UN Commission on Women, 54th Session – Beijing+15, March 1, 2010

Women’s Intercultural Network (WIN) hosted US Women Connect’s (USWC) stellar panel again at the UN Commission on Women, 54th Session – Beijing+15, March 1, 2010. The theme was “WINNING STRATEGIES FOR GENDER EQUALITY” and was introduced by Elahe Amani, Co-Chair, WIN, and moderated by Loretta Ross, National Coordinator, SisterSong. Here are videos of the speakers and an article from Cafe Sentido that describes well the context of the panel discussion . Enjoy!

Elahe Amani Co- Chairs the Women’s Intercultural Network (WIN) and has chaired the Coalition of Women from Asia and the Middle East since 1998, is also currently Director of Technology at California State University Fullerton. She represents the California Women’s Agenda (CAWA) in the Orange County, California, has served on the boards of the State Economic Network in California, American Association of University Women for California and the Women’s Resource Center at CSU Long Beach. She is a trained mediator and work closely with Mediators Beyond Boarders. She taught at the Women’s Studies Program of CSU Long Beach and Fullerton. She is well published both in English and Persian and work closely with Women News Network and journals in Iran. Amani has been a frequent guest speaker and is the recipient of many community service recognition awards including but not limited to Women of Distinguished Award in the category of Human Rights from Soroptomist International in 2001, Community Service Award from Iranian American Women Organization in South Bay 2001, one of the three women recognized at “It’s Not the Years, It’s the Milestones” on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Women Center @ CSU Long Beach in 2002, and inaugural award of Lillian Robles Award for Feminist Activism from Women Studies Program, California State University Long Beach in 2007

Loretta Ross, National Coordinator, SISTERSONG, PANEL MODERATOR
A founding member of SisterSong, Loretta Ross became National Coordinator in 2005. In 2004, Loretta was National Co-Director of the April 25, 2004 March for Women’s Lives in Washington D.C., the largest protest march in U.S. history with more than one million participants. From 1996-2004, she was the Founder and Executive Director of the National Center for Human Rights Education (NCHRE) in Atlanta, Georgia. She is an expert on human rights, women’s issues, diversity issues, hate groups and right-wing organizations. Ms. Ross is presently writing a book on reproductive rights entitled Black Abortion. In 2003, Loretta received an honorary Doctorate of Civil Law degree from Arcadia University. Loretta was one of the first African American women to direct the first rape crisis center in the United States in the 1970s. From 1985 to 1989, she served as the Director of Women of Color Programs for the National Organization for Women, organizing the first national conference on Women of Color and Reproductive Rights in 1987. Prior to developing NCHRE in 1996, she served as the national program research director for the Atlanta-based Center for Democratic Renewal (CDR) (formerly the National Anti-Klan Network) from 1990 to 1995 and program director of the National Black Women’s Health Project from 1989-1990. She is a political commentator for Pacifica News Service, and has appeared as a political commentator on Good Morning America, The Donahue Show, The Charlie Rose Show, CNN, and BET.

Gloria Feldt , Women’s Media Center, author, women’s rights activist, and media commentator, talked about the significance of MEDIA for women’s advancement. The author of The War on Choice: The Right-Wing Attack on Women’s Rights and How to Fight Back, Behind Every Choice Is a Story, and co-author of the best selling Send Yourself Roses with the actress Kathleen Turner, look for her next book, No Excuses: Nine Power Essentials for Women to Lead an Unlimited Life, in October.

She has been called “the voice of experience” by People Magazine. A teen wife in small-town Texas and mother of three by age 20, Feldt rose through the affiliate ranks to become president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. She revitalized the organization’s vision, programs, and public presence, and made it a political powerhouse, securing contraceptive coverage by insurance plans among other policy initiatives. Vanity Fair named her to its “Top 200 Women Leaders, Legends, and Trailblazers.” She is a member of the Women’s Media Center Board of Directors and the Advisory Board to US Women Connect. Visit her website, GloriaFeldt.com, where she blogs on Heartfeldt Politics, Courageous Leadership, and Powered Women, find her on Facebook and tweet her @heartfeldt.

Tae Yoo, Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs, talking about the significance and role of technology in advancing women’s equality – what’s coming that will help to give all women and girls a voice in their economies and democracies. Ms. Yoo focuses on driving Cisco’s corporate social responsibility CSR programs through public-private partnerships to create positive, sustainable change in education/capacity development and economic development. As the steward of Cisco’s CSR vision, Yoo directs Cisco’s business, technical, and financial assets for sustainable impact, and she uses frequent stakeholder engagements to seek feedback on sustainability issues and reporting on Cisco’s CSR progress annually. Yoo’s insight and business acumen have enabled Cisco to Collaborate across the government business and nongovernmental organization (NGO sectors for real social impact. Her leadership has helped make Cisco networking Academy a program recognized globally for its innovative approach to providing IT skills education to students around the world.
Yoo has been at Cisco for more than 18 years. Prior to joining Corporate Affairs, She was influential in creating new markets for Cisco by confounding the Business Development group, where she was responsible for growing partnerships with other technology companies for joint product and market development. Yoo holds a bachelor’s degree in communications from Virginia Tech University. She is a trustee of the Cisco Foundation and also serves on the advisory boards of the global Philanthropy Forum, the Women’s Technology Cluster, WEF strategic partner Corporate Global Citizenship Advisory Group, WEF Global Agenda Council on Technology and Education and on the Advisory Council for the International ES Technology and Emerging Countries (TEC) Program

Clare Winterton, Executive Director
Clare Winterton is the new Executive Director of the International Museum of Women. Clare was previously the VP of Communications and Marketing at the Women’s Funding Network. She has a Masters Degree in International Business Administration from Cambridge University, as well as over 10 years of social sector marketing and communications experience. Clare was formerly Head of Communications for Prince Charles’ major charity, the Prince’s Trust, where she headed a team of 13, working on media relations, corporate social responsibility and marketing. She is former board chair of Young Women Social Entrepreneurs. Olivia Calderon will comment on an Economic Model – the New America Foundation’s Asset Building Program, which she serves California Legislative Director, in a context of a women’s economic security model. The program aims to significantly broaden savings and asset ownership in California. Based in Sacramento, her primary responsibilities include educating legislators, government officials, and interest groups about asset policies, developing related policy proposals (including drafting measures, amendments, and reports), providing expert testimony on pending legislation, identifying partnerships to build a broad coalition in support of asset building policies, and managing the Asset Policy Forum, which the program launched in August 2007.

Olivia Calderon is the California Legislative Director of the New America Foundation’s Asset Building Program, which aims to significantly broaden savings and asset ownership in California. Based in Sacramento, her primary responsibilities include educating legislators, government officials, and interest groups about asset policies, developing related policy proposals (including drafting measures, amendments, and reports), providing expert testimony on pending legislation, identifying partnerships to build a broad coalition in support of asset building policies, and managing the Asset Policy Forum, which the program launched in August 2007.

Previously, Ms. Calderon served in the California Legislature as a consultant to the Assembly Transportation Committee, as a legislative assistant to Sen. Jenny Oropeza (D-Long Beach), and as a Jesse Unruh Assembly Fellow. Among her more notable accomplishments as a legislative staff member, Ms. Calderon drafted six major pieces of legislation, four of which were signed into law. She has testified before the California Senate committees on education, health, and labor, as well as the Assembly committees on appropriations, banking and finance, revenue and taxation, and higher education. Ms. Calderon is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles, where she was a NSEP Scholar, McNair Scholar, Wasserman Scholar, and UCLA Law fellow.

Jean Shinoda Bolen has been our ‘leading light’ for a 5th World Conference on Women since 2002, organizing around the principles of Calling the Circles and the Millionth Monkey which inspired her organization: The Millionth Circle. The model is ‘global collaboration’ for a 5th World Conference on Women in Cyber Hubs – an opportunity for all women to participate in the Beijing Platform for Action 2015. A Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, and a past Chairperson of the Council of National Affairs of the APA, a Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, a Fellow of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry, a former member of the Board of Trustees of the American Orthopsychiatric Association, and a former Board member of the International Transpersonal Association. She is an Analyst-member of the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco and the International Association for Analytical Psychology. She is a past member of the Board of Governors of the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco, and past Chairperson of the Joint Certifying Board of the Northern and Southern California Societies of Jungian Analysts. She has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Ms. Foundation for Women. She founded and co-chaired Psychiatrists for ERA, which was a major influence within psychiatry in the early 1980’s, that evolved into the Association for Women in Psychiatry. Dr. Bolen attended UCLA and Pomona College prior to graduating from the University of California at Berkeley in 1958. She then entered the University of California School of Medicine in San Francisco, receiving her M.D. in 1962, followed by a rotating internship at Los Angeles County General Hospital and a residency in psychiatry at the Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute, University of California Medical Center, San Francisco. Her analytic training was done at the C.G. Jung Institute in San Francisco. Jean serves on the US Women Connect Advisory Board.

Jackie K. Weatherspoon Former State Representative (New Hampshire) and UNDP Technical Advisor
Speaking about the New England Regional model for organizing around the Beijing Platform for Action and their recent Conference. Hon. Weatherspoon serves on the Board of Directors of the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government and is a member of the Harvard Law School Mediation Program, serving as a mediator in the Small Claim Courts and Landlord Tenet Courts of Massachusetts. Hon. Weatherspoon also serves as a member of the UN Secretariat, Roster of Electoral Experts in the Electoral Assistance Division and has been a Technical Adviser for UNDP and UNIFEM during the latest Registration and Presidential and Parliamentary Elections in Malawi and Nigeria. Hon. Weatherspoon served six years in the New Hampshire House of Representatives and was seconded by the US State Department to OSCE in the post-conflict of Bosnia I Hercegovina, 1997-1999. She was one of the Chief Sponsors of the CEDAW Resolution in the New Hampshire House of Representatives and the White House and Northern New England Coordinator for the Beijing Plus 5 Assessment.

Videography by Sacha Donnenfeld.