Calif. HS student devises possible cancer cure

ReImagine

How women and girls imagine a better life – and a better world – and make their vision a reality, shaping a brighter future for us all

Hosted by Lisa Ling, Journalist

Julia Easterlin is a singer, songwriter, vocalist, pianist, and guitarist who uses a looping machine to build her multi-layered sound. (Performance)

Julia Easterlin is a sophisticated musical mind who wields composition, production and performance in one fell swoop. One part siren and one part techy, she uses looping hardware to build a one-woman chorus live on stage.  Trained as a classical pianist and jazz vocalist, Julia began performing at 15. After garnering acclaim from the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, the John Lennon Foundation, Downbeat Magazine, and the Gibson/Baldwin GRAMMY Jazz Ensembles, she ventured into underground electronic, experimenting with her voice, manipulating it to mimic electronically generated sound waves. Combining electro/acoustic texture with the musical roots of her classical and jazz training, Julia composed and performed with the assistance of her “magic box” – a loop machine.  This requires her to record, organize, maintain and trigger up to 20 different loops over the course of one song. When asked how she keeps track of it all, she says, “I visualize a song as a series of colors and shapes. Each sound I make has a corresponding shape, and the song form is represented by a pattern of all the shapes moving together. What I see in my head over the course of a song looks like a scrolling quilt or a painting that moves.”

Julia graduated from Berklee College of Music in Boston and has performed at the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago and the CollegeMusicJournal (CMJ) festival in New York. She received acclaim for her recording of Radiohead’s “There There”. Julia’s currently working with a new band, combining her loop station with two drummers and a bassist (and lots of dancing) to construct a new body of work. She plans to premiere the work in 2012.

http://www.juliaeasterlin.com/

Shahira Amin is an Egyptian journalist, the former deputy head of Egyptian state-owned Nile TV and one of its senior anchors.

Shahira Amin is a freelance Egyptian journalist who contributes mainly to CNN’s Inside Africa and CNN.com. She also writes for Index on Censorship, a portal for free expression. Amin was formerly Deputy Head of Egyptian state television’s English Language Channel Nile TV but she quit in the height of the uprising in protest at state TV coverage of the developments in her country. Shahira was also a former Senior Anchor and Correspondent for the channel.

Shahira has traveled the world covering major events and conflicts and has interviewed numerous statesmen and high profile figures. She has been recognized by UNICEF for her efforts to improve the status of women and children in her country. Earlier this year she received the American University in Cairo’s Catalyst for Change Award and is also the recipient of this year’s Holmes of the year award from the University of Gotheborg. 

Piya Sorcar is the founder and CEO of TeachAIDS.

Named to MIT Technology Review’s TR35 list of the top 35 innovators in the world under 35 in 2011, Dr. Sorcar is the founder and CEO of TeachAIDS, a nonprofit social venture founded at Stanford, which creates breakthrough software used in over 50 countries. Funded by UNICEF, Barclay’s, Google, Yahoo, and other organizations, the TeachAIDS software addresses numerous persistent problems in HIV prevention, and provides the most effective HIV education tools to schools, governments, and NGOs worldwide – for free.

Dr. Sorcar began the research to develop TeachAIDS in 2005 as part of her graduate work. Today, she leads a team of world experts in medicine, public health, communications, and education, to develop versions of the software for new languages and cultures. She is the author of numerous articles and has been an invited speaker at many universities, including Caltech, Columbia, Tsinghua, Utrecht and Yale. She holds degrees in Economics, Business and Journalism from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and an M.A. in Education and Ph.D. in Learning Sciences & Technology Design from Stanford University.

Google Science Fair Winners:

Shree Bose (winner in the 17-18 yrs. category)

For Shree, there is no end to learning. As a kid playing in sprinklers, each droplet of water held a fascination for her and every bug she ran shrieking away from had a story. She has been participating in science fairs since her first project—she turned spinach blue—to her recent project on drug resistance in ovarian cancer. Shree’s scientific journey is about more than gaining knowledge, it’s about holding onto awe and a sense of wonder in her approach to problems. This awe led to her interest in biology and the study of life, and to her involvement in cancer research at age 15. She believes that it will be the same awe that will help her to achieve her dreams of becoming a medical researcher and physician.

Her supervised research for her award-winning project involved the study of a particular protein, AMP kinase, of interest in cancer cells. Through tests on inhibiting this protein’s activity, her research determined its extreme importance in the development of chemotherapy resistance. She proposed a new way to treat resistant patients when they no longer respond to the chemotherapy drug. For the over 240,000 patients diagnosed with ovarian cancer, this research will reduce the recurrence rates in patients treated with particular chemotherapy drugs.

Shree was recently honored as the Grand Prize winner of the Google Global Science Fair, and has showcased her research to President Obama, NIH directors, and as a speaker at the Google Zeitgeist Conference in Phoenix. She is a recipient of the GDIAAC Youth Achievement Award given by the Indian Minister of Commerce and was named one of Glamour Magazine’s 21 Amazing Women of the Year in 2011.

Naomi Shah (winner in the 15-16 yrs. category)

“W-H-Y” was Naomi’s first word. Her countless questions range from flubber and the Internet to organic chemistry and nuclear energy. Her interest in science and technology was sparked at age five when she visited camps at the local science museum (OMSI) and competed in LEGO Robotics. Today, her dream is to become an inventor and entrepreneur focusing on environmental public health. Her passion for environmental health and improvement of the human condition has been fueled by her recent research.

Naomi’s research, executed independently in a two-phase project, involves the relationship between air quality and the lung health of asthmatic patients. It involved studying 103 subjects, statistically analyzing the data, and developing a novel mathematical model to quantify the effect of the airborne pollutants on the lung health of asthmatics. This work is pertinent to society—over 160 million people suffer from asthma worldwide, resulting in about 1.2 million deaths a year. People spend over 90 percent of their lives indoors where the air quality, a top environmental risk, is two to five times greater than outdoors.

Naomi has been invited to present her research to the Respiratory Therapist Conference, American Lung Association OTS Chest Disease Conference, Google Zeitgeist Event, Washington DC (presented to President Obama, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, Directors of NIH, and others), and the National Environmental Health Association Conference.

Lauren Hodge (winner in the 13-14 yrs. category)

Lauren enjoys a variety of activities, but has a special passion for science. Every year since third grade year (at age 7), she has completed science fair projects since mainly for her own educational benefit. She was named grand champion at her school many times, and has participated in Envirothon and Mathcounts.

A thirteen-year-old sophomore honors student at Dallastown High School, she takes summer college classes at York College and Penn State York and attends rigorous summer camps. In her spare time she plays violin and piano, reads, does puzzles, and draws. She attended a District Orchestra for the past two years and was selected to perform a piano concerto with her high school orchestra in May. She hopes to do an undergraduate degree in science and music, and then pursue a doctorate degree.

She said that completing this science research has been a journey—the knowledge and experience gained along the path, the opportunity to collaborate ideas and the potential to improve our quality of life is her ultimate goal.

Shamila Kohestani is captain and founder of the first female soccer team in Afghanistan.

Shamila is entering her senior year at Drew University and will graduate in June 2012 with a major in political science and a minor in women’s studies. Ten years ago Shamila was beaten by the Taliban, deprived of any education from age 8 to 13, and confined to her home in Kabul.

Shortly after the Taliban were removed from power, she began to play soccer. Her soccer involvement and position as the captain of the first Women’s Afghan National Soccer Team, led to receiving the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the 2006 ESPY Awards in Los Angeles. During that trip to the U.S., she had the opportunity to attend the Julie Foudy Sports Leadership program in New Jersey. While at the program, she met a teacher from Blair Academy who convinced the school to provide a one year scholarship to Blair, a leading boarding school in New Jersey.

From Blair, through the help of the Afghan Girls Financial Assistance Fund (www.agfaf.org), Shamila was awarded a four year scholarship to Drew University. While at Drew, she has continued to play soccer, been an advocate for Afghan women and was named to the Dean’s list. During summers, she has been a volunteer counselor at the Julie Foudy Leadership Camps in Chicago, San Francisco, and New Jersey and this summer interned for three weeks at a program in Washington, D.C. called, I Live to Lead: Leadership Summit. She has also been a speaker at numerous elementary and high schools to tell young people her story and educate them on Afghanistan.

Her experiences and her education have prepared her to begin working toward her goal of being an effective contributor in the struggle to advance human rights for women.

Ivy Navarrete and Shayna Welcher, former LA gang members, are learning the restaurant trade at Homegirl Café.

Ivy Navarrete grew up in the Rampart District of Los Angeles and after years of running the streets, she found herself at Homeboy Industries in search of a second chance. She has been working at Homegirl Café since April 2011 and within months became a lead within the Farmers Market department. She has been clean and sober for eleven months now and has been helping other homegirls through their sobriety.

Ivy has been reunited with her three-year-old son and is working towards getting her own apartment and vehicle. She would like to pursue a career as a legal secretary.

Shayna Welcher came to Homeboy Industries after being incarcerated. Her mother met Father Greg while she herself was in jail. Once Shayna was released, her mother brought her to Homeboy and Shayna started her journey working at Homegirl Café. Shayna has been clean and sober for over two years. After becoming a leader in the Café she would proudly show off her smile and good attitude to everyone she served.

In February 2011, Shayna flew the Homeboy Industries coop and began an externship at the Black Cat Café in the Miracle Mile. After three months, they hired Shayna as a full-time employee. Should you ever visit the Black Cat Café, Shayna is usually at the front register sharing her smile and enthusiasm with everyone in the place. She loves to recommend food and gets positive energy from her interactions with the customers.

http://www.homegirlcafe.org

Tiffany Shlain is a filmmaker and founder of the Webby Awards.

Honored by Newsweek as one of the “Women Shaping the 21st Century,” Tiffany Shlain is a filmmaker, founder of the Webby Awards, and cofounder of the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences. A celebrated thinker and catalyst, Tiffany is known for her ability to illuminate complex ideas in culture, science, technology, and life through her unique films, dynamic talks, and projects. She delivered the commencement address at UCBerkeley and her films and work have received 48 awards and distinctions. Her last four films premiered at Sundance, including her new 2011 acclaimed feature documentary, Connected: An Autoblogography about Love, Death & Technology, which the New York Times hailed as “Examining Everything From the Big Bang to Twitter,” and the Atlantic called, “an intensely personal exploration of what human connection means in our modern technology-obsessed world.” Her previous two award-winning films, include Life, Liberty & The Pursuit of Happiness, about reproductive rights in America, and The Tribe, an exploration of American Jewish identity and the Barbie doll. Her films have shown in theaters and on TV all over the world and her team at the Moxie Institute is known for their groundbreaking work combining their films and new technologies and conversational tools and live events to engage people in new ways. They just have begun a new film series called Let it Ripple: Mobile Films for Global Change. Tiffany is a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute, a visiting professor at the University of Wales, a member of the advisory board of M.I.T.’s Geospatial Lab, and she was among a group of technology leaders selected to advise Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on role of Internet in society.

twitter @tiffanyshlain

http://www.tiffanyshlain.com

Jackie Wilson has the kind of unique voice you get when you blend the talent of Whitney Houston, the savvy of Joss Stone, the heart of Mary J Blige, and pepper it with the soul of Aretha Franklin. (Performance)

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Belicia: I wanted to respond to you yesterday but didn’t have time. I ask myself that same question a lot. The racists have a way of pitting the OTWs against each other and making false promises to OTWs, so as not to lose their voting numbers. I’m HOPEing someday soon that strategy will see its end of days.

Holly: Why can’t the guy just shoot himself and leave his family alone? Another selfish, gutless wonder.

Doug: And I thought you were describing this fine ass. :) Oh well…it was definitely interesting. Howie: Can you say anything about this?

Rawlings: Yes, you have opened your eyes by making the statement that, “…Obama has shown that he is more than capable of running the country”.  Now. if closing your eyes and remembering that Obama’s mother is white inspires you to vote for Obama, then by all means close your eyes. There are too many racist ignorant people, their eyes closed, voting for the “just-us” candidate anyways, so you might as well close your eyes too, and vote for the “capable” candidate, the only one who supports all people in this country. And why stop there? How about spreading your vision amongst your peers?

Dianne: I can not comply with your request. Everyone needs to know that these racists are out there. They’re not crawling out from under any rock, but in plain site verbalizing their true thoughts here. And It doesn’t get any more real than here. I’m grateful to know what we’re up against. My advice it to heed Grace’s advice.

Anonymous: If you can call that logic. But yep, uh huh, you got that right.

Alycedale: Sadly, nothing else does matter to many.

Robert, Rt: I got so much out of your comment. Thank you. Your first two sentences say it all, and the body of your comment backs up those statements very nicely.

I want to address “spanking”. I was reprimanded, grounded, and yes spanked as a child, and I think I turned out pretty damn good in spite of Dr. Spock saying that spanking “destroys their (children’s) fragile personality”. I pushed my limits with my parents, but I also knew them. Or perhaps I should say, they reminded me of them when I pushed them too far. I had boundaries that showed they loved and cared for me. And I am grateful.

I rarely see a well-behaved child these days, and I am shocked when I see a child get away with such rude and/or abusive behavior and the parents do  nothing. I once had a friend’s young child pour juice on my new suede shoes. I was so pissed and the parents barely said a word. In fact the wife was more upset that I was upset about my shoes than what her son had done. And then…get this, the son still wanting attention, pulled out his dick and pissed on the wall right in front of us. What did the parents do? Sent him to a room for a “time out”. This was about 10 years ago and I’ll not be surprised if I read about him in the news some day, caught for committing some horrific crime.

Akira: Yes, you can still be a girlz.

Social Butterfly: My pleasure. And unfortunately, I too feel your angst. I am like you, and I too am a big label reader, and have thrown away many a food from discovering something in them that was not to my liking after I had bought it and learned. It is getting harder and harder these days to eat isn’t it?

Readers: That is it for me today. What’s on your mind? Blog me.

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

ReBirth

How extended health, longevity, and an untapped potential is redefining women in their third act

Hosted by Jane Fonda, Actress, Author, Producer, Activist, and Exercise Guru

(Host: ReBirth Session) Jane Fonda is an actress, author, producer, activist, and exercise guru. Outspoken and committed, she supports environmental issues, peace, and female empowerment. She founded the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention, and established the Jane Fonda Center for Adolescent Reproductive Health at the Emory School of Medicine. She cofounded the Women’s Media Center, and sits on the board of V-Day: Until The Violence Stops, a global effort to stop violence against women and girls. She is a former Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Population Fund.

Jane’s remarkable screen and stage career includes two Best Actress Oscars (Klute and Coming Home), an Emmy (The Dollmaker), a Tony Award nomination (33 Variations) and an Honorary Palme d’Or from the Cannes Film Festival—she is one of only three people to receive this honor. Her producer credits include Nine to Five and On Golden Pond. Off stage, she revolutionized the fitness industry in the 1980s with Jane Fonda’s Workout—the all time top-grossing home video. Jane has once again turned her attention to fitness with the release of a DVD set in 2010, with more releases scheduled for 2011, all under her Prime Time brand, aimed at the boomer generation. She has written a best-selling memoir, My Life So Far, and Prime Time, a comprehensive guide to living life to the fullest, particularly for boomers. In 2010, she made two new films: a French comedy, Et Si On Vivait Tous Ensemble, and Peace, Love & Misunderstanding. Jane is an avid reader, writer, hiker, fly fisherwoman, and meditator.

http://www.janefonda.com

Iyeoka Ivie Okoawo is a Nigerian-American poet and musician. (Performance)

Iyeoka (ee-yo-kah) Ivie Okoawo is a first generation Nigerian-American award-winning poet, recording artist, and TED fellow. As a singer, drummer, activist, and educator, she channels her cultural and ancestral influences to access the power of the moment and deliver an authentic and inspiring message of healing.

In 2010, Iyeoka released her third studio album, SAY YES, whose single “The Yellow Brick Road Song” is the theme song for the USA Network series Fairly Legal.

Iyeoka is currently promoting her latest initiative, Lyrics For Literacy, a project that creates a bridge of awareness and action to encourage the preservation of the Esan language, an endangered native dialect of Edo State, Nigeria, through storytelling, proverbs, and music.

http://www.iyeoka.com/

Laura Carstensen is a member of the Psychology Department at Stanford University.

Dr. Carstensen is Professor of Psychology and the Fairleigh S. Dickinson Jr. Professor in Public Policy at Stanford University, where she is the founding director of the Stanford Center on Longevity, which explores innovative ways to solve the problems of people over 50 and improve the well-being of people of all ages. She is best known in academia for socioemotional selectivity theory, a life-span theory of motivation, and has co-authored and published more than 125 articles on life-span development. Her research has been supported by the National Institute on Aging for more than 20 years. In 2009, she authored A Long Bright Future: An Action Plan for a Lifetime of Happiness, Health, and Financial Security—an updated edition will be released in 2011.

Dr. Carstensen is a fellow in the Association for Psychological Science, the American Psychological Association and the Gerontological Society of America; has chaired two studies for the National Academy of Sciences, resulting in The Aging Mind and When I’m 64; and is a member of the MacArthur Foundation’s Research Network on an Aging Society. She has won numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Distinguished Career Award from the Gerontological Society of America. She received her BS from the University of Rochester and PhD in clinical psychology from West Virginia University.

Michelle Warren is the founder and medical director of the Center for Menopause, Hormonal Disorders and Women’s Health since 1997.

Dr Warren is the founder in 1997 and Medical Director of the Center for Menopause, Hormonal Disorders and Women’s Health at Columbia University Medical Center.  She is professor of obstetrics and gynecology and medicine. A pioneer in the effects of eating disorders and athletics on the menstrual cycle, Dr. Warren was the first to identify skeletal problems, including scoliosis and stress fractures that occur in young women as a result of menstrual irregularities.

Over a lifetime of practice focusing on women’s health, she has written numerous articles and textbook chapters and lectures and teaches extensively on menopause, oral contraceptives, anorexia nervosa, menstrual irregularities, amenorrhea in athletes, and osteoporosis. She has published a book on sports and hormones. She conducts clinical trials and medical research in the field of eating disorders, hypothalamic amenorrhea, osteoporosis, and menopause and has been awarded multiple grants from the National Institutes of Health. She has published over 200 articles and book chapters in her field. She has been named best doctor by NY Magazine and named best doctor in America since 2004 and holds an endowed professorship in Women’s Health at Columbia University Medical Center. Dr. Warren earned her medical degree from Cornell University Medical College. She is board-certified in internal medicine and in a subspecialty in endocrinology and has trained in reproductive endocrinology.

*Mehmet Oz is the host of the Emmy Award–winning The Dr. Oz Show and a renowned cardiac surgeon.

Dr. Oz, host of the Emmy Award–winning The Dr. Oz Show, is a renowned cardiac surgeon, vice chair and professor of surgery at Columbia University, and director of the Cardiovascular Institute and Complementary Medicine Program at New York Presbyterian Hospital. He has authored seven New York Times best sellers including, YOU: The Owner’s Manual; his most recent book,YOU: Stress Less, was released in 2011. He has a column in TIME, AARP,Esquire, and O, The Oprah Magazine, and is author of over 400 publications, book chapters, and medical books. He was the featured health expert on The Oprah Winfrey Show, chief medical consultant to Discovery Communications, and has appeared on many television shows.

http://www.doctoroz.com

Suzanne Braun Levine is a writer, editor, and nationally recognized authority on women and family issues and media.

Suzanne Braun Levine is a nationally recognized authority on women and family issues and media. She was the first editor of Ms. magazine and the only woman to edit the Columbia Journalism Review. She produced the Peabody Award-winning documentary She’s Nobody’s Baby: American Women in the Twentieth Century. Levine writes and blogs regularly on Feisty Side of Fifty,The Transition Network, The Third Age, Vibrant Nation, SheWrites and other popular sites for women, and is a contributing editor to More magazine. She is on the Board of Civic Ventures, a nonprofit think tank on boomers, work and social purpose.  She is the author of Inventing the Rest of Our Lives: Women in Second Adulthood and Fifty Is the New Fifty: Ten Life Lessons for Women in Second Adulthood. How We Love Now: Sex and Intimacy in Second Adulthood,her newest book will be published by Viking January 2, 2012. A lecturer and advisor to several women’s organizations dealing with midlife issues, she has appeared on Oprah, Charlie Rose, Today, NPR and numerous other television and radio programs. Her previous books include Father Courage: What Happens When Men Put Family First (Harcourt, 2000) and an oral history of Bella Abzug (with Mary Thom) published by Farrar Straus & Giroux in 2007.

http://www.suzannebraunlevine.com/

Gloria Steinem  is a writer, lecturer, editor, and feminist activist. Interviewed by Salamishah Tillet.

Gloria Steinem is a writer, lecturer, editor, and feminist activist. She travels in this and other countries as an organizer and lecturer and is a frequent media spokeswoman on issues of equality. She is particularly interested in the shared origins of sex and race caste systems, gender roles, and child abuse as roots of violence, nonviolent conflict resolution, the cultures of indigenous peoples, and organizing across boundaries for peace and justice. She now lives in New York City, and is currently at work on Road to the Heart: America As if Everyone Mattered, a book about her more than thirty years on the road as a feminist organizer.

http://www.gloriasteinem.com

Salamishah Tillet.

Dr. Salamishah Tillet is one of the rising feminist activists and academics of her generation. In 2003, Salamishah and her sister, Scheherazade Tillet, cofounded A Long Walk Home, Inc., a 501 (c) nonprofit that uses art therapy and the visual and performing arts to end violence against girls and women. She is the writer of Story of a Rape Survivor (SOARS), an award-winning multimedia performance that tells her own story of reclaiming her body, sexuality, and self-esteem after being sexually assaulted in college. She cocreated The Girl/Friends Leadership Institute, an art-based, feminist boot camp for African-American adolescent girls who have been impacted by violence in Chicago. She was an associate producer for Aishah Shahidah Simmons’s groundbreaking documentary, NO!, A Rape Documentary and is in the Cambridge Documentary’s award winning film, Rape Is… In 2006, Ebony Magazine named her one of America’s top 30 Black leaders under 30 years old. In 2010, Salamishah and Scheherazade were finalists for Glamour Magazine’s “Women of the Year” award for their work to end violence against girls and women.

Salamishah has appeared on CNN and NPR and written for The Nation on issues of race, gender, and popular culture and is a regular contributor for theWashington Post magazine, The Root. Her book, Sites of Slavery: Citizenship, Racial Democracy, and the Post-Civil Rights Imagination examines how contemporary African-American artists represent slavery to challenge present-day racial inequality and model a more democratic American future. She is currently working on a book on the black feminist icon, Nina Simone. She earned her Ph.D. in the History of American Civilization from and A.M. in English and American Literature from Harvard University. She is an Assistant Professor of English and Gender, Sexuality, and Women Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

http://www.alongwalkhome.org

Mary Catherine Bateson is a writer and cultural anthropologist

Mary Catherine Bateson is a writer and cultural anthropologist. She taught at Harvard, Amherst College, George Mason University, Northeastern University and Spelman College. She has lived in the Philippines and Iran.  Bateson’s original research interest was in the Middle East. More recently she has been interested in how women and men work out distinctive ways of adapting to culture change, learning from those around them and improvising new ways of being. This has led her to work with life histories and other types of first person narratives, literary and ethnographic, focusing on learning in contexts of cultural difference.

She has written and coauthored many books and articles, lectures globally, and was president of the Institute for Intercultural Studies in New York City from 1979 to 2009. Her books include early academic work on Arabic linguistics; a memoir of her anthropologist parents Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson, With a Daughter’s Eye; Composing a Life; Peripheral Visions: Learning Along the Way; and Full Circles, Overlapping Lives: Culture and Generation in Transition.  Her more recent book, Willing to Learn: Passages of Personal Discovery, brings together essays and occasional pieces, written over the course of her career and previously unpublished or unknown. It explores many topics, including contemporary United States and issues of life stages and gender; and belief systems, change, and conflict between cultures, especially in the Middle East. Her latest book, Composing a Further Life: The Age of Active Wisdom (2010), describes a new life stage, Adulthood II, before old age, which is characterized by health, energy, continued learning and spiritual development that builds on years of diverse experience.

She lives in New Hampshire, where she writes, and is a visiting scholar at Boston College’s Center on Aging and Work.

http://www.marycatherinebateson.com

Girl Up is an innovative campaign of the United Nations Foundation which gives American girls the opportunity to become global leaders and channel their energy and compassion to raise awareness and funds for United Nations programs that help some of the world’s hardest-to-reach adolescent girls. Project Girl Performance Collective performs on behalf of Girl Up. (Performance) Project Girl (projectgirlperformancecollective.org) is a performance collective of American girls using their talents and voices to shine light on critical global challenge women and girls face worldwide.

Resilience

The way women regroup, rebound, and rebuild after experiencing setbacks or loss, always moving forward

Hosted by Pat Mitchell, President and CEO, The Paley Center for Media

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon is the author of the New York Timesbest seller The Dressmaker of Khair Khana, and writes economic stories focused on women and girls as a fellow for the Council on Foreign Relations and a contributing editor at Newsweek Daily Beast.

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon never set out to write about women entrepreneurs. She was simply looking for a great—and underreported—economics story after leaving ABC News for MBA study at Harvard to pursue her interest in economic development.

What she found was women entrepreneurs in some of the toughest business environments creating jobs against daunting obstacles. Since then her writing on entrepreneurship has appeared in publications including the International Herald Tribune and Financial Times along with the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation.

While working in finance at the global investment firm PIMCO, Lemmon went on to write a book about a young Afghan teacher-turned-entrepreneur whose dressmaking business supported women around her neighborhood under the Taliban. The Dressmaker of Khair Khana became a New York Times bestseller and the subject of a Harvard Business School case study.

Now a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a contributing editor-at-large for Newsweek Daily Beast, Lemmon continues to travel the world reporting on economic and development issues with a focus on women. She is author of the Newsweek March 2011 cover story “The Hillary Doctrine” and the September 2011 profile on U.N. Women’s Michelle Bachelet.

http://www.gaylelemmon.com

Lamis Zein is the first Lebanese woman who has qualified to conduct demolitions of cluster submunitions.

Lamis is the first Lebanese woman who has qualified to conduct demolitions of cluster submunitions. Formerly an English teacher, she found her new calling after the Israeli shelling in the summer of 2006 when four million cluster submunitions were dropped on South Lebanon. Today, hundreds of thousands of these remain unexploded, posing a threat to the people who live there, as well as rendering large tracts of land unsafe for use.

Lamis joined Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA), an organization that is executing clearance of these unexploded submunitions. Her family’s initial reaction was not very positive—they deemed the work too dangerous and not appropriate for a woman. Traditionally, this incredibly dangerous work has been undertaken by men. But Lamis persevered with her mission to work as a searcher, and is now a site supervisor, heading an all-female clearance team. Lamis is committed to clearing Lebanon of these dangerous weapons, and to making this land safe again for its people, including for her two young daughters.

http://www.facebook.com/npamaplebanon

Nicholas Kristof is an American journalist, author, op-ed columnist, and a winner of two Pulitzer Prizes.

Nicholas D. Kristof, a columnist for the New York Times since 2001, is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner who writes op-ed columns that appear twice a week.

Mr. Kristof grew up on a sheep and cherry farm near Yamhill, Oregon. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard College and then studied law at Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship, graduating with first class honors. He later studied Arabic in Cairo and Chinese in Taipei. While working in France after high school, he caught the travel bug and began backpacking around Africa and Asia during his student years, writing articles to cover his expenses. Mr. Kristof has lived on four continents, reported on six, and traveled to more than 150 countries, plus all 50 states, every Chinese province, and every main Japanese island.

Jill Iscol is a donor activist and president of the IF Hummingbird Foundation whose  mission is to support domestic and global efforts that strengthen democracy and reduce the social justice, economic and educational inequities that threaten it.

Educator and activist, Jill Iscol, EdD, is President of the IF Hummingbird Foundation, a family foundation established in 1989 to support domestic and international efforts to strengthen democracy and reduce the social, economic, and educational inequalities that threaten it.  For the past two decades Jill has supported and participated in numerous organizations and has developed an expertise in identifying visionary leaders and programs at early stages of their development.  She fosters their advancement by providing seed capital and guidance enabling them to become stable, sustainable and successful organizations, impacting lives around the globe.

As a Democratic Party activist, Jill served as Co-Chair for Hillary Rodham Clinton for Senate’s New York Finance Committee and as National Vice-Chair of Hillary Rodham Clinton for President’s 2008 Finance Committee.

In addition, Jill serves as a Trustee of Horizons National, on the Advisory Board of the Center for New American Security inWashington, as a member of the New York State Commission on National and Community Service and was most recently appointed to the US-Afghan Women’s Council.

Jill’s first book, Hearts on Fire: Twelve Stories of Today’s Visionaries Igniting Idealism into Action, was released on November 8^th, 2011.

http://heartsonfirebook.com/

Katie Wreed Bell is partner, Global Well-Being, for Gallup.

Katie Wreed Bell is Partner, Global Well-Being, for Gallup. Katie leads Gallup’s well-being initiatives, including the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. Gallup has committed to continuing this groundbreaking initiative, which interviews more than 1,000 Americans every day, for the next 25 years. This transformational endeavor will create a database of health and well-being data that will provide government, business, and healthcare leaders with a consistent metric to measure the health, wellness, and prevention needs of the U.S. population.

Katie joined Gallup in 2005 as a Healthcare Practice Partner. She brought to Gallup 12 years’ experience in consulting with healthcare leaders on productivity, employee engagement, succession planning, patient loyalty, and nurse recruitment and retention.

Before joining Gallup, Katie worked as a consultant for The Advisory Board Company. During this time, she served as the nursing executive center practice lead for the company’s client services team. Prior to this experience, she served as the healthcare practice leader for a publicly held human capital management consulting firm. While with both those firms, she regularly advised healthcare executives and management groups in the areas of strategic planning, operational restructuring, and organizational development.

Katie graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with a Bachelors of Science in Business and Education. She speaks globally on the topic of city leadership and wellbeing and makes appearances on local and national media programs; including the Dr. Oz radio show. Ms. Bell lives in Atlanta where she serves as the Director of Health and Nutrition for her children’s elementary school.

Rachel Simmons is the author of the New York Times bestsellersOdd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls, and The Curse of the Good Girl: Raising Authentic Girls with Courage and Confidence. Claire Sannini will join her.

Rachel Simmons is an internationally acclaimed author and educator. She is the author of the New York Times bestsellers, Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls and The Curse of the Good Girl: Raising Authentic Girls with Courage and Confidence. The co-founder of the Girls Leadership Institute, Rachel develops programs that empower girls to be emotionally intelligent, assertive young adults. A consultant to the Center for Work and Life at Smith College, Rachel was the host of the PBS special “A Girl’s Life” and appears regularly in national media.

http://www.rachelsimmons.com

Busisiwe Mkhumbuzi is a seventeen-year-old eleventh grade student at Rand Girls’ High School in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Busisiwe is a seventeen-year-old eleventh grade student at Rand Girls’ High School in Johannesburg, South Africa, who is majoring in accounting, history and physical sciences. She hopes to pursue actuarial science or politics in her future career. In her studies, she has achieved a high grade point average with diplomas in English, life orientation, economics, and she holds the Janette Maarschalk for the highest grade point average.

Busisiwe is an Action team leader of V-Girls, a global network of girl activists and advocates fighting against violence through creative events and empowering themselves and one another to create the change they imagine for the world. Inspired by Eve Ensler’s I Am an Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls, V-Girls is a platform for girls to amplify their voices and ignite their activism. She is active in community development and teaches remedial classes for local children in basic mathematics, literacy, and physical education in athletics and volleyball. Her awards and accolades include the RAPs School’s One-Act Play Festival’s scroll, the Lulu Venter Trophy, the Best Supporting Actress and Scriptwriting Award, the Heming Trophy for Best Ambassador for her school, and many other awards for leadership, public speaking, and class captaincy. She is on the Student Representative Council at her school, and is currently campaigning to become its chairperson.

Morley, the multi-talented singer/songwriter/producer breathes sensuality into activism with her unabashed love songs, humorous takes on life, and worldly lyrical stance. (Performance)

Morley, the multi-talented singer-songwriter/producer breathes sensuality into activism with her unabashed love songs, humorous takes on life, and worldly lyrical stance couched in her warm and soulful sound that ranges wide with influences from rock, soul, and world music. Morley sees her music as an extension of her experience as a teacher in a variety of communities, from public high schools to community centers to ex-offenders. A major focus for her has been working with young people from international conflict zones on conflict resolution, highly rewarding work that has profoundly influenced her sound. Morley performs all over the world and has had the distinct honor of presenting for TEDWomen, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, Ban Kee Moon and Mary Robinson to name a few. Her new CD, Undivided, is available at her website.

http://morleymusic.org