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Gloria Feldt
Leading women's activist and best selling author Gloria Feldt is a
powerful keynote speaker and commentator on leadership, politics, women’s
lives, reproductive and public health, and media.
Gloria can be found on the web at
www.GloriaFeldt.com. Her much-quoted Heartfeldt Politics Blog offers a
unique take on current events from where the political and personal meet.
Gloria's newest book, co-written with actress Kathleen Turner, is the New
York Times best seller, Send Yourself Roses: Thoughts on My Life, Love,
and Leading Roles. Her two previous books are The War on Choice: The
Right-Wing Attack on Women's Rights and How to Fight Back, which lays out
both the threats and how to secure reproductive rights, helath, and
justice, and the more personal Behind Every Choice Is a Story. She has
contributed chapters to numerous other books on women, politics, health,
and leadership as well.
Her commentary has appeared in The New York Times, USA Today, ELLE, and MS
magazines among many others, and on-line in Alternet, Salon, The
Huffington Post, Daily Kos, WIMNsVoices, Women’s e-News, ilfpost, Majority
Post, Women’s Voices for Change, Blogher, WIMNsVoices, and RH Reality
Check. Gloria has appeared as both a newsmaker and a commentator on most
major national radio and television news and public affairs programs, and
is a SheSource expert.
Gloria is a much sought-after speaker for groups seeking inspiration,
motivation, information, and practical leadership skills, whether women's
organizations, universities, corporate, or professional groups. She speaks
from deep knowledge and personal experience on the frontlines of
leadership, politics and advocacy, women's lives, reproductive and public
health, and media. She's as effective speaking to groups of thousands as
in intimate settings. and She’s currently touring campuses with an
intergenerational panel of women called “Women, Girls, and Ladies”. See
speaking topics, endorsements, and availability here.
Leader
People Magazine called this former teen mom who became the CEO and
movement leader of the world's largest reproductive and sexual health care
provider and advocacy organization "the voice of experience". Gloria
exemplifies leadership on the frontlines of challenge and change. She
brought phenomenal growth to the Planned Parenthood affiliates she led in
West Texas and Arizona, then served as president and CEO of Planned
Parenthood Federation of America from 1996-2005. She was a founder of the
Planned Parenthood Leadership Institute.
Her colleagues call her a “practical visionary”; Fast Company magazine
lauded the inclusive way she led the organization to adopt a bold new
Vision for 2025. By the time she left, the organization’s total combined
affiliate and national organization annual revenues approached one
billion. Her call to "fight forward" scored insurance coverage for
contraceptives and accessible emergency contraception. She initiated the
Prevention First Act and reintroduction of a new, improved Freedom of
Choice Act. She understands politics from the ground up and served as
president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, which she grew into the
largest nonpartisan pro-choice action fund and Political Action Committee.
Honors and Civic Activities
Among her honors, Vanity Fair magazine named Gloria one of America's "top
200 women legends, leaders, and trailblazers". Glamour magazine honored
her as Woman of the Year. She was one of Women's e-News' 2007 "21 Leaders
for the 21st Century". Texas Monthly, naming her to its "Texas
Twenty"--she hails originally from Temple TX--described her as "part den
mother, part businesswoman, part Mae West". In Arizona, she was named
Women of Achievement by Mujer, Junior League, and Soroptomist, and the
city of Phoenix awarded her its Martin Luther King Living the Dream Award.
Gloria is a fellow of the International Leadership Forum. She serves on
the Women's Media Center board of directors, on the board of the Jewish
Women’s Archive, and advisory boards of Our Bodies, Ourselves and of
Hygeia PCP.
Personal and Family
Gloria has a unique understanding of the confluence of the personal and
the political in American culture. A confluence of the personal and the
political propelled her own story too. As a young wife and mother from
small-town Texas, she raised three children while attending college. She
taught Head Start and was active in the civil rights movement and
interfaith activities. There, she realized women's civil rights, equality,
and social justice depend on having the human right to determine their own
reproductive destiny.
Her life's passion for social justice, especially for women, became her
life's work. That's why today, she's delighted to share her expertise and
experiences in her writing, speeches, and media commentary. She has a
special passion for encouraging young people through the media to
participate in the political process on behalf of their own rights and
health.
She and her husband, Alex Barbanell, have a combined family of six
children, nine grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. They live in
New York and Arizona.
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