Conference Co-Chairs

 

Lisa M. Wong, M.D.

Conference Co-Chair

Pediatrician, Milton Pediatric Associates

Musician (violin, viola), Longwood Symphony Orchestra

 

Dr. Lisa Wong is a pediatrician, musician, and author dedicated to the healing arts of music and medicine.  She is a violinist, violist and pianist who has worked at Milton Pediatric Associates since 1986 and is also an Assistant Clinical Professor at Harvard Medical School. In April 2012, she published her first book, Scales to Scalpels: Doctors who practice the healing arts of Music and Medicine, in collaboration with writer Robert Viagas.

 

Dr. Wong served as President from 1991-2012 of the Longwood Symphony Orchestra, a Boston-based orchestra made up primarily of medical musicians dedicated to Healing the Community through Music, and is a member of its violin section. Inspired by Dr. Albert Schweitzer, LSO combines music, medicine and service and performs every concerts to raise awareness and funds for medical nonprofits in the community.  LSO musicians also bring music out of the concert hall to patients in hospitals, hospices and other healing spaces throughout greater Boston.

Dr. Wong is a Board member of the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the BPS Arts Initiative Advisory Council and Lesley University Institute for Arts and Health. She has served on the boards of All-NewtonMusicSchooland Young Audiences of Massachusetts and has an ongoing interest in Venezuela’s El Sistema music-for-social-change program and Sistema-inspired programs in the U.S. She is married to violinist Lynn Chang, and has two grown children, who are also musicians.

 

Priti Rao

Conference Co-Chair

Executive Director, Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus

 

Priti Rao currently serves as Executive Director of the Massachusetts Women's Political Caucus, a multi-partisan, non-profit organization committed to maximizing the participation of women of all ages in the political process and increasing the number of women appointed and elected to public office and public policy positions. Rao previously served as the organization's Associate Director and most recently as Acting Executive Director. Rao is a Cum Laude graduate of Mount Holyoke College, where she majored in Politics and Spanish. She has coordinated field activities for Congressional and City Council races in New York. Here in Massachusetts she worked in the successful campaign of Congresswoman Niki Tsongas, the first woman elected to Congress in 25 years. As Acting Executive Director and Associate Director, Rao worked to design and execute strategic political and field support that helped fuel the successful election of 5 MWPC endorsed women to the MA House of Representatives in 2008 and the 2009 election of Ayanna Pressley to the Boston City Council, the first woman of color ever to serve on the Council in its 100 year history. Originally from upstate New York, Rao currently lives in Boston.

 

 

Karen A. McLaughlin

Conference Co-Chair

Human Trafficking and Victim Rights Expert

 

Karen McLaughlin is a nationally and internationally recognized expert in victim assistance and violence prevention. In the United States, Ms. McLaughlin has pioneered the development of victim service programs within the criminal justice system and community agencies at the state and national level.

 

Ms. McLaughlin served for five years from 2005-2010 as the director of the Massachusetts Task Force to Combat Human Trafficking funded by the U.S. Department of Justice.  In that role, she coordinated over 50 federal, state and local law enforcement, prosecution and non-governmental partner agencies in their efforts to rescue victims, investigate and prosecute cases of those who engage in the growing domestic and international slave trade. She is a co-drafter of the pending Massachusetts state legislation that provides comprehensive rights and services to victims, mandates stringent criminal penalties for traffickers and requires initiatives related to stemming demand for sex and labor trafficking.

 

Presently, Ms. McLaughlin continues to serve the interests of crime victims by working to strengthen global efforts to combat human trafficking under a grant funded by the United States Department of State. This initiative is addressing the labor, organ and sex trafficking trade in China. In the domestic arena, she coauthored “Developing a National Campaign for Eliminating Sex Trafficking” as a consultant for Abt Associates, Inc. In her current role, she is a consultant for a groundbreaking national initiative to end demand for human trafficking sponsored by the Hunt Alternatives Fund.

 

In the international arena, Ms. McLaughlin was elected in 2008 to the International Scientific Professional and Advisory Council (ISPAC) of the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme. ISPAC’s international experts are charged with advising the United Nations on matters of worldwide crime policy. She currently chairs ISPAC’s Victim Assistance and Victimization Prevention Committee.

 

In other matters related to the United Nations, Ms. McLaughlin has been a long-standing member of the World Society of Victimology’s United Nations Liaison Committee. She assisted in the drafting of the United Nations Handbook on Justice for Victims and the United Nations Guide on Victims of Crime for Policymakers. Most recently, she was an active participant in an expert group that was convened to research, conceptualize and draft the United Nations Convention on Justice and Support for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power. This initiative launched a global strategy for this proposed international instrument. For nearly a decade, much of Ms. McLaughlin’s work has focused on victims of transnational crime. After the September 11, 2001, terrorist strike, Ms. McLaughlin directed a national terrorism project which addressed the impact of the attack on thousands of victims and their families and evaluated the country’s response, recovery and preparedness in the aftermath of this national tragedy. Additionally, the United Nations Terrorism Prevention Branch sought her expertise as a result of her work in responding to the families of the victims of the Pan Am 103 terrorist attack over Lockerbie, Scotland.

 

In 1997, in recognition of her accomplishments at the state, national and international levels, she was presented with the National Crime Victim Service Award, the highest federal honor for service to victims. Bestowed by President Clinton, Vice President Al Gore and Attorney General Janet Reno, this prestigious acknowledgement was a tribute to Ms McLaughlin’s tireless efforts on behalf of underserved victim populations.

 

From 1989-1991, Ms. McLaughlin was president of the National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA).  She was instrumental in establishing the first state and national victim assistance crisis response teams to respond in the immediate aftermath of mass catastrophes, both in the U.S. and abroad. Her volunteer service to victims of crime and mass causalities has taken her to numerous countries consulting with governments and non-governmental organizations.

 

In her former capacity working on behalf of the U.S. Department of Justice from 1992-2002, Ms. McLaughlin created several national model curricula and protocols for law enforcement, prosecutors and victim services and educators. For nearly a decade in the 1990s she directed the Justice Department’s National Center for Hate Crime Prevention, where she created the country’s first curriculum to respond to and prevent bias crime. She co-authored, “Healing the Hate,” the first national curriculum that dealt with hate crime prevention. She trained thousands of professionals to address crimes resulting from prejudice. Her groundbreaking work on bystanders, cooperative learning and peer education has won numerous awards from civil rights and human rights groups. Her teaching tools were disseminated to over 15,000 educational institutions in the U.S. as well as thousands of youth programs throughout the nation and internationally.

 

Since the mid-1970s, Ms. McLaughlin has fought to establish rights and services for crime victims at the state and national level. In 1980, as the principal architect for the Massachusetts Victim Bill of Rights, she directed the lobbying effort to ensure the passage of this victim rights reform initiative. She served as the founding executive director of the Massachusetts Office for Victim Assistance from 1984-1991, the first independent state victim assistance agency in the United States.

 

Empower Peace Staff

 

Rick Rendon

Founder, Empower Peace

 

Mr. Rendon is the founder of Empower Peace and Senior Partner of The Rendon Group, a Boston-based communications firm that specializes in public affairs campaigns. Empower Peace was founded on the premise that young people, through communication and the promotion of cultural understanding, could help pave the way for peace. Mr. Rendon holds strong to the belief that our future generation has the ability to create change and that they hold the key to breaking down the cultural barriers that threaten to divide the Western, Muslim and Arab worlds.

 

Throughout his career, Mr. Rendon has taken great pride in creating and developing innovative community-based initiatives and social campaigns. Working with community leaders and activists, Mr. Rendon helped create and organize the world’s largest school-based racial harmony campaign. For seven years “TEAM HARMONY” brought together over 15,000 middle and high school students from throughout New England to discuss the issues of hatred and prejudice and to develop programs to promote diversity and harmony in schools and communities region wide. Team Harmony’s keynote speakers have included former United States President Bill Clinton, United States Senator and former First Lady, Hillary Clinton, former United States Attorney General Janet Reno, and the Reverend Bernice King (daughter of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.)

 

Mr. Rendon was also the creator and co-founder of the school-based program, “UNITED WE STAND FOR AMERICA”. This program was developed post 9/11 to provide youth with an opportunity to express their emotions and feelings in the wake of the terrorist attacks. Students from throughout Massachusetts were recruited to create individual messages of peace, hope, and patriotism on six-inch tiles of red, white and blue fabric. This fabric was then assembled to create a giant quilt of an American flag (nearly half the size of a football field). Over 700 schools and 50,000 students participated in this program.

 

Mr. Rendon, working with the Islamic Society of Boston, the Office of the Massachusetts Attorney General, and the Governor’s Task Force on Hate Crimes, developed the “OUTNUMBER THE HATE” campaign. This Massachusetts school-based campaign encouraged students to rally against hate, prejudice and intolerance experienced by Muslim and Arabs in the United States post-9/11. In response to the 1,700 hate crimes reported against Muslims and Arabs living in America, Massachusetts’ students responded by creating OVER 1,700 messages of respect, diversity and tolerance.

 

In addition to over thirty years of experience as a senior communications consultant, Mr. Rendon served previously as a Public Information Officer for the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and as a member of United States President Jimmy Carter’s national political staff.

 

Tricia Raynard

Executive Director, Empower Peace

 

Tricia Raynard has recently been appointed the Executive Director of Empower Peace and brings to the table more than fourteen years experience in the ever-changing information world of public and media relations. She has navigated projects from the brainstorming and planning stages straight through to the implementation of special event coordination, media advertising, and public education campaigns. As the Vice President of Public Relations and Special Events at The Rendon Group, she was instrumental in developing effective communication and special event strategies for all TRG clients including Merck, Time Warner, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation, the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, and the Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs.

 

Ms. Raynard specializes in developing large-scale public outreach campaigns at all levels from the local community upwards onto the international scene. As the Executive Director of Empower Peace, Ms. Raynard is responsible for further developing the educational programs currently offered, she oversees the broadcast media programs and works with the Empower Peace team to expand the footprint of this important program.

 

Before returning to TRG in 2000, Ms. Raynard was the Vice President of Public Relations at Hawthorne Associates, a public relations and marketing agency that specializes in the corporate training industry. While at Hawthorne Associates she was responsible for developing public relations programs, marketing events, and promotional materials, for well-respected corporate clients including Arthur Andersen Virtual Learning Network, McGraw-Hill Lifetime Learning, The Gallup School of Management, and PRIMEDIA Workplace Learning. Raynard was also responsible for coordinating all trade show logistics for Hawthorne clients including booth design, securing show space, and coordinating pre-show promotions and special events.

 

 

Kari Johnston

Outreach Coordinator, Empower Peace

 

Kari is the Outreach Coordinator for Empower Peace. She has more than thirteen years experience in public relations and event planning and management. She joined The Rendon Group in the winter of 2000. During that time she has worked with a number of clients on their public awareness/public relations initiatives and special events such as: the Department of Environmental Protection, the Ovarian Cancer Awareness Coalition, the Massachusetts State 9-1-1 Department, the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development, the Massachusetts Highway Safety Division and the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency.

 

Kari has been involved with planning a number of special events with TRG. She served as Registration Coordinator for more than 18,000 attendees at the Pilgrimage 2000 Culminating Event at Fenway Park, and for more than 14,000 participants at Team Harmony VII at the FleetCenter. Recently, she was the Registration Coordinator for STAND UP 2012 at the Tsongas Center in Lowell, Massachusetts, an event to combat bullying. More than 5,000 teachers and students attended the one-day event. Kari has been a member of the Empower Peace team since it was founded in 2003 and has helped coordinate and plan the Women2Women conferences each year. Ms. Johnston graduated from Northeastern University in 1997.

 

Keynote Speaker

 

Todd Patkin

Author and Philanthropist

 

After graduating from Tufts University in 1987, Todd entered the family automotive parts business. For over 18 years, he along with his brother Roger and his father Steve (founder) worked together and grew Foreign Autopart/Autopart International into one of the premiere wholesale automobile parts businesses in the country. The company was sold in September of 2005 to Advance Autoparts enabling Todd to leave the company and put all of his time and energy into what he loves most: spending time each day trying to help as many people as he can. At age 36, Todd Patkin had an experience that completely changed the way he views the world: a debilitating nervous breakdown. On paper, he had everything: a great family, wonderful friends, financial security—but that didn’t stop him from hitting rock bottom. From breakdown to breakthrough, Todd chronicles his journey out of the murky depths of depression and anxiety and into the light in his book, Finding Happiness: One Man’s Quest to Beat Depression and Anxiety and—Finally—Let the Sunshine In. Today, Todd travels the country speaking to various groups, telling his story and teaching people how they, too, can find their own happiness. Today Todd runs the Todd G. Patkin Companies with investments in several different businesses many of which were started by friends who needed a little bit of help. In terms of Todd’s charities, he focuses on inner city children, the State of Israel and how to facilitate more open dialogue throughout America concerning the topic of depression. Todd is a cofounder of the Operatunity Performing Arts Center in Foxboro, MA. He funded Gary Marino’s Million Calorie March from Florida to Boston and is now the executive producer along with Gary for Million Calorie March the movie. Todd also sits on many for profit as well as not for profit boards including the executive committee boards for both the Jewish National Fund locally and nationally, the New England Board of the Anti-Defamation League and The American Friends Board for Yemin Orde. Todd has been married to and in love with Yadira since October 1991, and they have Joshua, an amazing teenager. To learn more, visit www.toddpatkin.com.

 

 

 

Victoria Budson,

Executive Director, Women and Public Policy Program

Harvard Kennedy School of Government

 

Victoria A. Budson is the founding Executive Director of the Women and Public Policy Program (WAPPP) at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.  WAPPP analyzes cutting-edge issues as they impact women’s roles and lives. WAPPP conducts research, develops curriculum, and publishes materials focused on women and public policy.  While at the Kennedy School, Budson was the founding Executive Director of the Council of Women World Leaders, a group of current and former presidents and prime ministers. From 1999-2004, Budson served as a Kennedy School Ombudsperson.

 

Governor Deval Patrick appointed Budson to the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women and she serves as chair of that body.   The commission is an independent state agency that was legislatively created in 1998 to advance women of the Commonwealth to full equality in all areas, of life and to promote their rights and opportunities. The Commission provides a permanent, effective voice for Massachusetts' women and is comprised of 19 diverse members who are appointed by the Governor, Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Caucus of Women Legislators.

 

Currently, Budson serves on the Board of Directors for the National Council for Research on Women (NCRW). The mission of NCRW is to harness the resources of its network to ensure fully informed debate, policies, and practices in order to build a more inclusive and equitable world for women and girls.  iVillage Cares, a national advocacy program designed to build awareness and support for causes of concern to women, is presently a frequent destination site for 27 million women. Budson has been a member of numerous other Boards of Directors including: the National Women’s Political Caucus, the Massachusetts National Abortion Rights Action League, the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus, Women’s Legislative Network and Alliance, Massachusetts Coalition of Democratic Women, the Wellesley College Hillel Alumnae Board. Budson has served on the Steering Committee for the Massachusetts State Treasury’s Women and Money conference.

 

Budson speaks on various topics such as the future of feminism, gender and public policy, electoral politics and political action at institutions including Carnegie Mellon, Harvard University, Tufts University, Wellesley College, the Eleanor Roosevelt Center at Val- Kill, and the Center for Women’s Policy Studies.  In 2002, she served as an advisor for the development of the United Nations’ University for Peace Masters degree program in International Peace Studies with specialization in Gender and Peace Building. Budson presented at the United Nations Beijing and Beyond International Women’s Conference. She is a frequent commentator for news publications, television, and radio programs.  Her appearances include: Fox News Live, the Boston Globe, WGBH Boston, WSBK Boston, and Talk of the Nation and The Connection on National Public Radio.  She reviewed and edited the childbirth chapter for the 2005 edition of Our Bodies, Ourselves.

 

Before coming to Harvard, Budson was the Political and Community Affairs Director for Steve Grossman, President of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).  Budson has also worked extensively in Massachusetts’ politics, both as an activist and an elected official on the state and local levels.  As the elected Chair of the Massachusetts Coalition for a Democratic Future, the official statewide organization of young political activists affiliated with the Democratic Party, Budson grew the organization to over 2,000 members. She has held a seat on the Massachusetts Democratic State Committee, which is the governing body for the state Democratic Party.  She served as Chair of the Wellesley Democratic Town Committee and as a member of the Wellesley Town Meeting.

 

In addition to her grassroots and electoral work, Budson is an active political consultant.  As Finance Director for Massachusetts State Senator Cheryl Jacques, she established one of the largest campaign accounts in the Massachusetts State Senate.  She also served as Finance Director for Massachusetts State Representative Rachel Kaprielian, and has worked with EMILY’s List, an organization that raises money for pro-choice, democratic women candidates.

 

Awards Budson has received include: the “Rising Star” award for her outstanding work to advance the political education of women from the Network for Women in Politics and Government at UMASS Boston, the Carol Moseley Braun Award from Mass Choice, and the Dean’s Award for Excellence at the Kennedy School.  Budson graduated Magna Cum Laude and with Departmental Honors from Wellesley College with a joint degree in Sociology and Women’s Studies.  As a graduate of the John F. Kennedy School of Government: Mid-Career Masters in Public Administration Program, she received the Lucius N. Littauer Fellow award for her distinction in academics at the Kennedy School, her contribution to the Kennedy School and the greater Harvard community, and her potential for continuing leadership excellence.

 

Susan Hackley

Managing Director of the Program on Negotiation,

Harvard Law School

 

The Program on Negotiation (PON) at Harvard Law School is a world-renowned interdisciplinary research center dedicated to improving the theory and practice of negotiation and dispute resolution. As Managing Director, Susan Hackley oversees all of PON's activities, which include research projects, conferences, special events, and educational programs. She also manages the publication of a variety of books and teaching materials, including the monthly Negotiation newsletter and the quarterly Negotiation Journal. Susan has taught negotiation seminars in China, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain and Italy. Before joining PON, she worked in politics as a policy analyst and served as communications director of the Massachusetts Democratic Party. As a writer/photographer, she has had work published in National Geographic Magazine, the Los Angeles Times and many other publications. She also co-founded an Internet company, an e-philanthropy site dedicated to helping people connect to causes they care about. Susan has a Masters Degree in public administration from Harvard Kennedy School and served three years as chair of the board of directors of the Alliance for Peacebuilding.

 

Sharmila L. Murthy

Professor at Suffolk Law School

 

Sharmila L. Murthy recently joined the faculty of Suffolk Law as an Assistant Professor, where she will be teaching property and international environmental law. Her research focuses on questions at the intersection of human rights, poverty, and the environment. She is particularly interested in examining legal and policy barriers to equitable water access and sustainable water management. She has written on the meaning of the human right to water and sanitation under international law and the controversy over privatization; on the relationship between land security and water access in the slums of Mumbai, India; on the use of carbon markets to fund clean water projects; on the right to water in the Negev in Israel; on Iraq’s constitutional mandate to ensure the just distribution of water; and more broadly on questions of water governance.

 

Professor Murthy was previously at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where she co-led the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation Program as a Fellow with the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy. As a Fellow with the Sustainability Science Program at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, she also served as the Lead Investigator for the Water Sector in an interdisciplinary, cross-sectoral research project on "Innovation and Access to Technologies for Sustainable Development." During the 2013-2014 academic year, she will continue to be engaged in this research. Professor Murthy has also taught at Harvard executive education programs and at the Water Diplomacy Workshop organized by MIT and Tufts.

 

Professor Murthy received her JD from Harvard Law School, her MPA from Harvard Kennedy School, and BS in Natural Resources from Cornell University. She clerked for the Honorable Martha Craig Daughtrey on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. She was also a Fulbright Scholar in India and the recipient of the New Advocate of the Year award by the Tennessee Alliance of Legal Services. Prior to transitioning to academia, Professor Murthy was a Skadden Fellow with the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands and also litigated complex and class action litigation with Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein. She has also been active with numerous civic organizations and currently serves as the Co-chair of the Steering Committee of the American Constitution Society Boston Lawyer Chapter.

 

Margaret A. McKenna

President, Wal-Mart Foundation

 

Margaret A. McKenna was named president of the Wal-Mart Foundation on September 4, 2007.  In this role, Ms. McKenna is responsible for the oversight of all corporate giving for the company and manages Wal-Mart’s corporate-level relationships with philanthropic partners such as the Salvation Army, America’s Second Harvest, the United Way, and Children’s Miracle Network.  Globally, Walmart and the Foundation gave more than $799 million in cash and in-kind gifts during the fiscal year ending January 31, 2011 and was recognized by The Chronicle of Philanthropy as the biggest cash contributor to nonprofit and community organizations in the United States.

 

Prior to joining Wal-Mart, Ms. McKenna was president of Lesley University, transforming the college from a small, 2,000-student body to a 12,000-student university with a national presence.  During her tenure, Lesley was first recognized as a national leader in teacher education.  Ms. McKenna was honored for her contributions to Lesley by the establishment of the Margaret A. McKenna Chair in Leadership and Social Change at Lesley University.  Prior to Lesley, Ms. McKenna served as vice president at Radcliffe College, as deputy under secretary in the U.S. Department of Education, and as White House deputy counsel to President Jimmy Carter.  Ms. McKenna began her career as a trial attorney with the Civil Rights Division of U.S. Department of Justice.

 

Ms. McKenna currently serves on a variety of corporate and non-profit boards.  She is the recipient of several honorary degrees and many regional and national awards.  The author of numerous articles, she is often invited to speak on issues of leadership, social justice and philanthropy.  Ms. McKenna received her undergraduate degree from Emmanuel College and her law degree from Southern Methodist University.  She currently resides in her hometown of Boston and has two sons, David and Michael.

 

Christina Bain

Director, Program on Human Trafficking and Modern-Day Slavery, Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, Kennedy School of Government

 

Christina Bain is the Director of the Program on Human Trafficking and Modern-Day Slavery at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University. Prior to her time at the Kennedy School, Christina was appointed by Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney as the Executive Director of the Governor's Commission on Sexual and Domestic Violence, a statewide commission of over 340 public and private sector partners. She previously served as the Public Affairs Liaison to Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey where she worked on domestic violence and criminal justice issues, including human trafficking and sex offender management. Since 2006, she has been a member of the Massachusetts Human Trafficking Task Force, one of the 42 statewide anti-trafficking task forces funded by the U.S. Department of Justice. Christina also served as a Special Assistant to Governor Jane Swift of Massachusetts.

 

Stacy Malone, Esq.

Executive Director at the Victims Rights Law Center

 

Stacy Malone, Esq. is the Executive Director of the Victim Rights Law Center.  She joined the VRLC in 2004 as a pro bono attorney for the VRLC’s Rape Survivors Law Project, where she provided free legal services to sexual assault survivors on employment, safety, privacy and other issues. She then served in various capacities on the VRLC Board of Directors until 2010, when Ms. Malone was appointed VRLC's Executive Director.  Ms. Malone has also worked in the private sector and at both federal and state agencies.  Her legal career has focused on working with young women, victims of violence and those who have faced discrimination.  Ms. Malone is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, University of Massachusetts, Boston’s Women in Politics and Public Policy Program, and Boston University School of Law.  Ms. Malone’s writing has appeared in the New York Times "Room for Debate."  In 2011, she was honored to receive Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly’s "Top Women of Law 2011" Award.

 

Abbagail Geroux

Fellow, New England Law Center for Law and Social Responsibility

 

Abbagail Geroux, is a 2012 New England Law | Boston graduate and Fellow at the Center for Law and Social Responsibility.  During law school, Abbagail interned at the Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Cable, where she compiled comparative legal analyses for both telephone and cable consumer protection regulations. In her third year of law school, she interned at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, in The Hague, the Netherlands. She wrote a comprehensive summary for the prosecution of In the Matter of El Sayed, which dealt with key decisions on the disclosure of evidence. Abbagail’s current responsibilities include assisting with the implementation of the CLSR Summer Fellows Program, which launched this year and creating the first guide to permitting public art for the City of Boston.

 

The Women’s Bar Association is an organization of women lawyers who focuse on what our unique organization can do: stand up for the legal rights of women and advancing women in the legal profession. The Ban FGM working group is looking into creating a model statute to ban Female Genital Mutilation in the state of Massachusetts.  The working-group is currently in its research stage. We have gathered information on statutes enacted in other states and countries, contact information of people who could be key players in understanding the practice of FGM in our state, and what would be some of the legal, political, and practical hurdles in getting an effective bill passed in MA.

 

Marianne Adams

M.Ed. Instructor, Wheelock College

 

Marianne Adams' primary interest has been in the integration of the arts into all aspects of children's lives. She worked for 20 years as an Artist in Residence through Arts in Progress, traveling to schools all over Massachusetts as a drama teacher, storyteller, and program developer. She has also served as an Arts Specialist and Humanities Teacher in the Boston Public Schools. She continues to consult and work with teachers to develop integrated curriculums locally and nationally. She is currently working in the Boston Public Schools on a NALC grant.

 

Charlie Rose

Senior Vice President and Dean, City Year

 

Charlie Rose has been a youth worker, organizer and entrepreneur in Boston for nearly 30 years.  As a founding board member of City Year and then staff member who has played myriad roles, Charlie has helped build the organization into a national model for youth community service organizations.  In addition, Charlie has also been a founding board member for seven other organizations including YouthBuild Boston and has served the community through his work with organizations such as Youth Outreach Program, Citizens for Safety, National Toxics Campaign, United Labor Unions Local, Urban Edge and as a VISTA volunteer.  Prior to joining City Year’s staff, he was the Director of Youth Services for the City of Boston’s Community Centers.

Priti Rao

Conference Co-Chair

Executive Director, Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus

 

Priti Rao currently serves as Executive Director of the Massachusetts Women's Political Caucus, a multi-partisan, non-profit organization committed to maximizing the participation of women of all ages in the political process and increasing the number of women appointed and elected to public office and public policy positions. Rao previously served as the organization's Associate Director and most recently as Acting Executive Director. Rao is a Cum Laude graduate of Mount Holyoke College, where she majored in Politics and Spanish. She has coordinated field activities for Congressional and City Council races in New York. Here in Massachusetts she worked in the successful campaign of Congresswoman Niki Tsongas, the first woman elected to Congress in 25 years. As Acting Executive Director and Associate Director, Rao worked to design and execute strategic political and field support that helped fuel the successful election of 5 MWPC endorsed women to the MA House of Representatives in 2008 and the 2009 election of Ayanna Pressley to the Boston City Council, the first woman of color ever to serve on the Council in its 100 year history. Originally from upstate New York, Rao currently lives in Boston.

 

Chahrazad Bekkoui

2010 W2W Alumna and 2013 Conference Organizer

 

Chahrazad is a native of Rabat, Morocco and has lived in France since 2012. She is currently pursuing a Master degree in Finance at EDHEC Business School in Nice. She participates in Model United Nations around the world, volunteers in an NGO that organizes awareness sessions about people with disabilities, and she also plays soccer. After the Women2Women Program in 2010, Arianna Wassmann (2010 W2W Alumna) and Chahrazad organized the "Intercontinental Discussions,” discussion sessions among students from Stanford in the USA and students from the Preparatory classes at Lycee Descartes in Rabat in order to break stereotypes and learn more about each culture and country. Chahrazad is a 2013 conference organizer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Susan G. Duffy

Executive Director, Center for Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership

Babson College

 

Susan Duffy is the Executive Director of the Center for Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership (CWEL) at Babson College. The CWEL is a collaborative learning laboratory dedicated to investigating, educating and celebrating women entrepreneurial leaders of all kinds. Susan is recognized within her sphere of influence as a source of thought and initiative in developing innovative education programs and delivering system-wide value in diverse organizations.

 

Susan earned her Ph.D. from The George Washington University (GWU) in Management and Organization, a Master’s Degree in Applied Behavioral Science from the Johns Hopkins University, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Nutrition Science from the Pennsylvania State University.  Susan has designed and taught courses in entrepreneurship, management, and  organizational behavior and is committed to creating learning experiences that change lives. Currently she serves on the board of directors of the International Council for Small Business, the Center for Women’s Business Research, and Venturing Out, a Massachusetts non-profit that teaches entrepreneurship to incarcerated and court-involved adults and high-risk youth. Before entering academia Susan was the co-owner of a commercial construction company and owned and operated the Ho-Lee-Chow Chinese Food franchise restaurant. She has held leadership positions in health care and worked as an organizational consultant and trainer in private and public work systems.

 

Heidi Neck

Faculty Director of the Babson Symposia for Entrepreneurship Educators (SEE)

 

Heidi Neck is the Jeffry A. Timmons Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies at Babson College. As Faculty Director of the Babson Symposia for Entrepreneurship Educators (SEE), she passionately works to improve the pedagogy of entrepreneurship education because new venture creation is the engine of society. Given the integrated and multidisciplinary nature of entrepreneurship, teaching entrepreneurship requires an entrepreneurial approach.

In addition to entrepreneurship education Professor Neck’s research interests include social entrepreneurship, corporate entrepreneurship, and creativity. Recognized for her contributions to innovative teaching and curriculum developments, she’s received numerous awards including Babson’s Deans’ Award for Excellence in Teaching, the Gloria Appel Prize for entrepreneurial vitality in academe, United States Association for Small Business & Entrepreneurship (USASBE) Outstanding Entrepreneurship Course, USASBE Best Practice Pedagogy for theatrical improvisation, and USASBE best workshops for social entrepreneurship development and entrepreneurship pedagogy using the historic account for Ernest Shackleton’s journey to the South Pole as a backdrop for a discussion on entrepreneurial thought and action. Babson has nominated her twice for the Carnegie Foundation Professor of the Year Award—but only nominated!

 

Heidi Neck completed her Ph.D. in Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship from the University of Colorado at Boulder. She holds a B.S. in Marketing from Louisiana State University and an M.B.A. from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Professor Neck teaches entrepreneurship at the executive, MBA, and undergraduate levels, and consults small businesses. She regularly speaks and teaches around the world helping educators better teach entrepreneurship and espousing the positive force of entrepreneurship as a societal change agent.

 

Elizabeth Swanson Goldberg

Professor, Babson College

 

Professor Goldberg teaches intermediate and advanced courses in international literatures and human rights, Babson’s interdisciplinary Arts and Humanities Foundation course, and the India portion of the Babson BRIC course. She has received multiple, prestigious rewards throughout her time at Babson. Author of Beyond Terror: Gender, Narrative, Human Rights (Rutgers University Press, 2007), Dr. Goldberg has published articles in journals and edited collections in the areas of multicultural literature and pedagogies, gender studies, and human rights. She edited a special issue of the transnational journal Peace Review devoted to the subject of literature, film, and human rights (Spring 2008), and is currently co-editing a collection of essays on torture since 9/11. She is co-editor, with Alexandra Schultheis, University of North Carolina, of Theoretical Perspectives on Literature and Human Rights (Routledge, 2011).

 

Dr. Goldberg currently serves as Chair of the Board of Made By Survivors, an international NGO empowering survivors of slavery by providing education and skilled craftsmanship training, and as Faculty Director of the Made By Survivors Microsupply Chain Consortium, hosted by the Lewis Institute Social Innovation Laboratory. She is a member of the Editorial Board of the international journal Teaching in Higher Education, and has recently concluded a term as Chair and Commissioner of the Barnstable County Human Rights Commission.

Elizabeth Cafferty

Senior Advocacy Officer, Women’s Refugee Commission

 

Senior advocacy officer Elizabeth Cafferty joined the Women’s Refugee Commission in September 2011. She directs the organization’s advocacy work at the United Nations in New York City. Elizabeth previously worked at Massachusetts General Hospital as Associate Director, Division for Global Health and Human Rights, where she directed an international research study on sex trafficking of women and girls and developed and managed a variety of international women’s health initiatives. Prior to that, she spent eight years in London working on international human rights and development issues. She served as founding director of Women for Women International’s U.K. office and deputy executive secretary of the Council for Assisting Refugee Academics. She also supported international human rights programs at Quaker Peace and Social Witness. Elizabeth completed her undergraduate work at the College of the Holy Cross. She received a Master’s of Social Science, Women Studies and International Development from the University of York, U.K.