A Fortified Board for a Fortified Mission

Equality is hard work.  We should know.  She Runs It (formerly AWNY) has been striving for gender equality for more than 107 years.  We’ve run on the power of our membership and our hard-working board of directors.  As a 501c3 not-for-profit organization, we rely on a fierce and fearless delegation of women and men to help us achieve our mission: to pave the way for more women to lead at every level of marketing, media and tech.

When I stop to really ponder the language of our mission, I am struck by the responsibility and the opportunity we have as an organization.  The mission is as ambitious as it is precise.  We know exactly what success looks like: more women in leadership roles.

That is why the composition of our board of directors is so critical, and why we are delighted to announce the addition of six new directors: Michelle Aragon, Senior Vice President Business Solutions, Magna Global; Catherine Davis, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, Feeding America; Angela Johnson, U.S. Head of Account Management, Dentsu Aegis Network; Lucia Ballas-Traynor, Executive Vice President Client Partnerships, Hemisphere Media Group, Inc.; Beth Superfin, Senior Vice President, Content Partnerships and Product Marketing, WarnerMedia, and Maria Weaver, Chief Marketing Officer, Comcast Advertising.

Describing what she sees as the value of She Runs it to our industry and to individuals, WarnerMedia’s Beth Superfin said: “It’s proven that for the last 100+ years, the value of female networking, mentorship, cross-generational connection, and a home for our male allies, continue to be as core to our industry and our needs as the ever-evolving people who make it tick.  Like anything, you get what you put in, and I’ve found in my own experience as a member, 2018 working mother honoree, mentor and now board member, that the platform and community is a pillar in our industry and something that every woman should take advantage of.  As the advancement of women in our industry and beyond continues to grow at the highest levels, so does the need to keep the conversation and support thriving.  She Runs It will always be there to make sure it does.”

Describing her inspiration and goals for her tenure on the board, Angela Johnson of Dentsu Aegis explained:  “I have always been a firm believer in the saying, ‘We women should lift as we rise,’ and have tried throughout my career to follow that goal.  Joining the board of She Runs It provides an amazing platform to continue and expand that mission.  Its diversity of members, geographical footprint (now expanding to the West Coast) and the breadth of topics it tackles does so much to deliver its mission of helping women succeed.  With our parents’ generation living much longer yet needing care and the next generation also needing our help as they start their careers dealing with crippling education debt, it sometimes feels like the women in my generation are literally holding it all together.  Providing help and support to the women stretched both ways as they navigate the messy middle is a particular passion of mine.  I hope to be able to bring programming ideas and energy to this topic.”

We are extremely fortunate that these six women have agreed to join our already formidable board at this pivotal moment in our history, when we are expanding across the country and across the full landscape of marketing.  They will help us enrich the programs and services we provide to our 4,100 members, including our mentoring program (the industry’s largest, currently with 400 active pairs), our loan relief benefit (we’ve donated more than half a million dollars to education loan relief), networking events, training, our job bank and more.

The new directors join a board that includes: Lisa Donohue, Chief Executive Officer, Publicis Spine; Jill Kelly, Chief Marketing Officer, GroupM; Sarah Personette, Vice President Global Client Solutions, Twitter; Julie Rollauer, Global Sales Skills Curriculum Manager, Google, Inc.; Phyllis Ehrlich, Group Vice President, Spectrum Reach Preferred; Sheila Buckley, former head of sales at Business Insider; Dana Anderson, Chief Transformation Officer, MediaLink; Priscilla Valls, Vice President Agency, Advertiser and Industry Relations, Pandora; Denise Colella, Senior Vice President, Advanced Advertising Products and Strategy, NBCUniversal; Julie Fleischer, Senior Vice President, Head of Customer Intelligence, WW, and Eva Press, U.S. Group Lead, Consumer Packaged Goods and Healthcare.

To quote Margaret Meade, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful citizens can change the world."  This defines our board.  This brilliant, generous group of women are committed to helping lift up other women and propel as many women as men into leadership roles in marketing, media and tech.

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