Press Interviews

Carol Jenkins is an advocate for human, civil and women’s rights, an award-winning author and Emmy-winning former television journalist.

Carol Jenkins is President and CEO of the ERA Coalition and the Fund for Women’s Equality, sister organizations dedicated to the adoption of the Equal Rights Amendment. A board member since its inception in 2014, she joined the leadership team in December of 2018.

Carol Jenkins earned a B.A. from Boston University and an M.A. from New York University.

Both universities honored her as a Distinguished Alumna. She holds honorary doctorates from the College of New Rochelle and Marymount Manhattan College. She was a 2017 recipient of the Sackler First Award, given to women who are pioneers in their fields.

Jessica Neuwirth is the author of Equal Means Equal, Why the Time for the ERA is Now. She is also the Director of Donor Direct Action and a founder of Equality Now. Jessica has worked for Amnesty International and for the United Nations. As Special Advisor on Sexual Violence to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in 2010, she organized the UN high-level panel on reparations for victims of sexual violence in the DR Congo. She currently serves as the Rita E. Hauser Director of the Human Rights Program at the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute of Hunter College.

Kimberly Peeler-Allen is the Co-founder of Higher Heights, a national organization building the political power and leadership of Black women from the voting booth to elected office. In 2018, Kimberly served as the Co-Executive Director of New York Attorney General Letitia James’ Transition Committee.

A highly skilled political fundraiser and event planner, Kimberly was the principal of Peeler-Allen Consulting, LLC from 2003 to 2014, the only African American full-time fundraising consulting firm in New York State. Kimberly serves also serves as Co-Chair of Higher Heights for America PAC, and is a Board Director of NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation. She is currently a Visiting Practitioner at The Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.

S.Mona Sinha is a globally recognized advocate for gender equality in business and society. She has parlayed a career in finance (Morgan Stanley), marketing (Unilever) and restructuring(Elizabeth Arden/Unilever) to work at the intersection of social justice and women’s leadership.

She founded Raising Change to address the funding gap in mission-driven organizations for social change. She also founded the Asian Women’s Leadership University, to bring liberal arts pedagogy to train future women leaders. She is the current Board Chair of Women Moving Millions, a community of women who fund big and bold ($1 million+) to create a gender equal world. She is an Executive Producer of Disclosure, a documentary film on the representation of trans people. Mona serves on several Boards and is an active investor in women entrepreneurs. In 2015 she was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. She has also been recognized for her leadership in the field of gender equality and social enterprise by Gloria Steinem & Apne Aap, Breakthrough, Smith College, Women’s eNews and Columbia Business School.

Devika Bulchandani became CEO of Ogilvy North America & Global Chairwoman of Advertising in March of 2021. Previously, Devika served as President of McCann North America, where under her leadership in 2019 was named the 2019 Most Creatively Effective Agency Network in the U.S. by the Effie Awards. She is an active board member of the ERA Coalition, the Ad Council, the 4A’s and the Advertising Club and is a frequent speaker at Ad Council, Ad Forum and other prominent industry events. Devika is deeply devoted to social causes that promote equality, diversity and inclusiveness. She is a founding member of Times Up Advertising, where she has tirelessly championed equality for women in advertising — particularly for women of color. Devika and her husband live in New York City, have a son and daughter, whom they are bringing up, respectively, to be an enlightened man who will champion strong women and a strong woman who will break barriers.

Steve Andersson is a Commissioner of Human Rights for the State of Illinois appointed by Illinois’ Governor JB Pritzker. He is also a retired member of the Illinois House of Representatives. During his tenure, he was floor leader for the House Republican Caucus and oversaw all debate on the House floor. In addition, Representative Andersson led a bi-partisan initiative to end the longest state budget impasse in US history, overriding the veto of his own Republican Governor in order to do so.

During his last session in the Illinois House, Representative Andersson was the Chief Republican Sponsor of the Equal Rights Amendment and successfully passed the amendment making Illinois the 37th to pass the ERA. Since passage of the ERA in Illinois, Representative Andersson has traveled the country advocating for passage in additional states. He has been a practicing lawyer since 1992 and is licensed to practice in Illinois, the 7th Circuit and the United States Supreme Court.

Linda Coberly is the managing partner of Winston & Strawn LLP’s Chicago office and serves on the firm’s Executive Committee. She is a partner in the firm’s Litigation Department and chairs its Appellate and Critical Motions Practice.

A significant portion of Linda’s practice centers on advising and representing clients with regard to proceedings in the U.S. Supreme Court, drawing upon her experience as a law clerk to Justice Stephen G. Breyer on the Supreme Court and to Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg on the D.C. Circuit. She also frequently represents amici in important business cases before the Court.

Bettina Hager is the DC Director of the ERA Coalition and Fund for Women’s Equality. She previously served as the co-Chair of the Equal Rights Amendment Task Force of the National Council of Women’s Organizations and has been helping lead the movement for constitutional equality since 2012. Bettina has conducted focused lobby training workshops across the country on the issue of constitutional equality and oversaw the creation of a widely used ERA advocacy packet with information on how to contact elected officials, reach out to media and encourage constituency outreach. She has organized and moderated briefings on the Equal Rights Amendment in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. Bettina also writes for The Hill as an opinion contributor on gender issues. In 2018, she was named one of the 21 Leaders for the 21st Century by Women’s News. Prior to joining the ERA Coalition, she worked as Programs Director and Interim Executive Director at the National Women’s Political Caucus (NWPC), advocating for the necessity of women’s political participation at all levels of government. Bettina graduated from St. Olaf College with a degree in Biology and concentration in Women’s Studies.

M. Dru Levasseur is the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the National LGBT Bar Association and leads Lavender Law 365®, the only LGBTQ+ inclusion coaching and consulting program designed specifically to enable the implementation of best practice standards for LGBTQ+ equity across law firms, law schools, and companies. He is co-founder of the Jim Collins Foundation and former director of Lambda Legal’s Transgender Rights Project. Dru holds a Women’s Studies degree from the University of Massachusetts and his J.D. from Western New England University School of Law. He is admitted to practice in DC, NY, GA, and MA.

Alyssa is an actor, producer, activist, entrepreneur, and NY Times Best-Selling author. She hosts and produces the podcast, “Sorry Not Sorry,” which is also the name of her upcoming book, a collection of essays about her life, career, and the humanitarian work at the heart of it all. Milano starred on the long running series “Charmed” and “Who’s the Boss” and has appeared in more than 20 films. Her advancement of #MeToo sparked a viral movement against sexual harassment and assault. She is the ACLU’s Ambassador for Reproductive Rights and one of the founders of NoRA, a coalition dedicated to combating NRA money in politics. For 15 years, she has been a UNICEF National Ambassador. She has lobbied members of congress for greater rights for immigrants as well as education reform and has been on the forefront of efforts to protect health coverage for all Americans.

Bamby is a national and international recognized transgender Latina Woman who received her Master’s Degree in Mexican and Latin@ Studies from California State California Los Angeles. Bamby is the President and CEO of the TransLatin@ Coalition, a national organization that focuses on addressing the issues of transgender Latin@s in the US. Bamby developed the Center for Violence Prevention & Transgender Wellness, a multipurpose, multiservice space for Trans people in Los Angeles.

Bamby’s remarkable and wide-ranging activist work has brought voice and visibility to not only the trans community, but also to the multiple overlapping communities and issues that her life has touched including migration, HIV, youth, LGBT, incarceration and Latin@ communities. Through her instinctive leadership, she has birthed several organizations that created community where there was none, and advocate for the rights, dignity, and humanity for those who have been without a voice. Bamby’s work as a collaborator and a connector through a variety of organizations reflects her skills in crossing various borders and boundaries and working in the intersection of multiple communities as well as the intersections of multiple issues. Bamby has served and participated in many local, national and international organizations and planning groups. This work mediates intersections of race, gender, sexuality, age, social class, HIV+ status, immigration status and more.

Kamilah Willingham is a feminist writer, speaker, and activist. Since graduating Harvard Law School in 2011, she has worked to advance the rights of survivors of sexual violence in prisons, in schools, and beyond, highlighting the culture of silence and inequity that dominates social and systemic responses to gender-based violence. Kamilah shared her personal experience of surviving sexual assault and civil rights violations as a student at Harvard Law School in the award-winning 2015 documentary The Hunting Ground. She is based in Los Angeles.

Fran Zone is an award-winning broadcast producer, leadership communication expert, and executive coach. Her continued interaction with Fortune 100 CEOs, board members and teams won her a coveted invitation to Fortune Magazine’s ‘Most Powerful Women in Business Summit’ and the ‘Headliner of the Year Award’ for lifetime achievement in the field of communication.

She is the founder and president of San Francisco based Zone Communication and the creator of The Zone Method™, a strategic communication tool for leveraging personal leadership style and creating message strategies for team initiatives, media interaction and IPO offerings.

Fran’s clients include White House staff, NBC Olympics, NASCAR, Johnson & Johnson, Dolby, Edwards Lifesciences, Intel, Accenture, HP, Genentech, Roche, ABCTV, and Time Inc. She is a #1 rated speaker at business conferences across the country and has taught graduate level courses at UC Berkeley.

An expert on women’s leadership challenges in the workplace, Fran has been recruited to create leadership communication programs, keynotes and curriculum for women in corporations worldwide. In 1992, she was recruited by ABCTV to create and lead the Coalition to Stop Sexual Harassment media campaign and secured sponsors that included Chrysler, Murad, and Hearst Magazines. The award-winning campaign was the first of its kind and a precursor to informing employees and employers of their rights and responsibilities as a matter of company policy.

The Fran Zone/JMC Fund is the result of Fran’s commitment to supporting women in the workplace via grants and scholarships. Fund recipients include individual students and university initiatives such as the Gloria Steinem Chair at Rutgers University, where she serves on the Steering Committee.