Her Power – Digital Summit

Ravi Agrawal is the managing editor of Foreign Policy. Before joining FP, Agrawal worked at CNN for more than a decade, including his most recent position as the network’s New Delhi bureau chief and correspondent. Previously, he served as a senior producer in CNN’s New York and London bureaus, receiving a Peabody Award and three Emmy nominations for his work. Agrawal is the author of India Connected: How the Smartphone Is Transforming the World’s Largest Democracy. He is a graduate of Harvard University.

An entrepreneur, activist, politician and philanthropist, Her Excellency Joyce Banda
served as the President of the Republic of Malawi from 2012-2014. She was Malawi’s
first female president and Africa’s second. Prior to assuming office, President Banda
served as a Member of Parliament, Minister of Gender and Child Welfare, Foreign
Minister, and Vice President of the Republic of Malawi. While serving as Minister of
Gender and Child Welfare, she championed the enactment of The Prevention of
Domestic Violence Bill, which provided the legal framework to support the
prevention and elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls.
President Banda is credited for turning round an ailing economy which was on the verge
of collapse. She instituted a number of economic reforms which led to
significant economic expansion. President Banda’s unwavering commitment to the promotion of women’s maternal health and reproductive rights led her to establish the Presidential Initiative on Maternal Health and Safe Motherhood. President Banda is an international speaker on leadership, democracy, good governance, and women’s and girl’s rights and motivational speaker. President Banda holds a M.A. in Leadership from the Royal Rhodes University of
Canada, a B.S. in Gender Studies from Atlantic International University, and a
diploma in NGO Management from the International Labor Organization Center in
Turin, Italy.  Jeonju University of South Korea conferred an Honorary Doctorate Degree
in Economics for Her Excellency and Wheelock College conferred an
Honorary Doctorate Degree in Education for her.

Ambassador Bárcena joined the Mexican Foreign Service in 1979. Prior to
arriving in Washington, D.C., she was posted as Permanent
Representative to the United Nations Rome-based Agencies. She has
also served as Ambassador to the Republic of Turkey, non-resident to
Georgia and the Republics of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan;
Ambassador to the Kingdom of Denmark, non-resident to the Kingdom
of Norway and the Republic of Iceland, and as Consul in Barcelona.
On the multilateral level, Ambassador Bárcena has represented Mexico
as delegate at the UN, UNESCO and the OAS as well as head of
delegation at the Forum on Migration and Development. She has also
participated in multiple international conferences organized by the G-20
and the World Humanitarian Summit.
Ambassador Bárcena holds a degree in Communication Sciences from
Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City, and a degree in Philosophy,
summa cum laude, from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.
She also earned a Master's Degree in International Studies (Diplomatic
School, Spain) and a Master's Degree in Political Philosophy (Universidad
Iberoamericana).

Chairwoman Bass is currently serving in Congress representing California’s 37th Congressional District and has served as the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations for the past decade. In that capacity, she has acted to build coalitions and support economic growth and partnerships with the African continent, with a goal to transform how the United States engages with African nations and to promote the many opportunities to expand trade and economic growth between America and African nations. Congressmember Bass played a key role in the reauthorization and strengthening of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which enables the nations of Africa to export goods to the United States duty-free. Her work on the House Foreign Affairs Committee has also focused on democracy, governance, and human rights related issues and she has introduced a number of bills in this area. Prior to the pandemic, she regularly travelled to the continent to meet with foreign dignitaries, ambassadors, and world leaders. Last August, Congressmember Bass took a Congressional delegation with Speaker Pelosi to Ghana in honor of the Year of Return – the 400th anniversary of the arrival of enslaved Africans in North America. She also led a delegation to the United Nations to observe World AIDS Day and the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, where the members attended high-level meetings with a range of UN officials. On November 28, 2018, Congressmember Karen Bass was elected to serve as the 26th Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC). As chair, she is leading the CBC’s historic 55 members during the 116th Congress. She co-authored the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, bold and transformative police reform legislation that passed the House of Representatives in a bipartisan fashion.

Wafa Bughaighis was appointed Ambassador of the State of Libya to the United States in November 2017. She served as Chargé d'Affaires from 2015 to 2017. Prior to her appointment to Washington, Ambassador Bughaighis was the Assistant Deputy Minister for Political Affairs in the Libyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation between 2013 and 2014. She was then designated as Acting Foreign Minister in the Libyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2014. Ambassador Bughaighis had a distinguished career in education and served as the Director of the International Bureau of the Ministry of Education in Libya from 2011 to 2013. Furthermore, in 2011, Ambassador Bughaighis co-founded and chaired the United Nations recognized “Commission to Support Women’s Participation in Decision Making.” Ambassador Bughaighis has been a member of the Wilson Center’s Global Women’s Leadership Initiative in Washington, D.C. since 2012. Previously, Ambassador Bughaighis began her working career as a Process Engineer at the Arabian Gulf Oil Company in Benghazi and continued to work in the field for over 14 years. She initially embarked on a journey to specialize in Nuclear Engineering, but due to the U.S. ban on Libyan students pursuing this field in the 1980s, Ambassador Bughaighis changed her specialization to Chemical Engineering and earned a Bachelor of Science from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Furthermore, Ambassador Bughaighis completed graduate studies in Management and International Relations at the George Washington University. Ambassador Bughaighis is fluent in Arabic and English and proficient in German. She is married and has two daughters and a son.

Allison oversees all global research and analysis. She counsels clients on current and prospective market, policy, and security developments with a focus on emerging trends, scenario planning, strategic foresight. Prior to this role, Carlson led FP Analytics’ energy and technology team for over a decade. Prior to FP Analytics (formerly Garten Rothkopf), Carlson led the Latin America program for an international consulting firm assisting European companies investing in emerging markets’ energy and financial sectors. She received her master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in international relations and international economics.

Alejandra Y. Castillo is the CEO of YWCA USA which serves 2.3 million women and girls around the country with a network of over 200 associations. YWCA plays a dual role as both a social service provider and an advocate for reform and justice. Alejandra has over two decades of professional experience in Washington, D.C., having served in senior leadership in two presidential administrations. Given her policy, legal and business expertise, she has worked in various public, private and non-profit settings. In 2014, Alejandra was appointed by the Obama Administration to serve as the national director of the Minority Business Development Agency, becoming the first Hispanic American woman to lead the agency. In that role, she helped secure financing and capital in excess of $19 billion and created or retained over 33,000 jobs. Alejandra holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in economics and political science; a Master of Arts degree in public policy from the Lyndon Baines Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin; and a Juris Doctorate from American University, Washington College of Law. Alejandra is an active member in various civic and professional organizations, and currently serves on several boards. She considers herself an example of the American dream and is proud to have raised two amazing nieces she calls her daughters. A long-standing and committed resident of the District of Columbia, Alejandra is a supporter of the arts and an avid international traveler.

Before her online career began, Collier owned and operated her own marketing and advertising firm, The Collier Company, and won numerous awards including “Small Businessperson of the Year” accolades from several organizations. In 2003, her book Starting an eBay Business For Dummies appeared on the BusinessWeek list of best-selling paperback business books. In December 2011, her book Ultimate Online Customer Service Guide: How to Connect with Your Customers to Sell More ranked #4 among "What Corporate America Is Reading." By 2013, her book eBay For Dummies was one of the best sellers on the topic. As of 2016, with over 1 million copies of her books in print, she was the all-time best selling eBay author. She hosts the Computer and Technology Radio podcast with broadcaster Mark Cohen.

Carmen Correa is Chief Operating Officer at Pro Mujer. Pro Mujer is one of Latin America’s leading women’s development organizations with an integrated approach that offers access to finance, health and educational services. During 2015 and 2016 Carmen was hired by the National Agency for Research and Innovation (ANII) in Uruguay to develop a new instrument that intended to finance a venture capital fund and business accelerator. From January 2010 until May 2015, Carmen was responsible for Avina Uruguay´s strategy and the Impact Businesses´ strategy at the regional level. Avina’s main objective is to contribute to concrete and relevant changes that lead to more sustainable development in Latin Americais. From 2005 to 2009 Carmen was the Managing Director of Endeavor Uruguay and from 2000 to 2004 she was the Chief Operations Officer of the same organization.   Endeavor is an international non for profit organization that supports high-impact entrepreneurs. From 1999 to 2000 she was the Administrative Manager at DeRemate.com in Uruguay an online auction site.   From 1992 to 1999 Carmen occupied various positions at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in Washington DC. From 1990 to 1992 she worked at the Organization of the American States (OAS) in Uruguay.   Carmen holds a BS in Management from National- Louis University in McLean, VA, she has a Business Administration Certificate from Georgetown University, among other management development courses from John Hopkins University in Washington DC, USDA in Washington DC and ESADE in Uruguay. Carmen is married and has three kids. Carmen is board member of Pymecapital an impact investment fund based in Nicaragua and of Educacion Responsable an NGO that promotes emotional intelligence in Uruguay. She is a Mentor of Endeavor Uruguay and OMEU (Women Enterprise Organization of Uruguay). Likewise, Carmen co-leads the Southern Cone Task Force of the Global Steering Group on Impact Investment.   Carmen is member of the advisory board of Socialab and supports other local civil society organizations.

Ambassador Currie was appointed Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues by President Trump in December 2019. She serves simultaneously as the U.S. Representative at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.  Prior to her appointment, she led the Department of State’s Office of Global Criminal Justice (2019) and served under Ambassador Nikki Haley as the United States’ Representative to the UN Economic and Social Council and Alternative Representative to the UN General Assembly (2017-2018). Throughout her career in foreign policy, Ambassador Currie has specialized in human rights, political reform, development and humanitarian issues, with a focus on the Asia-Pacific region. From 2009 until her appointment to the USUN leadership, she served as a Senior Fellow with the Project 2049 Institute. She has held senior policy positions with the Department of State, the U.S. Congress, and several international and non-governmental human rights and humanitarian organizations. Ambassador Currie received a Juris Doctor from Georgetown University Law Center, and an undergraduate degree in Political Science from the University of Georgia’s School of Public and International Affairs.

Johanna Derlega is The 19th's chief revenue officer. She previously oversaw revenue efforts, events and marketing as publisher of The Hill and senior vice president at National Journal. Prior to working at The 19th, she launched the consultancy Broad Branch Strategies. She lives in Washington, DC with her family.

Lakshimi Duraivenkatesh is the Vice President of Buyer Experience Engineering at eBay, where she oversees the teams that build platforms and experiences  for eBay buyers. With over 20 years of industry experience, Lakshimi is  known for her customer focus, strong technical acumen and being fanatical about solving complex business problems using scalable technical solutions. She is a staunch advocate for Women in Tech and is passionate about supporting STEM initiatives for school children. Always looking for ways to give back to the community, as executive eBay sponsor in collaboration with Rewire Community, she spearheaded the launch of TriValley WEB, an online digital platform that promotes local Womxn-Empowered Businesses in the Tri-Valley area. Funded by eBay for Charity and the Silicon Valley Foundation, this platform provides a crucial crutch for a lot of businesses in this global pandemic. Given her expertise in the e-commerce industry, she also sits on the advisory board for TriValley WEB.

Floreta Faber is a graduate of Tirana University, Faculty of Economics. From 1993 to 1995 she had been studying the two-year Master of Science Program for International Marketing & Strategy at the Norwegian School of Management, including a period of studying as exchange student at the Washington State University. Her Masters Diploma in Marketing and Operational Management is awarded by MB University, in Albania. She completed several executive programs and trainings including, International Visitor Leadership Program of the Department of States and Harvard University, Mrs. Faber has been working as the Executive Director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Albania since its opening in 2000. In this capacity Mrs. Faber has been working closely with the representatives of the Albanian and American government, international organizations and the EU, along with business organizations in United States, Europe and beyond. From 1995 until the year 2000, Mrs. Faber worked with Deloitte & Touche, Tirana, Albania as well as a program with Deloitte & Touche, Prague, Czech Republic. From 1990 until 1993, Ms. Faber started her working experience in Shkoder, Albania, with experience in three different organizations, a local Chamber of Commerce, a Regional Business Agency and a public import-export company. Mrs. Floreta Faber is married to Dr. Edmond Faber, vascular surgeon; they have a daughter Kesli  and a son Klint.

Maggie Feldman-Piltch is the Founder and CEO of Unicorn Strategies, an innovative human capital management widely known for its project, #NatSecGirlSquad. #NatSecGirlSquad is an intentional community and ecosystem focused on building competent diversity in national security and defense. As of July 15, 2020, #NatSecGirlSquad interacts with more than 40,000 people across the apparatus each month. Unicorn Strategies is an AFWERX Innovation Challenge Finalist for its work. Feldman-Piltch is a recognized leader and executor with unparalleled understanding and expertise in how we recruit, retain, promote, and support the force we need now and later. Her research, thought leadership, and academic instruction focuses on civil-military relations and competent diversity as a key component of force planning. As the leader of #NatSecGirlSquad, she is a trusted confidant of women and allies across the national security workforce, with a particular focus on women in the military. In 2019 alone, she met with 1,409 women one-on-one or in groups of 3 or less to better understand their professional challenges, definitions of success, and provide guidance on charting a path forward. In addition, she regularly fosters  discussion with senior leaders across the force. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Representatives Max Rose and Ruben Gallego, General Robert Abrams, Lieutenant General Ted Martin, Vice Admiral Stuart Munsch, Rear Admiral Jeffery Hughes, Major General Tammy Smith, Colonel Candice Frost, then Navy CLO John Kroger,  are among a small selection of the leaders that have joined Maggie for open conversations with members of the #NatSecGirlSquad community since April 2020. Maggie is a delegate and full participant to the Munich Security Conference, and served as a delegate to the IISS Manama Dialogues and Forum Fellow at the Aspen Security Forum. Feldman-Piltch is a highly sought after voice on competent diversity in national security and defense and force planning. She is a regular guest on podcasts, sought-after speaker, workshop leader, and instructor and a columnist for ClearanceJobs. Prior to Unicorn Strategies, Feldman-Piltch honed her skills in apparel showrooms in New York City, at The Conference Board and Risk Cooperative in addition to serving as the Chief of Staff to nearly 100 retired senior officers at American Security Project. Maggie led the organization’s US-Cuba Program and its 2017 Track II Dialogue, championed the Women in Security Leadership Initiative at ASP, hosted their weekly podcast series “What’s Next?” Maggie Feldman-Piltch is a member of the Leadership Council of Women in National Security Steering Committee and serves on the group’s Pledge Implementation Committee. Other affiliations include Women of Spookstock Mentor for the Spookstock Foundation, an Ambassador for MM LaFleur, and Member of the Female Founder Collective. Feldman-Piltch also serves on Georgetown University’s Security Studies Program’s newly formed Strategic Advisory Committee for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging. She is a graduate of Wesleyan University and Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service Security Studies Program. Feldman-Piltch is also working towards an Advanced Degree in Opera Performance from the Royal Academy of Music, through its partnership with the Levine School.

Henrietta Fore became UNICEF’s seventh Executive Director on 1 January 2018. She has worked to champion economic development, education, health, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief in a public service, private sector and non-profit leadership career that spans more than four decades. From 2007 to 2009, Ms. Fore served as the Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Director of United States Foreign Assistance. The first woman to serve in these roles, she was responsible for managing $39.5 billion of U.S. foreign assistance annually, including support to peoples and countries recovering from disaster and building their futures economically, politically and socially. Earlier in her career at USAID, Ms. Fore was appointed Assistant Administrator for Asia and Assistant Administrator for Private Enterprise (1989-1993). She served on the Boards of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and the Millennium Challenge Corporation. In 2009, she received the Distinguished Service Award, the highest award the Secretary of State can bestow.

Less than 1% of female founders achieve over a million dollars in annual revenue. Heather founded her first entrepreneurial venture and in less than 18 months, reached a million in revenue. This milestone enabled her to enjoy a smoother and more sustainable entrepreneurial journey. Heather attributes her success to her background of 20+ years working in professional sales and marketing with disruptive and innovative technologies. She gained a wealth of experience at AT&T, by successfully bringing a series of innovative technologies to market and driving sustainable revenue streams. She held several VP of sales and marketing roles for leading and start-up technology companies by her late 30’s. Then the entrepreneurial desire took hold, grew quickly and opened up a new career path, for years to come. Entrepreneurship gave her freedom to use her experience to address purposeful problems. One idea in particular grew near and dear.  She had to do something about it. From renting her first Church sanctuary where she spoke about women’s empowerment in 2011, to now, where she leads a community of premium women entrepreneurs in Canada, Heather is one of Canada’s leading warriors for women’s advancement, through entrepreneurship. Her mission is to create positive systemic outcomes between female entrepreneurs in STEM and large industry business partners. Today, less than 1% of corporate supply chains procure with female entrepreneurs. By creating unique go to market business models between female entrepreneurs in large industry partners, new models can expect to rapidly reduce systemic barriers for female entrepreneurs while accelerating innovation within large companies. To achieve this, she started Women on the Move Inc., Canada’s leading business accelerator for Female Founders, ready to scale. Over the past four years, Women on the Move has trained, coached and advised over 1,000 Female Founders. Out of her work at Women on the Move, Heather started the world’s first global business initiative between female entrepreneurs and large mining companies, called Artemis Project. Recently, The Business Professional Women’s Network and The Canadian Federation of Business and Professional Women recognized Women on the Move for their commitment to accelerate women’s start-ups, promote STEM industry procurement from Women led SMEs and to deliver on a vision to deliver positive systemic outcomes for 10,000 Canadian women on their STEM related, entrepreneurial path.

Debbi Gibbs managed New Zealand’s finest indie rock export, the Straitjacket Fits, throughout their entire career and was also the longtime US representative for the 140db roster of producers. She is the owner of Just Managing, a music agency, and has worked as an executive director in the broadcasting and entertainment industry for many years. In addition to her own business, Debbi serves on the board of two national nonprofits and a corporation that produces high-speed amphibious vehicles. She holds a degree in architecture, collects contemporary art, and lives in New York with her son.

Lisa Graves is Executive Director and Editor-in-Chief of True North Research. She has spearheaded several major breakthrough investigations into those distorting American democracy and public policy. She served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Policy at the U.S. Department of Justice in the Clinton Administration, Chief Counsel for Nominations for Senator Patrick Leahy on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Deputy Chief of the Article III Judges Division of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, and as an adjunct law professor at George Washington University Law School. She also served as the Senior Legislative Strategist for the ACLU on national security and testified as an expert before committees in both houses of Congress. In 2018, she helped shape the national conversation on the Brett Kavanaugh nomination. Lisa was featured in Ava DuVernay’s documentary the “13th,” which was nominated for an Oscar in 2017, appeared in Showtime’s “Years of Living Dangerously” with America Ferrera, in Paramount’s “Rest in Power: the Trayvon Martin Story,” and in a PBS documentary entitled “The United States of ALEC.” From 2009-2017, she led the Center for Media and Democracy and is the President of its Board of Directors. She has served on the Board of Directors of U.S. Right to Know and the Bill of Rights Defense Committee and advised UnKoch My Campus. Lisa earned a J.D., cum laude, from Cornell Law School and a B.S., with highest honors, in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.

Jennifer Griffin currently serves as a national security correspondent for FOX News Channel and is based out of the Washington D.C. bureau. She joined the network in 1999 as a Jerusalem-based correspondent. Since 2007, Griffin has reported daily from the Pentagon where she covers all aspects of the military, including the current wars against ISIS and Al Qaeda. She has covered major international news stories extensively, including the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi and the killing of Usama bin Laden. Throughout her tenure with the network, Griffin has secured major interviews with government officials, including former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in Baghdad, Iraq on the day the Iraq War ended, as well as an exclusive interview with General David Petraeus in Kabul, Afghanistan in 2010 when he took over as the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan. She has also made multiple trips with former Defense Secretary Robert Gates from 2007-2011. From 2000-2007, Griffin provided live coverage of the Palestinian Intifada. She reported from the 2004 South-East Asia tsunami tragedy. While based in Jerusalem, Griffin reported on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In 2000, she provided on-site coverage of Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon and its withdrawal from the Gaza strip, as well as Yassar Arafat's funeral in 2005. Additionally, she is credited with conducting a rare and extensive interview with former Prime Minister of Israel Ariel Sharon in 2009 before he lapsed into a coma. Prior to joining FNC, Griffin covered the Middle East region for several American media organizations including National Public Radio and U.S. News and World Report. Previously, she reported for The Sowetan newspaper in Johannesburg, South Africa, where she covered Nelson Mandela's prison release and numerous other historic moments in South Africa's transition away from the apartheid regime. A graduate of Harvard University in 1992, Griffin received a B.A. in comparative politics. She is the co-author of the book, "This Burning Land: Lessons from the Frontlines of the Transformed Israeli-Palestinian Conflict," which she wrote with her husband Greg Myre regarding their experience in Israel.

U.S. Representative Chrissy Houlahan is an Air Force veteran, engineer, entrepreneur, and educator who is continuing her career of service as the first woman ever to represent Pennsylvania's 6th District in Congress. Chrissy is the daughter and granddaughter of Holocaust survivors who came to America with nothing. She earned her engineering degree from Stanford with an ROTC scholarship that launched her service in the U.S. Air Force and Air Force Reserves, and later earned her M.S. in Technology and Policy from MIT. Chrissy has helped lead several thriving Southeastern Pennsylvania companies including AND1 and B Lab.  She went on to serve in Teach for America as a chemistry teacher at Simon Gratz High School in North Philadelphia and then led and scaled a non-profit helping thousands of underserved students all across America build their literacy skills. She is committed to fighting for access to quality, affordable healthcare, common sense gun safety, government accountability and transparency, and working to build a strong, stable economy with good jobs and good benefits for everyone. She’s a mom, a longtime resident of Southeastern Pennsylvania, and a first-time congressional representative heading to Washington to solve real problems for the people and communities of Pennsylvania.

Ambassador Swanee Hunt is the Eleanor Roosevelt Lecturer in Public Policy, and
founder of the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard’s Kennedy School of
Government. From 1993 to 1997, Professor Hunt represented President Bill Clinton in Austria, where she hosted negotiations and international symposia focused on stabilizing the neighboring Balkan states.
In 1999, Hunt founded Inclusive Security, a Washington-based NGO whose bold
goal is to transform decision making about war and peace. Through government
consultation, research, leadership development, and advocacy, they increase the
participation of women to prevent, resolve, and rebuild after deadly conflicts. To
that end, Inclusive Security’s most recent policy initiative is to further multi-agency,
multi-year national action plans, a powerful tool to increase the leadership of
women in global security. Ambassador Hunt has worked in 60 countries, with
thousands of women leaders, bringing delegations to not only Harvard, but also the
UN and US government.
As a specialist in the role of women in post-communist Europe, in 1997, she
launched “Vital Voices: Women in Democracy.” The conference spawned a White
House initiative, then NGO, co-chaired by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson and
Sec. of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Hunt has been a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the boards of
USA for UNHCR and International Crisis Group. She has authored three syndicated
columns, plus articles for The New York Times, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy Magazine,
CNN, and provided live commentary for numerous major television networks. Three
of her four books deal with the Bosnian War
and Rwandan women’s post-conflict leadership.
Photographer and composer, she was married 25 years to Charles Ansbacher,
principle guest conductor in Moscow, Sarajevo, and Bishkek. Her world includes a
menagerie of cat, parrot, horses, bison, and grandchildren.

Thea Lee is the president of the Economic Policy Institute. Lee has a longstanding relationship with EPI, having begun her career here as an international trade economist in the 1990s. Lee came to EPI from the AFL-CIO, a voluntary federation of 56 national and international labor unions that represent 12.5 million working men and women, where she served as deputy chief of staff. Lee has spent her career advocating on behalf of working families in national policy debates on issues such as wage inequality, workers’ rights, and fair trade. She is co-author of The Field Guide to the Global Economy, and has authored numerous publications on the North American Free Trade Agreement, the impact of international trade on U.S. wage inequality, and the domestic steel and textile industries. Lee has been a voice for workers in testimony before congressional committees and in television and radio appearances—including on PBS NewsHour, Good Morning America, NPR’s All Things Considered and Marketplace, Fox Business, and the PBS documentary Commanding Heights. She has also served on the State Department Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy, the Export-Import Bank Advisory Committee, and the Board of Directors of the National Bureau of Economic Research, among others. She currently serves on the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, to which she was appointed by Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, as well as the boards of the Congressional Progressive Caucus Center, the Center for International Policy, the Coalition for Human Needs, and the Progressive Talent Pipeline advisory council. She is also a member of the Center for Strategic and International Studies Trade Commission on Affirming American Leadership. Lee holds a master’s degree in economics from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Smith College. Lee lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband and dog. She has one daughter, who teaches middle school in Brooklyn. She likes to cook, read, and travel.

Amy Mackinnon is a staff writer for Foreign Policy magazine. Originally from Scotland, she has reported from across Eastern Europe and was based in Moscow and Tbilisi Georgia as a senior editor for the crisis-reporting site Coda Story. Mackinnon was a 2018 recipient of the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia award for her reporting from St. Petersburg on the Reveal podcast “Russia’s New Scapegoats.” She is a regular commentator for BBC World Service radio and television and her work has been published and broadcast by Coda Story, BBC Radio Scotland, Slate, Vice and CNN among others. She speaks Russian and has a master's in journalism from the Newmark School of Journalism at CUNY and a joint master's in Russian, Central and East European Studies from the University of Glasgow and Corvinus University in Budapest.

Dr Ipshita Mandal-Johnson serves at the intersection of bio, innovation and impact, addressing the planet, people, and then profit through the Global Bio Fund. She completed her PhD at the University of Cambridge with the then-Pro Vice Chancellor of Enterprise Prof. Nigel Slater. She started building tech ventures in high school and is currently working on her 12th firm. She has worked in 7 countries and has 15 years experience working with micro and large organizations in healthcare, agriculture, technology and banking via government, academia, private sector and not-for-profit organizations. She has led strategy and implementation projects covering operations, transformation, fundraising and business development, due diligence and capacity building. One of her career highlights was co-founding the Global Biotech Revolution / GapSummit in 2012 - the world’s first inter-generational platform for the bio-economy. The summits have brought together approximately 600 Leaders of Tomorrow from 72 countries to debate with over 300 Leaders of Today from industry, academia and government. In addition, the summits have generated over 120 venture teams and 18 have started companies, supported by more than 70 organizations including the WHO, UN, Nature, BBC, BIO, Facebook and Johnson and Johnson. She has been the Chief of Staff for a M&A deal valued at 60B USD in the bio sector. She is currently serving in numerous board positions in both the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors. With her talented husband, she is also building the SHED project focused on improving female skills and employment in rural Bengal. She has received multiple awards including twice being nominated in the 50 Movers and Shakers in Bio Business, McKinsey Founders Award, St Gallen Leader of Tomorrow and an inaugural 40 under 40 for University of Auckland.

Diana Marrero is Vice President of Strategic Development at Foreign Policy Magazine, where she works with a wide range of global partners on events, analytics projects, podcasts and marketing campaigns. In this role, she launched Her Power, an initiative comprising of events, research and editorial coverage of women’s leadership, economic inclusion and gender equity. She also is leading the company’s business strategy around new podcasts launched by FP Studios. Diana has years of experience working on integrated media initiatives and thought leadership campaigns – now at FP and previously at The Hill and The Washington Post. At The Hill, she launched and ran The Hill Latino, an online news and events platform that grew to reach 5.4 million Latinos in the US in less than two years. Diana was an award-winning journalist at the beginning of her media career. She covered a number of beats during her decade-long reporting career, including national politics, local government, criminal justice and US-Cuba relations.

Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka is United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women. She was sworn into office on 19 August 2013 and brings a wealth of experience and expertise to this position, having devoted her career to issues of human rights, equality and social justice. Ms. Mlambo-Ngcuka has worked in government and civil society and with the private sector, and was actively involved in the struggle to end apartheid in her home country of South Africa. From 2005 to 2008, she served as Deputy President of South Africa, overseeing programs to combat poverty and bring the advantages of a growing economy to the poor, with a particular focus on women. Prior to this, she served as Minister of Minerals and Energy from 1999 to 2005 and Deputy Minister in the Department of Trade and Industry from 1996 to 1999. She was a Member of Parliament from 1994 to 1996 as part of South Africa’s first democratic government. Ms. Mlambo-Ngcuka began her career as a teacher and gained international experience as a coordinator at the World YWCA in Geneva, where she established a global program for young women. She is the founder of the Umlambo Foundation, which supports leadership and education. A longtime champion of women’s rights, she is affiliated with several organizations devoted to education, women’s empowerment and gender equality. She has completed her PhD on education and technology at the University of Warwick, United Kingdom.

Ambassador Nusseibeh served as Co-Chair of the Intergovernmental Negotiations on Security Council Reform for three sessions of the UN General Assembly from 2018 to 2020. She previously served as Vice-President of the General Assembly for the 72nd session. She has also served as President of the UN Women Executive Board in 2017, as Co-facilitator of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Revitalization of the UN General Assembly for the 71st session of the General Assembly, and as Co-facilitator for the overall review of the implementation of the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society in 2015.  Ambassador Nusseibeh co-chairs the Friends of the Future of the UN. In 2017, she was awarded the UAE Prime Minister's Government Excellence Award. Prior to her appointment as Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Nusseibeh established the Ministry’s Policy Planning Department in 2009 and served as its first Director for three years. During this time, she was also the UAE Deputy Sherpa at the G20 Leaders’ Summit. From 2010–2011, she served as the UAE Co-Special Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Previously, she was the Head of the International Renewable Energy Agency Campaign Task Force at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Director of Research and Communications for the Ministry of State for Federal National Council Affairs. Ambassador Nusseibeh received an MA (Cantab) and BA (Hons) in History from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, and an MA with Distinction in Israeli and Jewish Diaspora Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London in 2003. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Emirates Diplomatic Academy, Treasurer on the Board of Directors of Security Council Report, and serves on the Advisory Board of The London School of Economics’ Middle East Centre.

After a career in commercial banking undertaking enterprise wide change initiatives and at the United Nations focusing on capacity building, Hodan Osman went to Mogadishu in 2013 to work in the public sector and be part of the historic change that Somalia was undergoing. For almost five years, Ms. Osman has worked in Mogadishu – for the central bank, finance minister and supported other executive offices, including office of the president. She led planning efforts for the immediate restoration of central banking functions and coordinated activities focused on rebuilding financial systems and strengthening financial governance and transparency. Ms. Osman also lead the national debt relief agenda and coordination of the IMF Staff Monitoring Program, a critical first step towards achieving Somalia’s development goals. Most recently, Ms. Osman has been teaching and implementing adaptive leadership methodology for various institutions at both the strategic level and on the ground in Africa building localized and distributed leadership. In addition, Hodan is the financial inclusion lead for OZÉ, an organization specializing in supporting SME growth, linking small business in Ghana with access to credit. Hodan Osman has a MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where she was also a fellow at the Centre of Public Leadership. Additionally, she holds an MSc in Human Rights and International Relations.  

Prior to arriving in DC, Karen Pierce was the United Kingdom’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York since March 2018. Prior to this role, Karen served as the Director General for Political Affairs and Chief Operating Officer of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London, from 2016. Karen joined the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in 1981. Her first role was in Tokyo between 1984 and 1987, after which she returned to the UK to work in the Security Policy Department. Karen worked in Washington as the Private Secretary to the British Ambassador to the United States between 1992 and 1995. Between 1996 and 2006, Karen held several positions in London including Team Leader for Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova, Deputy Head of Eastern Adriatic (Balkans) Department, Head of Newsroom, Head of EU Department (Bilateral) and concurrently Head of Afghanistan Political Military Unit after 9/11 before returning to the Balkans as Balkans Coordinator from 2002 to 2006. In 2006, Karen moved to New York for the first time to be the Deputy Permanent Representative and Ambassador at the UK Mission to the UN. In 2009, she returned to London to become the Director of South Asia and Afghanistan Department and the UK’s Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. In 2012, Karen started her second multilateral role, this time in Geneva, where she was the Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the UK Mission to the United Nations, World Trade Organization and Other International Organizations until 2015. Between 2015 and 2016 Karen was the UK’s Ambassador to Afghanistan.

For nearly a quarter of a century, Calvert Impact Capital has strived to make markets work for more people, more often, by investing in communities overlooked by traditional finance. Calvert Impact Capital invests through organizations that on-lend to people and businesses in the US and over 100 countries. In 2018 the organizations in their portfolio provided nearly $5 billion to finance everything from solar home systems in Tanzania to small businesses in Texas. Over the past decade, Jenn has shaped the strategic direction of Calvert Impact Capital to focus on innovation, sustainability and scale.  Under her leadership the organization has expanded the sectors it works in, developed new products and services, and committed to sharing their knowledge and expertise with the field on key topics like gender lens investing. Calvert Impact Capital remains committed to ensuring impact investing is accessible to all investors, large and small, having worked with more than 16,000 individuals, institutions and advisors to raise over $2 billion since their founding. Jenn began her career in the Peace Corps where she taught math in Gabon. She then worked as an equity research analyst for Neuberger Berman and on the investment banking team at Morgan Stanley’s London office before joining The Public Theater in New York City and leading the Washington DC regional office for the Nonprofit Finance Fund. Jenn studied engineering at Union College and holds an MBA from Columbia University. She currently serves as a Forbes contributor, a lecturer at Oxford Saïd School of Business and the Advisory Board Chair of Quantified Ventures.  

H.E. María Juliana Ruiz Sandoval has been married to the President of Colombia, Iván Duque Márquez, for 17 years. They have three children, Luciana, Matías, and Eloísa. She graduated from Marymount School and attended Javeriana University where she received a degree of law. She studied at Institut Catholique, in Paris, and then went to American University, where she obtained a Master of Law with an emphasis in International Business. After an internship in the Organization of American States, in Washington D.C., Mrs. Ruiz began an upscaling career that ended, after more than 10 years, serving
for the office of the Secretary General. She returned to Colombia and joined the
Shaio Clinic, one of the most renowned heart clinics in the country and the region,
as General Secretary. Mrs. Ruiz resigned to this position to assume her task as First Lady. Mrs. Ruiz is National Good Will Ambassador for the SDG 17.

Dr. Scharff is the CEO and Cofounder of The Fuller Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to groundbreaking reporting on women worldwide that raises awareness, exposes injustice and spurs accountability. Under her leadership, The Fuller Project has evolved from a grassroots start-up to the global newsroom dedicated to reporting on women and publishing with leading outlets. Since its cofounding in 2015 from Turkey, The Fuller Project newsroom has won various accolades including the Military Reporters & Editors Award, the One World Media Award, the Amnesty International Media Award, the Milwaukee Press Club Silver Award; reporting has also been shortlisted for the Biedler Prize for Cancer Journalism, One World Media Award, South Asia Journalism Association Daniel Pearl Award, and the National Society of Newspaper Columnists Award. In 2019, Xanthe was named among the top 40 under 40 by the Leadership Center for Excellence for outstanding public service. Xanthe is the Founder and Board Chair Emeritus of Advancing Girls’ Education in Africa, a thriving nonprofit in East Africa which has served 3,000 girls with secondary school opportunities. The UN gave AGE Africa a good practice award, and Michelle Obama endorsed the organization’s work. Formerly, Xanthe was the Associate Director at the Center for Universal Education at Brookings where she led research and programming on girls’ education.  Xanthe serves on the Board of Advisors of The War Horse, an award-winning nonprofit newsroom that supports military spouses and educates the public on military service, having herself been a military spouse during numerous 9/11 deployments. Having lived in Argentina and Peru, Xanthe speaks Spanish. She has also lived and worked in Turkey, Uganda, Sudan, and Malawi and now leads The Fuller Project’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., where she lives with her two children. If not working, you can find her running, reading, or heading to the woods.

Andrew Sollinger is Foreign Policy’s Publisher. He joined FP in March 2018 to oversee all revenue generating efforts through subscriptions, sponsorships, advertising, events, podcasts and new ventures. Most recently at Business Insider as EVP – Subscriptions, Andrew previously ran the business side of Politico’s Capital New York acquisition (now Politico New York), was Managing Director – Americas at the Financial Times, and helped build and sell the digital startup Money Media to FT. He started his media career as a journalist at Institutional Investor, and was based in New York, London and Hong Kong. He has extensive experience in management, product development, digital and subscription sales, research, and in setting strategy.

Alexandra Solomon is an independent consultant specializing in research and advocacy
at the intersection of gender, human rights, and international development. She is
currently leading research for a number of international organizations on the gendered
impacts of COVID-19, including implications for the UN Sustainable Development Goals
and how to mitigate the exacerbation of existing inequities in pandemic preparedness
and response. Alexandra has held numerous positions as a gender specialist in global
health, and has implemented gender equality and women’s rights initiatives with
partners such as Foreign Policy Analytics, the U.S. Peace Corps in Azerbaijan, and
Transparency International in Ghana and Zimbabwe. She holds a Master of
International Affairs degree from the School of Public and International Affairs at
Columbia University.

Katherine is Chief Trade Counsel and Trade Subcommittee Staff Director for the Committee on Ways and Means.  She advised the Committee’s Democrats and the Democratic Caucus's Working Group in the 2019 renegotiation of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement with the Trump Administration, which resulted in historic levels of Democratic and bipartisan Congressional support for the USMCA Implementation Act. Katherine came to the Committee in 2014 from USTR’s Office of the General Counsel, where she served as Chief Counsel for China Trade Enforcement with responsibility for the development and litigation of U.S. disputes against China at the World Trade Organization.  Before joining USTR, Katherine worked in the international trade departments in several Washington, DC law firms.  From 1996 to 1998, she lived and worked in Guangzhou, China teaching English at Zhongshan University as a Yale-China Fellow.   Katherine was born in Connecticut and raised in Washington, DC.  She is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School.

As the Senior VP of Public Affairs, Ms. Tan is responsible for setting and executing Public Relations and Government Relations strategies for Huawei USA. From 2014 to January 2019, Ms. Tan served as the President of Global Media and Communications for Huawei, setting and executing media and communications strategy for the entire company. She was instrumental in promoting Huawei’s thought leadership, corporate values, key products and solutions, and making Huawei one of the top 100 brands in the world. Prior to this role, Ms. Tan was responsible for corporate branding, where she led the initiative to transform Huawei into a global brand. She also managed Huawei’s integrated marketing communications in the United States. Before joining Huawei, Ms. Tan worked at Verizon, where she was responsible for consumer strategy and digital marketing, and at TXU Energy, where she led customer acquisition efforts in the newly deregulated energy markets. Ms. Tan studied Biology at Tsinghua University in Beijing and holds a Master’s Degree in Neuroscience from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, where was a PhD candidate. She holds an MBA in Marketing from the University of Texas at Dallas.

With over 25 years of experience in business development, program design, and strategic management, Ms. Tata oversees XPRIZE’s global impact strategy ensuring that impact is incorporated into all facets of the organization’s work.  Additionally, Ms. Tata leads XPRIZE’s future foresight work to help partners map the emerging landscape to identify challenges, uncover opportunities, and spot breakthrough innovations for transformative change. Prior to joining XPRIZE, Ms. Tata was a serial entrepreneur and has worked across 27 countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America leading cutting-edge international organizations in a variety of sectors including; economic development, water and sanitation, food security, land rights, health, education, and child welfare. In addition to consulting for a variety of prominent public and private organizations, Ms. Tata was also the Executive Director of International Development Enterprises USA. iDE pioneered market-based approaches to increase income for impoverished farm families in Asia and Africa, which doubled the incomes of 20 million people living in poverty. Originally from Mumbai, India, Ms. Tata is passionate about her work with economically disadvantaged populations, believes in the innate entrepreneurial qualities of the poor, and is constantly searching for innovative solutions to global problems. She is bold, brimming with optimism, and determined to change the world. Ms. Tata is also an avid scuba diver, lover of the outdoors, and a pilot.

Jonathan Tepperman is the editor in chief of Foreign Policy and the author of The Fix: How Countries Use Crises to Solve the World’s Worst Problems. Before joining FP, Tepperman served as managing editor of Foreign Affairs and, before that, as deputy editor of Newsweek’s international edition. He has written for a long list of publications and appears frequently on TV and radio. He has degrees from Yale, Oxford, and New York University.

Edward Wageni is the Global Head of United Nations Global HeForShe Initiative, a global solidarity movement which seeks to engage men and boys as advocates for gender equality. Edward is a gender equality expert with experience in strategic leadership, operational management and coordination. He has worked with civil society and led partnerships with government, UN agencies and private sector in promoting gender equality. Currently based in New York, Edward holds a MSc. Development Practice from Oxford Brookes University, UK, and has worked in many countries in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America as well as the UK.

Charity Wallace is the Managing Director of Global Women’s Issues at U.S. International Development Finance Corporation. DFC’s 2X Women’s Initiative empowers women and applies a gender lens by investing in projects that are women-owned, led or supporting companies. Charity founded Wallace Global Impact, combining her expertise and experience to drive innovative, effective solutions working with corporations, individuals, non-profits, and foundations. She built cross-sector partnerships that addressed complex global issues, including gender equality, human trafficking, global health, national security, global aid and development. Wallace was the founding VP of the Global Women’s Initiatives at the Bush Institute, and served as Sr Advisor and Chief of Staff to Laura Bush. She developed and led the initiatives in the Women’s Initiative which aimed to improve access to education, health care, and economic opportunity for women and children in Africa, the Middle East and Afghanistan. Wallace served in the Bush Administration all eight years. Ms. Wallace holds a Master’s in International Relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tuft’s University. She serves on numerous Boards and Advisory Boards; and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.  

Matt Warner is president of Atlas Network, a nonprofit grantmaking organization committed to supporting local NGOs in more than 90 countries. Matt is the editor of Poverty and Freedom: Case Studies on Global Economic Development and coined the term "the outsider's dilemma" to describe the challenge of helping low-income countries develop without getting in the way of their most viable paths to prosperity. Matt writes, speaks, and consults internationally on the topics of economics, institution building, nonprofit management, and impact philanthropy. His work has appeared in Foreign Policy, The Hill, Cato Journal, Forbes, Harvard's Education Next, and EconTalk, among others. Matt has a master's degree in economics from George Mason University and is certified by Georgetown University in organizational development consulting. He is also a 2019-2020 Penn Kemble Fellow with the National Endowment for Democracy, a member of American Enterprise Institute's Leadership Network, and a recipient of America's Future Foundation's 2019 Buckley Award. Matt and his wife Chrissy, an attorney, live in Vienna, Virginia with their four children.

Melonee Wise is the CEO of Fetch Robotics.  Melonee was the second employee at Willow Garage, a research and development laboratory extremely influential in the advancement of robotics. While there, she led a team of engineers developing next-generation robot hardware and software, including ROS, the PR2, and TurtleBot.  Melonee was a 2015 recipient of MIT Technology Review’s TR35 award for technology innovators under the age of 35 and has been named to the Silicon Valley Business Journal’s Women of Influence and 40 Under 40 lists. In 2017, Business Insider named her as one of eight CEOs changing the way we work.  Under her leadership, Fetch Robotics won the MODEX Innovation Award for the materials handling industry, as well as being named to RBR 50, a listing of the 50 most innovative robotics companies in the world.