May 2022 Newsletter

The Women’s Forum of New York was celebrated on NY1 by highlighting women in education. Forum President, Pamela J. Craig, and Tenille Warren, a past Education Fund Scholar, joined Forum member Cheryl Wills, Anchor & Reporter for NY1 News, for her In Focus segment. They discussed how the Education Fund is helping women who have overcome severe adversity to go back to school and pursue their educational dreams.

To view the segment, please visit HERE.

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Dede Bartlett, Foundation Co-Chair and Non Profit Director, was featured in the most recent issue of Bedford New Canaan Magazine which includes mention of the Women’s Forum. In her article feature, Dede discussed what it was like to be a female in corporate America, starting up the ladder in the ‘60s and ‘70s, and breaking some glass ceilings in the ‘80s and 90’s.

To read the article, please visit HERE.

Cheryl McKissack Daniel, President & CEO, McKissack & McKissack, was honored at the United Way of New York City‘s 16th Annual Power to Make a Difference Awards Luncheon. To learn more about the Luncheon and the honorees, please visit HERE. Cheryl was also featured in the news discussing major projects in development:

• Cheryl was joined on the Breakfast Club by Don Peebles, CEO of the Peebles Corp, to discuss the Affirmation Tower, the first proposed skyscraper in New York City to be built by a majority African American team. To watch the full interview on the Breakfast Club, please visit HERE.
• Cheryl was featured on the March 2022 cover of Metropolitan Airport News where she discussed the McKissack family legacy and her family’s history working on aviation projects, starting with the 99th Pursuit Squadron Airbase in Tuskegee, Alabama. To read the article, please visit HERE.

Rohini Dey, Owner & Founder, Vermilion Restaurant & Let’s Talk Womxn, received two new accolades for all of her hard work, community building and dedication to the food service industry.

• Rohini was listed in Nation’s Restaurant News “Power List 25 Most Influential Women in Foodservice”. This Power List includes women in leadership from all segments, both chains and independents. Selected by NRN editors, these include some of the highest-ranking women within global companies, as well as prominent owner/operators. To view the list, please visit HERE.
• Rohini’s Vermilion Restaurant in Chicago was named MenuMasters Innovator of the Year for 2022 for breaking new ground culinarily as well as for creating a national community of women operators during the pandemic. She will be honored at this year’s Nation’s Restaurant News MenuMasters gala, sponsored by Ventura Foods, at the Drake Hotel in Chicago on May 21. To read more, please visit HERE.

Carla Harris, Vice Chairman, Global Wealth Management and Senior Client Advisor, Morgan Stanley, was named to Metlife‘s Board of Directors.

“I am pleased to welcome Carla to MetLife’s board of directors,” said R. Glenn Hubbard, chairman of MetLife, Inc. “During her more than three decades of experience, Carla has been a visionary leader. Her vast experience and knowledge across financial services and other industry sectors will serve MetLife exceptionally well.”

MetLife President and CEO Michel Khalaf added: “Carla is a great addition to the MetLife board, and I look forward to working with her as we continue to execute on our Next Horizon strategy and to deliver long-term value to all our stakeholders.”

To read the press release, please visit HERE.

Suzan Harrison, Board Director at ADM and Westrock and Former President of Global Oral Care at Colgate Palmolive has been recognized by NACD as an honoree of the 2022 NACD Directorship 100, an annual recognition of the leading corporate directors and corporate governance experts who significantly impact boardroom practices and performance.

To learn more, please visit HERE.

Sallie Krawcheck, CEO & Co-Founder, Ellevest, raised $53M in  a Series B funding round backed by a powerful roster of women investors. The round was co-led by BMO and Contour Venture Partners. It included investments from several new women-led investors, including Halogen Ventures, Cleo Capital, New York Ventures of Empire State Development, Stardust Equity, The Venture Collective, and Envestnet, as well as the LGBTQIA+ investment syndicate Gaingels. Returning institutional investors include Melinda French Gates’ Pivotal Ventures, Astia Venture Fund, Khosla, Morningstar, AME Cloud Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, PayPal Ventures, and Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America, as well as individuals like Elaine Wynn. Ellevest will use the capital to deepen its offerings, providing personalized coaching, product solutions, and community to help women reach their money goals and furthering Ellevest’s mission to get more money in the hands of women.

“Ellevest was built by women, for women. It is also funded by women, with 360 women and underrepresented investors participating in this funding round. This group recognizes that women have been disproportionately losing financial ground, and that’s bad news for all of us. Ellevest has a key role to play in addressing this issue: to help women — and their families — rewrite their financial narratives and thrive,” said Sallie Krawcheck.

To read the press release, please visit HERE.

Laura Clayton McDonnell, Senior Vice President, ServiceNow, Sales – East, Canada, and Latin America, was named as an undergraduate and MBA speaker for Berkeley Haas School of Business. Laura spoke during the makeup commencement for the full-time MBA classes of 2020 and 2021—who had to forego in-person ceremonies during the pandemic—which was held on Friday, April 29, at the Paramount Theater in Oakland.

To learn more, please visit HERE.

Christina Norman, Head of Content, National Basketball Players Association (NBPA), produced a film titled Game Change Game, which will be premiering for the first time at the Tribeca Film Festival. With unfettered access to the NBA, Game Change Game documents a tumultuous, and at times surreal, basketball season plagued by once unimaginable circumstances.

To learn more about Game Change Game at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival, please visit HERE.

Judith Spitz, Founder & Executive Director, Cornell Tech – BreakThrough Tech, launched Break Through Tech AI, a new program aimed at closing the talent gap for women and underrepresented genders in AI positions in industry at MIT’s Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing. Break Through Tech AI will provide skills-based training, industry-relevant portfolios, and mentorship to qualified undergraduate students in the Greater Boston area to position them more competitively for careers in data science, in machine learning and artificial intelligence. The free 18-month program will also provide each student with an attendance stipend to reduce the barrier for those who typically cannot commit to an unpaid, extracurricular educational opportunity.

“Break Through Tech’s success in diversifying IT profiles and careers has transformed lives and the industry,” said Judith when discussing the new technology.

To learn more about BreakThrough Tech AI, please visit HERE.

Elsie McCabe Thompson, President, NYC Mission Society, focused on a new initiative for Autism Acceptance Month. The Mission Society featured a series of conversations about how we can evolve our education system to work for students with different learning needs. With the help of some extraordinary guest writers, the Mission Society explored what it means to support neurodivergent children in our classrooms and discovered one parent’s journey to find her son an environment where he could thrive.

Speaking on this initiative, Elsie states “Each of these stories reinforces the idea that our most powerful act for young people – and for one another – is to offer acceptance and to celebrate the numerous ways we engage with the world. For many of us, these explorations of what it is like to face academic struggles and messages that we aren’t enough is an incredibly personal one…” In the first post that launched about this initiative on @missionsocietynyc , Elsie speaks on her own story of acceptance – “I speak about navigating school with ADHD and Dyslexia, my role as a mother with an Autistic child, the individuals who made it possible for me to succeed, and my dreams for the future of our field.” – Elsie McCabe Thompson