perfect Union: Rebuilding America’s Social Contract Region by Region. When she was elected to lead the Silicon Valley AFL-CIO, Amy was the youngest person and first woman to lead a major metropolitan labor federation. She has received the John W. Gardner Exemplary Leader Award form the American Leadership Forum; the Gloria Steinem Woman of Vision Award from the Ms. Foundation; and the Young Practitioner Award from the Industrial Relations Research Association. In July 2007, Amy began her service as Co-Chair of the Board of the public foundation Jewish Funds for Justice.

The Honorable Nanci J. Grant
Sixth Circuit Court
Pontiac, MI
When elected in 1996 as an Oakland County Circuit Judge, the Honorable Nanci J. Grant was one of the youngest women elected to the circuit court in Michigan. She is a past Presiding Judge of the General Jurisdiction Division of the Sixth Circuit Court and also has served as President of the Michigan Judges Association. She recently was elected by the state’s judiciary to serve as their representative on the Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission, which serves to promote the integrity of the judicial process and preserve public confidence in the courts. Judge Grant has achieved the Martindale-Hubbell “AV” rating, a recognition by peers as the highest standard of professional ethics and legal abilities.

Laura E. Kaufman
Executive Director, Jewish Women’s Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago
Chicago, IL
Laura E. Kaufman is an innovative leader whose passions for philanthropy, social service and women’s issues have immersed her in a career of outreach and advocacy. As executive director of the Jewish Women’s Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago, Laura led the foundation from its early stages into a mature organization – increasing its endowment to $6.65 million and giving away more than $1 million to projects benefiting Jewish women and girls in Chicago, Israel and around the world. She has spent more than 24 years working on behalf of the interests of women and girls and has worked as a grant maker for 10 years. Laura is a frequent speaker on women and girls’ issues and has won several awards throughout her career.

Hilary Rosen
President, OurChart.com
Washington, DC
Hilary Rosen is president of OurChart.com and the former chairman and CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the trade group representing the U.S. sound recording industry. She is also a media and technology consultant and an on-air political analyst for MSNBC TV. While at RIAA, Hilary played a crucial role in developing new policies and business models for on-line music distribution. She is a founder and board member of Rock the Vote and has received numerous awards for her advocacy work including the Human Rights Campaign’s National Equality Award, Gay and Lesbian Family Pride Coalition Leader of the Year Award, PowerUp’s Most Powerful Women of 2002, The ACLU Bill of Rights Award and the National Association of Recording Merchandisers Humanitarian of the Year Award.

Michal Rovner
Artist
New York, NY
Michal Rovner is an Israeli-born artist who has maintained a studio in New York City since 1988. Michal’s work – in video, film, sound, sculpture, paper and canvas – has been the subject of more than 40 solo exhibitions, including a mid-career retrospective at the Whitney Museum in New York; the Israeli Pavilion at Venice Biennale; PaceWildenstein Gallery, New York; and Jeu de Paume, Paris. Several major museums have collected her work, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Museum of Modern Art, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. Michal also has site specific and public art projects displayed in cities around the world. In 2005, she created Living Landscape, a permanent 12-meter high video wall, to be the first chapter of the new historical museum of Yad Vashem.

Yael Sternhell
Graduate Student
Yael Sternhell is currently completing a PhD at Princeton University. She specializes in the history of the American South and in the cultural history of societies at war. This winter she will be returning to her native Israel to begin post-doctoral work with a fellowship from the Yad Hanadiv Foundation. Before becoming an academic, she worked as a journalist in Israel for several years, starting with her military service as a reporter for the army’s popular and influential radio station, Galei Tzahal. She then moved on to television, anchoring news for Channel 1 between the years 1997 and 2002, when she moved to the United States to begin graduate work in history.

Elizabeth Shammash
Opera Singer
New York, NY

Susan Sygall
CEO/Co-Founder, Mobility International USA
Eugene, OR
Susan Sygall is the CEO and co-founder of Mobility International USA, and serves as a trainer, presenter and consultant throughout the United States, Latin America, Europe and Asia on a variety of topics related to leadership, international exchange, inclusion and services for people with disabilities. She has directed international exchange programs sponsored by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs since 1983. Susan has spearheaded several international meetings including the First, Second and Third Women’s Institute on Leadership and Disability in 1997, 2003 and 2006. he is the recipient of several awards, including the President’s Award from President Clinton in 1995. Most recently, Susan was among the 1000 women nominated for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize.

Miriam Weintraub
Producer/Consultant
Bethesda, MD

After 13 years producing segments for CBS's 60 Minutes and 60 Minutes II, Miriam Weintraub is now taking her talents behind the scenes. As a senior media consultant for numerous national and international PR firms, she advises clients about the news business and helps them secure high profile, in-depth media coverage. Miriam also is a freelance producer, working with various non-profit organizations to develop poignant and compelling videos for fundraising and outreach purposes. Miriam is the recipient of two Emmy awards and an RFK Memorial award for her part in a three-hour documentary on violence in America and a profile of opera diva Denyce Graves. While at CBS, Miriam co-produced Ed Bradley's headline-making interview with basketball legend Michael Jordan, which garnered 60 Minutes' highest ratings in years

2000 Honorees

Aliza Sherman
Advocate for Young Women’s Empowerment
New York, NY
Aliza Sherman, aka "Cybergrrl," started the first full-service, woman-owned new media company (Cybergrrl, Inc.) in the mid-90s and the first global women's hybrid online/offline tech organization (Webgrrls International). That year, Newsweek magazine named her one of the “Top 50 People Who Matter Most on the Internet.” Since then, Aliza has authored seven books including PowerTools for Women in Business and Streetwise Ecommerce. She also freelances for national publications including Entrepreneur. In 2000, Aliza left New York to RV solo around the country for over a year before relocating to Wyoming after 9/11. She currently lives in Alaska and consults, speaks, writes and blogs about Web strategy, blogging, social networking and virtual worlds. Her work can be found at www.mediaegg.com.

Myla Goldberg
Novelist, Bee Season
Brooklyn, NY
Myla Goldberg is the author of Bee Season, which was a New York Times Notable Book for 2000, was awarded the Harold U. Ribalow Prize and the Borders New Voices Prize, and was a finalist for the Hemingway Foundation/PEN award, the NYPL Young Lions award, and the Barnes & Noble Discover award. Myla’s essay collection, Time’s Magpie, explores her favorite places in Prague, where she lived in the early 1990s. Her novel Wickett’s Remedy explores the nature of human ambition and the frailty of individual and collective memory. Her short stories have appeared in McSweeneys and Harpers. Her book reviews have appeared in the New York Times and Bookforum. Myla’s latest book, Catching the Moon, was published in May 2007 and is her debut children’s book.

Hilary Price
Cartoonist, “Rhymes With Orange”
Florence, MA
Hilary Price creates the syndicated daily comic strip Rhymes With Orange, which appears in 150 newspapers internationally and has made cameos in People magazine and Forbes. Her third collection of cartoons, titled Pithy Seedy Pulpy Juicy, is a behind-the-scenes look at her cartoons and their funny or trouble-making background stories. The collection is being released in October 2007. Rhymes With Orange won “Best Newspaper Panel” from the National Cartoonists Society in 2006. When Rhymes With Orange began 12 years ago, Hilary, then 25, was the youngest woman ever to have a daily comic strip. Hilary is also a playwright, and her first full-length play, a farce called “Santacide,” will be staged this December in Northampton, Mass.

Sara Bloomfield
Executive Director, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
Washington, DC
Sara Bloomfield became director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1999 after serving in a number of positions. Under her direction, the Museum created a series of innovative leadership training programs for law enforcement, the military and diplomats, and launched its Academy for Genocide Prevention. She also established the National Institute for Holocaust Education and the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies. Sara has led several complex negotiations on behalf of the Museum in order to rescue endangered artifacts and archives that document the Holocaust in Croatia. For the Museum’s 10th Anniversary, she secured the first-ever loan of a variety of Anne Frank’s original writings, including parts of her world-famous diary. Sara has become a valued advisor to museums around the world.

Susan Bass Levin
First Deputy Executive Director, Port Authority of NY & NJ
Susan Bass Levin was appointed First Deputy Executive Director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey by Governor Jon S. Corzine in July 2007. She is the senior New Jersey official on the Agency’s executive management team that oversees more than 7,000 public employees. Her career as a public servant in New Jersey started as Mayor of Cherry Hill, which she held for 14 years, and has included Cabinet member positions in the administrations of three New Jersey governors, Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, and a current position on the New Jersey Local Finance Board. As a cancer survivor, she is especially proud of her work in establishing an Ovarian Cancer Research Fund at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey.

Nancy Lublin
CEO, Do Something
New York, NY
Since August 2003, Nancy Lublin has overseen Do Something’s growth and led the effort to begin awarding more grant money to young people who want to change the world. An organization that encourages volunteerism among young people, Do Something produced America’s first televised award show about changing the world this year. The BR!CK Awards aired on The CW Network on April 12. Nancy also is the founder and former Executive Director of Dress for Success, which provides low-income women with interview suits and career development training in more than 70 cities in four countries. She was named a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader (2007), one of Glamour magazine’s Women of Worth (2006), received Fast Company’s Fast 50 Award (2002), and was named the NYC Women’s Commission Woman of the Year (2000).

Gisele Ben-Dor
Musical Director and Conductor,Santa Barbara Symphony
Santa Barbara, CA

Jane Ira Bloom
Soprano saxophonist/composer
New York, NY
Soprano saxophonist/composer Jane Ira Bloom is a pioneer in the use of live electronics and movement in jazz. She has recorded and produced 13 albums of her music. Her latest CD, “Mental Weather,” is due for release in Jan. 2008. Jane is the winner of the 2007 Guggenheim Fellowship in music composition; the 2007 Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Award for lifetime service to jazz; the 2006 Jazz Journalists Association Award; the Downbeat International Critics Poll for soprano saxophone; and the Charlie Parker Fellowship for jazz innovation. She recently premiered “The 5th Wheel” at the New York City Center’s ”Fall for Dance” series, a new work for dancer/ choreographer Carmen deLavallade and jazz quartet. Jane serves on the faculty of the New School for Jazz & Contemporary Music.

Dr. Ann Pulver
Medical Researcher
Baltimore, MD

Rabbi Susan Grossman
Rabbi, Beth Shalom Congregation
Columbia, MD
Rabbi Susan Grossman has served as spiritual leader of Beth Shalom Congregation in Columbia, Md., since 1997. She currently serves on the Committee for Jewish Law and Standards of the Conservative Movement, for which she has authored responsa (rabbinic decisions) on women and mikveh, women serving as witnesses in Jewish law, and the definition of birth and the permissibility of “partial birth abortion.” She also co-edited the anthology Daughters of the King: Women and the Synagogue. Rabbi Grossman served as one of the editors of the Conservative Movement Humash, Etz Hayim and Torah Commentary for which she co-edited, with Rabbi Elliot Dorff, the Halakha L’ Maaseh section and worked with Rabbi Harold Kushner on the Derash section. Currently, she is the Conservative voice on Beliefnet.com’s Virtual Talmud blog.

1999 Honorees

June Beallor
June Beallor Productions, Dream Works SKG
Universal City, CA

Ilene Busch-Vishniac
Provost and Vice President Academic, McMaster University
Ontario, Canada
Ilene Busch-Vishniac is the Provost and Vice-President Academic at McMaster University in Ontario. She started her term at McMaster on August 1st, 2007, following nine years at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore where she was a professor of mechanical engineering and also served as the dean of the Whiting School of Engineering from 1998-2003. She has received many teaching and research awards, including the Achievement Award of the Society of Women Engineers; the Curtis McGraw Research Award of the American Society for Engineering Education; and the Silver Medal in Engineering Acoustics of the Acoustical Society of America. Her research work has focused on transduction and on noise control, including designs of highway noise barriers and controlling noise in hospitals.

Stella Cohen
Artist
Harare, Zimbabwe

Ruth Dreifuss
President of Switzerland
Switzerland

Debbie Friedman
Singer-Songwriter
Great Neck, NY

Margie Goldstein-Engle
Champion Equestrian
Wellington, FL

Cheryl Halpern
Chairman of the Board, Corporation for Public Broadcasting
Livingston, NJ
Cheryl Halpern, Chairman of the Board for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, has a long record of public service in broadcasting, women's issues, education, and international affairs. In 1990, Cheryl was confirmed as a member of the Board for International Broadcasting and as a director of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). From 1995 through 2002, she served on the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) overseeing Voice of America, Radio and TV Marti, RFE/RL, Worldnet, Radio Free Asia and Radio Free Iraq. In August 2002, Mrs. Halpern was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve as a director of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). In September 2005, she was elected to be chairman of the CPB.

Amy Langer
Executive Director, NABCO
New York, NY

Laura Scher
Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer, Working Assets
San Francisco, CA
Laura Scher is chairperson and CEO of Working Assets, an independent wireless, long distance and credit card company dedicated to building a world that is more just, humane and environmentally sustainable. Under Laura’s leadership, the company has donated more than $50 million to progressive nonprofit groups. She has taught "Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship" at the undergraduate level at Stanford University and has authored chapters in several books, including The Business of Changing the World, edited by Marc Benioff and Hands On! 33 More Things Every Girl Should Know, edited by Suzanne Harper. She serves on the boards of eScrip, SalesForce.com's Foundation, Lightfull Foods and the Rosenberg Foundation.

Wendy Selig-Prieb
President, Milwaukee Brewers Baseball
Milwaukee, WI

1998 Honorees

Allegra Goodman
Novelist
Cambridge, MA

Judith Helfand
Documentary Filmmaker
New York, NY

Tamara Jacobs
Tamara Jacobs Communications
New York, NY
Tamara Jacobs, Founder and President of Tamara Jacobs Communications, Inc. is an internationally-recognized authority in the field of marketing communications, presentation and media training as well as etiquette and image consulting. Tamara and her staff of veteran trainers specialize in helping pharmaceutical, fashion, consumer, medical, and financial company executives and employees become more articulate, approachable and credible. She is the creator of the popular CD-Rom, Effective Presentation: The Power of Organized Conversation, and has recently authored the definitive “how to” guide for establishing and leveraging the power of your personal equity entitled, “Be the Brand.”

Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi
Founder & President, The Israel Project
Annapolis, MD
Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi is the founder and president of The Israel Project (TIP), an international non-profit organization devoted to educating the press and the public about Israel while promoting security, freedom and peace. An expert on Middle East issues and communications, Jennifer meets regularly with top Israeli, American and other world leaders. She has published more than 300 columns on politics and/or public policy and has been profiled in The Washington Post and interviewed on CNN, FOX, ABC, NBC, CBS and “One-on-One With John McLaughlin.” She has twice been listed in The Forward newspaper’s “Forward 50” most influential Jews in America and her previous work earned Jennifer recognition as a “Point of Light” by President H. W. Bush.

Ruth Owades
President, Calyx & Corolla
San Francisco, CA

Jane Perlov
Corporate Security, Bank of America
New York, NY
After 26 years in law enforcement, Jane Perlov joined Bank of America as a Senior Vice President in Corporate Security in April 2007. She is responsible for the physical protection of all bank assets, customers and employees. Jane has an extensive and diverse background in law enforcement and public safety and has served several jurisdictions, including: the New York City Police Department (1981-1998), rising from rookie to Deputy Chief; the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (1999-2001), as the Secretary of Public Safety; and Raleigh, N.C. (2001-2007), as Chief of Police. Jane is a recognized authority on community policing and crime fighting strategies. In Raleigh, she initiated a district policing system and introduced the use of technology and data to provide accurate and timely information to fight crime and disorder.

Alice Rothchild, MD
Physician, Author, Activist
Dr. Alice Rothchild is an Assistant Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology at Harvard Medical School and is also a staff member of Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates. She is active in several social justice organizations and speaks and writes on topics ranging from childbirth to menopause to caring for underserved populations. In 1997, she joined the Ad Hoc Committee to Defend Health Care, now The Alliance to Defend Health Care, and until June 2007 was president of the Alliance Board. She also co-founded and co-chairs Visions of Peace with Justice in Israel/Palestine, now Jewish Voice for Peace, Boston and co-organized the Jewish American Medical Project, now the JVP Health and Human Rights Project. In April 2007, Dr. Rothchild published Broken Promises, Broken Dreams: Stories of Jewish and Palestinian Trauma and Resilience.

Pella Schafer
Graduate Student
Founder, Jewish Youth for Community Action
San Francisco, CA
Pella Schafer founded Jewish Youth for Community Action (JYCA) in the Bay Area in 1994 after graduating with honors from UC Santa Cruz. She recently left her job at UJA-Federation of New York and her position on the Board of Directors at Jewish Funds for Justice in order to pursue her graduate studies; previous positions include associate director at Joshua Venture and interim executive director at Jews for Racial and Economic Justice. Pella is currently studying toward her master’s degree in Drama Therapy at California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, CA.

Hon. Janice D. Schakowsky
Congresswoman (IL-D)
Washington, DC
Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky is serving her fifth term in the U.S. Congress, representing Illinois' 9th Congressional District. She is a leading advocate for women's issues in Congress, sponsoring legislation that would prevent violence against immigrant women, establish transitional housing for women and children who are victims of abuse, and commemorate International Women's Day. Congresswoman Schakowsky serves in the House Democratic Leadership as Chief Deputy Whip and as a member of the Steering and Policy Committee. She also is a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, serving as Vice-Chair of the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection and as a member of the Subcommittee on Health and the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. Speaker Pelosi recently appointed Schakowsky to serve on the House Select Committee on Intelligence.

Shelli Segal
Fashion Designer
Dallas, TX
Shelli Segal is a fashion designer living in Los Angeles.