FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT:
Jamia Wilson, Vice President of Programs
Women's Media Center
(212) 563-0680
[email protected]

July 12, 2010 (New York) - Women�s Media Center is thrilled to announce the next class of its 2010 Progressive Women's Voices (PWV) media and leadership training program. Now in its third year, PWV continues to be one of the most elite programs in the country, training and mentoring issue experts and emerging commentators.

�Media is a fundamental element of our democracy, yet women make up just 19% of experts in the news media. With the 2010 elections just around the corner, the Women�s Media Center is working to ensure that broadcast, print and online commentators represent the diversity of our nation,� said WMC President Jehmu Greene. �By amplifying the voices of the extraordinarily accomplished thought leaders selected for the program we are changing the conversation in the media.�

Participants in the next class include experts in women�s economic empowerment, human rights, gender and race, public policy, electoral strategy, reproductive justice, media literacy, feminist theology, and pop culture. These women are journalists, organizers, health care providers, and academics, and reflect diversity generally absent from mainstream media coverage. The new class joins more than 70 Progressive Women�s Voices alumnae, forming a roster of media-trained women who are visibly and powerfully commenting on the important issues of the day.

With Progressive Women�s Voices and SheSource � a database of more than 500 women experts � WMC has become the go-to resource for editors, reporters, producers, and bookers seeking expert sources and commentators. PWV alumnae have achieved more than 5,000 media hits in national media outlets including The New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, CNN, MSNBC, and hundreds more. To learn more about Progressive Women�s Voices, please visit our website.

Progressive Women�s Voices 2010 Class 2:

Kirstin Falk

Kirstin Falk has more than fourteen years of experience as a brand engagement strategist and collaborative leader, and has technology, non-profit, political, and financial services experience. She has built innovative, brand-driven operations by creating, engaging and leading teams to achieve success. Falk has recently spent the summer in Indonesia advising a Presidential campaign in communications, served as the Chief Marketing Officer of AngelPoints, founded and served as Chief Executive Officer of the New Progressive Coalition, and has held leadership positions with political organizations including EMILY�s List, New Democrat Network, and Planned Parenthood Mar Monte.

Andrea Plaid

Andrea Plaid writes as Racialicious� Sexual Correspondent, where she explores the crucial nexus of race and sex in popular culture. She also writes for the Race in America blog at Change.org, runs her own blog, The Cruel Secretary, and a companion talk show, Secretary�s Break Room. She has discussed race, gender, and sex in The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and Bitch. She owns a safer-sex kit company called Freak Kits.

Andrea Isabel Quijada

Andrea Isabel Quijada is the Executive Director of the Media Literacy Project where she educates and empowers the public to critically consume and create media. She delivers presentations and trainings internationally at professional and student conferences, community forums, on college campuses. She leads workshops for students, teachers, media activists, community organizers, and health professionals discussing the topics of media ownership, health disparities, gender and racial stereotypes, and media literacy as a substance abuse prevention strategy. Quijada has co-founded a number of community organizing projects in NM including Young Women United, and she holds a master�s degree in Art History from the University of New Mexico.

Sheela Raja

Sheela Raja, PhD, is a clinical psychologist with over ten years of research and clinical experience in health psychology, with an emphasis on minority populations and the treatment of traumatic events. She is Assistant Professor of Dentistry and Medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago where she teaches Health Communication and Behavioral Medicine. She received her PhD from the University of Illinois at Chicago and completed post-doctoral training at the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Boston, MA. She has published numerous articles exploring the relationship between physical and psychological health and traumatic events.

Loretta Ross

Loretta Ross is the National Coordinator of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, a network founded in 1997 of eighty women of color. She was National Co-Director of the 2004 March for Women�s Lives, founder and Executive Director of the National Center for Human Rights Education (NCHRE), Director of Women of Color Programs for the National Organization for Women, and Director of the National Black Women�s Health Project. She has appeared as a political commentator on Good Morning America, The Donahue Show, The Charlie Rose Show, CNN, and BET.

Joelle Schmitz

Joelle Schmitz is a Senior Fellow at Harvard University�s Mossavar Rhamani Center for Business and Government with expertise in economic regulation, the interdependence of public and private sectors, and transportation policy. She has served as a Fulbright Scholar and policy advisor to the Canadian Prime Minister�s office on issues of interprovincial and international regulation, an advisor to the lead negotiator for the United States in multilateral regulatory agreements, and a senior-level industry and government consultant in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. She earned a Master's in Public Policy on scholarship from the Harvard Kennedy School and has completed studies on fellowship at Johns Hopkins SAIS and McGill University, at the Harvard Law and Business Schools, and L�Ecole Nationale d�Administration.

Adele Stan

Adele M. Stan is the Washington bureau chief for AlterNet, a progressive news and culture website. She has served as a columnist and blogger for The American Prospect Online and as a featured essayist for The Guardian�s Comment Is Free. Her work has also appeared in The New Republic, the Village Voice, The Nation, The Advocate, Salon.com, the Washington Blade and Mother Jones magazine, as well as the op-ed pages of the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the New York Daily News, and she has served as a contributing editor for Ms. Magazine.

Shira Tarrant

Shira Tarrant, Ph.D is an assistant professor with the Women�s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Department at California State University, Long Beach. She is also a go-to source about the impact of state budget cuts on California�s higher education. An expert in gender politics, feminism, pop culture, and masculinity, Tarrant is the author of Men and Feminism (Seal Press 2009) and When Sex Became Gender (Routledge 2006), and editor of Men Speak Out: Views on Gender, Sex and Power (Routledge 2008). Her co-edited anthology, Fashion Talks: Undressing the Power of Style, is forthcoming (SUNY Press). Her work has appeared in Bitch magazine, Huffington Post, off our backs, Barnard College�s Scholar & Feminist Online, Women�s Studies Quarterly, Genre magazine, and The Women�s Movement Today: An Encyclopedia of Third-Wave Feminism. She has also been featured in the Baltimore Sun, Denver Post, Sydney Morning Herald, and WBAI radio.

Amanda Terkel

Amanda Terkel is Deputy Research Director at American Progress and serves as Managing Editor for The Progress Report and ThinkProgress.org. She has also served as the Center�s Special Assistant for Strategic Planning, and has held positions at the Office of Senator Charles E. Schumer, the Office of the New York State Attorney General, and the 2004 presidential campaign of Senator Joseph Lieberman. Her writing has been published in the New York Times and Politico, and on the websites of Salon, The Daily Beast, the Columbia Journalism Review, The Guardian�s Comment is Free, The American Prospect, and In These Times.

Manisha Thakor

Manisha Thakor is a personal finance expert on a mission to inspire women to take charge of their money. Her financial literacy advocacy work has been featured in The New York Times, BusinessWeek, US News & World Report, Glamour, Real Simple, and Women�s Day. She has discussed the subject of women and financial independence on CNN�s Your Bottom Line, CNBC�s Power Lunch, NBC Nightly News, and ABC�s America This Morning. She is a regular blogger on The Huffington Post and a contributor to the nationally syndicated NPR show �51% - The Women�s Perspective.� She received her BA from Wellesley College in 1992, her MBA from Harvard Business School in 1997, and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charter holder.

Meggan Watterson

Meggan Watterson is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of REVEAL and a feminist theologian. With Masters from Harvard Divinity School and the Union Theological Seminary in Feminist Theology and Women�s Spirituality, Watterson has focused her life�s work on the emergence of the divine feminine. She leads a multi-faith women�s spirituality group called The Redladies and is currently working on the REVEAL anthology, titled REVEAL Generation.

To speak with Women�s Media Center President Jehmu Greene about Progressive Women�s Voices, please contact Jamia Wilson, (212) 563-0680, [email protected]

Application information and deadlines for the next class will be posted on our website in the coming weeks. For more information, or to apply for the program, visit our website.

UPDATE: Check out our video introducing our latest class!

About the Women's Media Center: The Women's Media Center is a non-profit organization making women visible and powerful in the media. The WMC ensures that women are represented as they are: powerful newsmakers, informed experts, and sought-after media professionals. Please visit WomensMediaCenter.com to learn more about our work.

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