Jessica Bennett is an award winning writer, editor and producer with a decade of experience in magazine journalism and online media. She writes for The New York Times, The Atlantic, Time, Newsweek and The Daily Beast, and is Editor for Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In foundation, which works to encourage women to pursue leadership roles.

Bennett spent a year as executive editor of Tumblr, where she launched an ambitious multimedia initiative to produce original journalism and oversaw Tumblr's award-winning video department. Previously, Bennett spent seven years at Newsweek Magazine (and later, Newsweek/Daily Beast), where she was a reporter, editor, and ultimately senior writer, focused on longform features, multimedia and commentary. She has written cover stories on young women and marriage, cyberbullying, gay rights, and was the coauthor of a special report about sexism in the media to mark the 40th anniversary of a landmark gender discrimination suit against Newsweek. That lawsuit, and Bennett's personal story, are now documented in "The Good Girls Revolt," a book by Newsweek's first female senior editor, Lynn Povich.

A native of Seattle, Jessica's work has been honored by the Society for Professional Journalists, the Newswomen's Club of New York, GLAAD and the New York Press Club, which named her the city's best young journalist.
 

Libby Christman is the Vice President of Risk Management & Safety for grocery retailer, Ahold Delhaize USA. The company operates 1900 retail grocery stores in the US and employs over 200,00 associates in banners: Stop and Shop, Giant Food, Giant Food Stores, Martin's Food Markets, Food Lion, Hannaford and Peapod.

Libby's responsibilities includes self administered claims operations, corporate, retail, distribution and transportation safety and training, regulatory & environmental compliance, business continuity and insurance and captive management. Prior to working for Ahold Delhaize USA, Libby held claims positions, specializing in large loss and catastrophic workers compensation and general liability matters.Libby earned a BA in Economics and Finance from Ursinus College and and MBA from Lebabnon Valley College.

Mercedes Colwin is the founding partner of the GRSM New York Office. She handles a wide variety of litigation, including employment law, commercial litigation, class actions, products liability, professional liability, wage and hour class actions, defamation and related First Amendment claims, civil rights violations and criminal law.
Prior to private practice, Ms. Colwin served as an Administrative Law Judge for the New York State Division of Human Rights. During these nine years of service, while a partner at a major regional New York law firm, she presided over three thousand cases brought under federal and state discrimination laws.
Forbes Business American Airlines named Ms. Colwin one of the six most influential women in America. The list includes dignitaries such as former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Notre Dame Law School presented Ms. Colwin with the prestigious Graciela Olivarez Award for outstanding achievement as a leading Hispanic lawyer of the highest ethical and moral standards. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor received the same award. MultiCultural Law magazine also profiled Ms. Colwin in a Leadership Interview titled, Reaching Back to Diversify the Legal Professional. Human Resources Magazine named Ms. Colwin as one of the Nation’s Most Powerful Rising Employment Attorneys.

Laura Fahsbender has been with AIG Property Casualty (AIG PC) since August 1992.  During her 21 years with AIG, Laura has held country, regional and home office management roles in Madrid, Milan, Budapest, Paris and New York. Currently she is the Commercial Head of Underwriting Excellence, working with the Global Commercial Chief Underwriting Officer and Commercial management team to drive a foundation of underwriting excellence across a portfolio of $20bn nwp that is written in more than 90 countries.  She previously served as the AIG PC International Commercial Division Chief Underwriting Officer, Commercial Chief Underwriting Officer for Growth Economies, and was instrumental in the establishment and development of the International Division’s Underwriting Management Audit division. Prior to joining AIG, Laura was with Chubb Corporation in New York and Chicago, and Chase Manhattan Bank in New York. She is a graduate of Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland.

Lucy Ann Galioto was most recently the President of YorkPro, Inc., New York, N.Y. Ms. Galioto spent more than 15 years in both claims and underwriting management roles at AIG. Her claims experience includes Employment Practices Liability (EPL), Directors & Officers (D&O) and Professional Liability. While at AIG, Ms. Galioto was a Senior Vice President of AIG Executive Liability, where she managed the Employment Practices Liability book of business. Ms. Galioto is frequently invited to speak at Insurance Industry conferences. In 2005, she received the Helen M. Garvin Outstanding Achiever Award from the New York City Chapter of the National Association of Insurance Women.

Before joining AIG, Ms. Galioto practiced law in New Jersey where she was active in politics and served as the Mayor of Tewksbury Township, New Jersey.

She earned a B.A. from Rosemont College and a J.D. from Seton Hall Law School.

Judge Nancy Gertner is a graduate of Barnard College and Yale Law School where she was an editor on The Yale Law Journal.  She received her M.A. in Political Science at Yale University.  She has been an instructor at Yale Law School, teaching sentencing and comparative sentencing institutions, since 1998. She was appointed to the bench in 1994 by President Clinton.  In 2008 she received the Thurgood Marshall Award from the American Bar Association, Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities, only the second woman to receive it (Justice Ginsburg was the first).  She became a Leadership Council Member of the International Center for Research on Women the same year.  In 2010 she received the Morton A. Brody Distinguished Judicial Service Award.  In 2011 she received the Massachusetts Bar Association's Hennessey award for judicial excellence, and an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Brandeis University. In 2012 she received the Champion for Choice award from NARAL Pro-Choice of Massachusetts and the Women’s Bar Association’s highest award, the Lelia Robinson Award. She has been profiled on a number of occasions in the Boston Globe, the ABA Journal, Boston Magazine, and The Wall Street Journal.  She has written and spoken widely on various legal issues and has appeared as a keynote speaker, panelist or lecturer concerning civil rights, civil liberties, employment, criminal justice and procedural issues, throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia.  Her autobiography, In Defense of Women: Memoirs of an Unrepentant Advocate, was  released on April 26, 2011.  Her book, The Law of Juries, co-authored with attorney Judith Mizner, was published in 1997 and updated in 2010.  She has published articles, and chapters on sentencing, discrimination, and forensic evidence, women's rights, and the jury system. Judge Gertner retired from the bench in August 2011 and now teaches sentencing at Harvard Law School.
 
For more information on recent events and interest please visit her website, nancygertner.com.

 

Karen Guenther, the spouse of an active duty United States Marine Corps Colonel and registered nurse with more than two decades of experience, is the inspiration behind the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund: a nonprofit organization supporting the men and women of the United States Armed Forces and their families.

From its humble beginnings in 2004 as a locally-based grassroots charge to provide assistance to the Marines and Navy corpsmen injured on the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq, the Semper Fi Fund has grown exponentially into a worldwide charitable organization. By working diligently to maintain overhead costs of less than 6%, the majority of the monies donated (94%) go to the programs that directly benefit service members.

The Semper Fi Fund has distributed $75 million in assistance to over 9,500 service members and their families, processing 58,000 grants since inception.

Under Karen’s leadership, the Semper Fi Fund has been recognized as one of the premier non-governmental organizations supporting service members and their families. The Semper Fi Fund has consistently earned the highest marks from the charitable industries’ foremost and well-respected regulators, earning an A+ Rating from Charity Watch (formerly known as the American Institute of Philanthropy) and the highest possible rating of Four Stars from Charity Navigator.

Karen grew up on a grape farm in central California before graduating from Fresno State University with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing. Specializing in pediatric intensive care, emergency room, and pediatric floor nursing, she was named the UCSD Medical Center "Pediatric Nurse of the Year". Before taking her passion to the Semper Fi Fund, Karen proudly served on a medial mission to Santiago, Chile and worked tirelessly with bereavement programs across America.

Karen’s work with the military has bestowed her numerous accolades including the U.S. Field Artillery Association Molly Pitcher Award, the Marine Corps League Dickey Chapelle Award, the Daughters of the American Revolution Medal of Honor, and the Cookie Award from Cookie Magazine for mothers who make a difference in the world. In 2013, Karen was selected as the Marine Corps Spouse of the Year from the Armed Forces Insurance Military Spouse of the Year award.

Karen currently resides in Manassas, Virginia with her husband, USMC Colonel Glenn Guenther, and their daughter, Brooke, as well as their dogs, Maggie, Bear, Jake, and Pixie, and their horse, Dash.

 

 

Patricia A. Henry is currently Executive Vice President for ACE Group Holdings responsible for government and industry affairs.   Ms. Henry manages the development and implementation of the public affairs agenda at the state, federal and international level. In this role she manages ACE’s Washington, D.C. office and is the company representative to various industry associations. Some representative issues Ms. Henry has worked on include asbestos litigation reform, the terrorism risk insurance act and the current debate regarding financial services regulatory reform issues.  Since 1992 Ms. Henry has held numerous management positions at ACE, including serving as Chief Legal Officer for Ace’s domestic operations.   Prior to joining ACE, Ms. Henry was an associate at the Philadelphia law firm of White & Williams where she represented ACE’s predecessor companies as national coverage counsel for environmental, asbestos and other toxic tort exposures.

Ms. Henry is a frequent lecturer on the federal legislative agenda as well as tort reform issues.  She serves as Chair of the American Insurance Association Law and Regulation Committee and on the Boards of the Rand Institute for Civil Justice, the Philadelphia Diversity Law Group and is a member of the Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel.  Ms. Henry is a graduate of the College of William & Mary and Villanova University School of Law.  Ms. Henry was recently named to the Business Insurance 2009 Women to Watch and was recognized in the December 2009 issue. 

Wendy is a co-founder of the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund and has been involved with the organization since its inception and has worked in every aspect of the funds operations as it has grown. In addition to her current duties as Senior Director of Outreach, she continues to serve as a member and Secretary of the Board of Directors.
 
As the wife of a Marine for 24 years (now retired), Wendy had an active role in military family life. She has volunteered in all levels and aspects of the Key Volunteer Network (KVN) from establishing new programs during Desert Storm to being the KV coordinator for Task Force-58 during Operation Enduring Freedom and then for the 1st Marine Division during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Wendy was also a member of the Headquarters USMC Key Volunteer Network where she earned the Bronze Award from the Presidents Council.
 
Wendy also helped conduct the Leadership Education Seminar for four years, at MCB Camp Pendleton, CA.
 
Wendy received the “Smart Cookie” Award, for mothers who make a difference in the world.by Cookie Magazine in their 2007 first annual awards.
 
Wendy earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Ecology from the University of California, Irvine, and she is the proud mother of three sons, one serving in the Marine Corps, one in the Navy, and one Naval Midshipmen at the University of Southern California. 
 

Henriette Lazaridis Power is a first-generation Greek American who holds degrees in English Literature from Middlebury College; Oxford University, where she was a Rhodes Scholar; and the University of Pennsylvania. She taught at Harvard for ten years and is the founding editor of The Drum, a literary magazine publishing exclusively in audio form. Her work has appeared in publications including Narrative Magazine, the New York Times online, the Huffington Post, and the New England Review. A competitive rower, Power trains regularly on the Charles River in Boston.
 
Power's debut novel The Clover House was published by Ballantine Books in April 2013 and was a Boston Globe best-seller and a Target Emerging Authors pick.
 
 

Pam Voltin enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1994 at the age of 17.  She served as a Signals Intelligence Operator at 2nd Radio Battalion in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, until she was selected for the Marine Corps Enlisted Commissioning Education Program in 1997.  She graduated from Oregon State University in 2000 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant.  After completing The Basic School, she served as a Combat Engineer Officer in Twentynine Palms, CA.
In 2004, Pam left service as an active duty Marine and began serving as a Marine wife.  She married then Second Lieutenant Ryan Voltin who was completing his training in Marine Aviation.  In January 2007, Ryan deployed with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit in support of the Global War on Terror.  By May of that year, Pam saw her role change yet again as she became a caregiver and advocate for her husband after he was traumatically injured in a live fire training exercise while deployed.  Together they spent 3 years and 3 months recovering at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, until Ryan was medically retired from the Marine Corps in 2010.  Ryan returned to flying as a civilian and ultimately returned to serving his country as an Air Interdiction Agent with US Customs and Border Protection.
Pam and Ryan have four children and live in Las Cruces, New Mexico.