Leadership Circle

Laila Ali

Former Professional Boxer

Laila Ali is the mother of a 2-year-old son, Curtis, and a baby girl, Sydney. An athlete and champion of health and fitness, she is the youngest daughter of Veronica Porsche Anderson, and of the legendary Muhammad Ali. Laila participated in her first boxing match in December 1999 and defeated her opponent, April Fowler, in 31 seconds. She holds a business degree from Santa Monica College and owned her own small business before becoming a boxer. Laila was a finalist in ABC’s Dancing with the Stars, which drew nearly 40 million viewers. She has participated in marketing campaigns for Adidas, DOVE, Vaseline, and Palmer’s. Laila launched her own line of beauty and personal care products in June 2010.

Patricia Yarberry Allen, M.D.

Patricia Yarberry Allen, director of the New York Menopause Center, is a gynecologist affiliated with New York-Presbyterian Hospital and a board certified fellow of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

The president and a founding member of the board of Women’s Voices for Change, Dr. Allen is a spokeswoman on women’s health. She was the inaugural speaker for the Iris Cantor Lecture Series on Women’s Health at the American Hospital in Paris. Dr. Allen has been interviewed by The New York Times, USA Today, regional newspapers and major television news programs on womens health issues and is a contributing editor for More magazine.

Tina Beattie

is the mother of two girls, 3-year-old, Addie, and 3-month-old, Keaton. Along with being a mother, Tina has been an active advocate for the environment as Chairwoman of ConservAmerica, a nonprofit organization working to restore conservation and environmental stewardship as fundamental elements of the Republican Party’s vision for America. She is also the Vice President of Top Line Restaurants, Inc. She enjoys nothing more than spending time outdoors with her girls either tending their vegetable garden, hiking or exploring.

Dominique Browning

Author of “Slow Love”

Dominique Browning is the mother of two sons, Alex and Theo. She is a magazine editor, writer, and publishing consultant. She has written and produced seven books. She is a founder of Moms Clean Air Force, as well as its lead blogger, and she also blogs at SlowLoveLife.com. Dominique’s most recent book is Slow Love: How I Lost My Job, Put on My Pajamas, and Found Happiness. Dominique writes for The New York Times, O: The Oprah Magazine, Wired, Travel & Leisure, Martha Stewart’s Whole Living, and Good Housekeeping, among others. Dominique was the editor-in-chief at House & Garden for thirteen years; she also worked at Esquire, Texas Monthly, Newsweek, and Mirabella. Dominique graduated from Wesleyan University with a major in philosophy, literature and history.

Jessica Capshaw

Star of Grey’s Anatomy

Jessica Capshaw is the mother of a son, Luke, and daughter, Eve. Born in Columbia, Missouri, she graduated Brown University with a degree in English and studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. She is best known for her roles as Dr. Arizona Robbins on Grey’s Anatomy (from 2009) and as Jamie Stringer in The Practice. Since her first part as Patsy in The Locusts, Jessica has appeared in numerous films and television series, including Minority Report, Valentine and Bones. A passionate advocate of the environment and children’s health, Jessica is married to Christopher Gavigan, a bestselling author and former CEO of Healthy Child Healthy World, a nonprofit that empowers parents to protect children from harmful chemicals.

Heidi Cullen

In addition to her responsibilities as Vice President of External Communications, Dr. Heidi Cullen serves as Chief Climatologist and correspondent for Climate Central – a non-profit science journalism and research organization headquartered in Princeton, NJ. Before joining Climate Central, where she reports on climate and energy issues for programs like PBS NewsHour, Dr. Cullen served as The Weather Channel’s first on-air climate expert and helped create Forecast Earth, a weekly television series focused on issues related to climate change and the environment. Prior to that Dr. Cullen worked as a research scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, CO. She received the NOAA Climate & Global Change Fellowship and spent two years at Columbia University’s International Research Institute for Climate and Society working to apply long-range climate forecasts to the water resources sector in Brazil and Paraguay.

Blythe Danner

Award-Winning Actress

Blythe Danner is the mother of Jake and Gwyneth Paltrow, and a grandmother. She has appeared in Meet the Parents, Meet the Fockers, The Lightkeepers, Huff and Will & Grace, and won Emmys for her role in Huff (both 2005 and 2006), and a Tony for Butterflies Are Free. She is a recipient of the Women in Film Lucy Award. Blythe became involved with the Oral Cancer Foundation after her husband, Bruce Paltrow, passed away. She continues to raise awareness and funding for oral cancer issues through the Bruce Paltrow Oral Cancer Fund. She has also engaged in environmental activism, defending recycling programs in Santa Monica and New York City, and advocating for the use of alternative energy sources.

Melissa Hammel

Melissa is a mother of two daughters, Amelia and Rye. She is a documentary filmmaker whose first film in 1992 investigated international security from an environmental perspective.

The success of this first endeavor set Melissa on a path that would intersect, in varying capacities, with CNN, PBS, BRAVO, Sundance Channel, Plum TV, Albert Maysles, Chip Cronkite, Pete Seeger, Russell Simmons, Joe Lovett, Washington Mutual and many film festivals.

Wanderlust, Melissa’s student film, won a Warner Bros. Pictures Film Production Award, traveled to festivals, and aired on the Sundance Channel. Melissa’s short documentary, Ilona, Upstairs, is the winner of multiple awards including HBO’s “Audience Award for Best Short” at the Provincetown Int’l Film Festival and has been distributed for broadcast in 50 states on Educational Television. It is the first in series of portraits of inspiring women.

Melissa earned a BA in Sociology from Tufts University and an MFA in filmmaking from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Zem Joaquin

Founder and CEO of EcoFabulous

Zem Joaquin is the mother of two children–and the Founder and CEO of EcoFabulous. She has been a contributing eco-editor at House & Garden, Domino, Architectural Digest and 7×7 Magazines. She received the 2009 Global Green Millennium Founder’s Award for her contributions as a Global Green board member, Co-Chair of Global Green’s San Francisco Committee, and Founder of Global Green’s Successful Annual Fundraiser and Ecofashion event. Mentored by William McDonough, Zem is a certified BuildItGreen design and strategy consultant and Cradle to Cradle enthusiast who helps companies and individuals create beautiful, smart, sustainable spaces and practices. Zem is the eco-luxury specialist for Planet Green’s Alter Eco and regularly contributes to various media. Much of her penchant for superior design came from her years at splendora.com and living in Milan, Paris and London. Her love for the earth, however, can be traced back to her early upbringing on a Palo Alto commune. Zem is committed to improving all families’ health, education and access to well-vetted information. To that end Zem is an active board member of Global Green, Teens Turning Green, and Architecture for Humanity.

Geraldine Laybourne

Founder, Oxygen Media

Geraldine Laybourne is a mother of two and a grandmother. After a career in teaching and as an independent producer of children’s programming, she joined Nickelodeon as a program manager in 1980, rising to president in 1989, and changed the face of children’s television in her 16 years with the company. In 1995, she left Nickelodeon to run Disney/ABC Cable Networks, where her new responsibilities included overseeing the Disney Channel, A&E Television, Lifetime, the History Channel, and E! Entertainment Television and ABC’s Saturday morning children’s lineup. In 1998, Gerry teamed up with Oprah Winfrey to create Oxygen Media, which reached more than 70 million households by the time it was sold to NBC Universal in 2007. Gerry was the youngest person ever to be inducted into the Broadcast and Cable Hall of Fame, in 1995. Her countless other honors include the Annenberg Public Policy Center’s Award for Distinguished Lifetime Contribution to Children and Television, and the New York Women in Communications Matrix Award for Broadcasting. Gerry holds a bachelor’s degree in art history from Vassar College and a master’s in elementary education from the University of Pennsylvania.

Cynthia Leive

Editor-in-Chief, Glamour

Cynthia Leive is the mother of Lucy and Isaac. She has served as editor-in-chief of Glamour magazine since May 2001. Glamour is the most celebrated women’s magazine in America today, with more than 170 journalism awards and some 12 million readers each month, outselling more than 98 percent of all magazines on the newsstand. Prior to Glamour, Cynthia was editor-in-chief of Self Magazine. Cynthia is the women’s lifestyle contributor on NBC’s Today Show, where she discusses women’s issues from fashion to politics. She serves on the board of directors for The International Women’s Media Foundation and is a former president of the American Society of Magazine Editors. Forbes named her the “Most Powerful U.S. Fashion Magazine Editor.”

Julianne Moore

Actress

Julianne Moore is an actress and a children’s book author. Throughout her career, she has been nominated for four Oscars, six Golden Globes, three BAFTAs, and nine Screen Actors Guild Awards.

In October 2007, Moore made her literary debut with the publication of Freckleface Strawberry, a children’s book based on her experiences as a child. In April 2009, Moore followed up with a second children’s book titled Freckleface Strawberry and the Dodgeball Bully.

Ana Roca-Castro

Founder, LATISM

Ana Roca-Castro is the proud mother of the Fantasticos4: Giuseppe, Pier, Emmanuel and Nora. She is president and chief executive officer of Premier Social Media, and founder and chair of Latinos in Social Media (LATISM), a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to advancing the social, civic and economic status of the Latino community. Ana utilizes her fourteen years of project management experience to help businesses and organizations achieve their objectives via state-of-the-art social media development. After managing the Oracle implementation for the United Nations, Ana launched Premier Social Media in 2007 with the development of a safe social networking site for diplomats and ambassadors. Her clients include Toshiba, Wal-Mart, FedEx, the World Bank, Nickelodeon and Ther-Rx Corporation. As a social media developer, she partners with businesses, non-profit organizations and PR/Marketing companies to serve their needs in the social media realm.

Randy Paynter

Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer, Care2

Randy Paynter is the father of two. His life mission is to be a force for good. The son of an ornithologist, Randy was raised among a menagerie of animals and with a healthy appreciation for the wild. While on one of his many fact-gathering missions to the rain forests of Latin American and South East Asia in the 1990′s, he realized his dream of creating a successful business that helps the environment could be a reality; after all, the Internet boom had begun. By the fall of 1998, Randy and several friends successfully launched Care-Mail, the online greeting card company. Based on the popularity of Care-Mail, the company launched Care2.com with additional Web services such as e-mail, community features, headline news and shopping in September of 1999. Prior to founding Care-Mail, Randy was a consultant with the Menlo Park based venture capital firm, Commtech Management Corporation, where he was responsible for forming and guiding start-up companies. Randy holds an AB from Harvard University and an MBA from Stanford Business School.

Rachel Sarnoff

Rachel Lincoln Sarnoff blogs as MommyGreenest, founded EcoStiletto, is the former CEO of Healthy Child Healthy World and was editor of Children magazine—before she had three kids. Rachel was featured in Los Angeles and Lucky magazines and appeared on “Today” and “CNN Headline News,” among others, to talk about leading a judgment-free, more sustainable lifestyle. Today, she is a non-profit and healthy home consultant, as well as pre/postnatal yoga teacher, who shares sustainable lifestyle advice @rachellsarnoff, youtube.com/rachelsarnoff and Huffington Post Parents.

Peggy Shepard

Peggy Shepard has successfully combined grassroots organizing, environmental advocacy and environmental health research to become one of the most highly respected environmental advocates in the country today. She has been a pioneer for advancing the perspective of environmental justice in urban communities to ensure that the entitlement of clean air, water and soil extends to all people and communities. A leader within New York City and the national Environmental Justice Movement, she is co-founder and executive director of WE ACT For Environmental Justice (WE ACT), based in West Harlem, which has a 24-year history of affecting environmental and environmental health policy and practice locally and nationally.

Rob Sisson

Rob Sisson is the President and CEO of Republicans for Environmental Protection.

Energetic, active and well known in southwestern Michigan, where he takes part in many professional and civic organizations, Rob is a former mayor of Sturgis. In 2008, the Michigan League of Conservation Voters named him “Michigan Environmental Leader of the Year.” He served more than 20 years in the commercial banking industry and as president of the St. Joseph County Economic Development Commission. He was named Michigan’s Small Business Advocate of the Year and also published a book, Financing the Small Business.

Rob and his wife, Theresa, are the parents of twin boys. The family enjoys nature in northern Michigan and in western Wyoming and are avid fly fishers and hikers.

Lisa Stone

Co-Founder and CEO, BlogHer

Lisa Stone is a mother and stepmother of three. She is co-founder and CEO of BlogHer, a community and media company catering to women in social media that attracts more than 25 million unique visitors each month. Prior to BlogHer, she worked as a journalist at CNN and later became editor-in-chief and vice president of programming at Women.com, which she grew into a Top-30 site. She has worked at Hearst and Rodale magazines, E! Television/Online, HBO’s Sex and the City, and Bloomberg and Gallup, among others. Lisa is a leading expert on developing successful online communities and interactive programming for women, as well as media strategies designed to recognize and compensate individual contributors, such as the BlogHer Publishing Network. Lisa was the first Internet journalist awarded a Nieman Fellowship from Harvard University.

Ayelet Waldman

Author of “Bad Mother”

Ayelet Waldman is mother of Sophie, Zeke, Rosie and Abe. She is the author of The New York Times bestseller, Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities and Occasional Moments of Grace. Her personal essays have been published in The New York Times, Vogue, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. She has also made radio appearances on All Things Considered and The California Report. Before taking up the pen, Ayelet clerked for a federal judge and became a public defender in Los Angeles, California. She served as an adjunct professor at the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California at Berkeley. She is a graduate of the Wesleyan University and obtained her JD from Harvard Law School.