ERA NOW: A New Strategy to Move Equal Rights Forward

Description

Associated Program:
John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum
Speakers:
Lina Esco
Jane Mansbridge
Johanna Maska
Katie Packer Beeson
Co-Sponsors:
Women and Public Policy Program

Katie Packer Beeson
Founding Partner, Burning Glass Consulting
Deputy Campaign Manager, Romney for President Campaign (2012)
Lina Esco
Activist and Actress, S.W.A.T., KINGDOM, Free The Nipple
Jane Mansbridge
Charles F. Adams Professor of Political Leadership and Democratic Values, Harvard Kennedy School
Author, Why We Lost the ERA
Johanna Maska
CEO, Global Situation Room
Director of Press Advance, President Barack Obama Campaign and White House (2007-2015)
Victoria A. Budson (Moderator)
Founder & Executive Director, Women and Public Policy Program (WAPPP), Harvard Kennedy School
Chairperson, Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women (2011-2016)

The JFK Jr. Forum aims to educate, inspire debate, and foster conversation at the Institute of Politics. Unless otherwise specified, members of the Harvard community and general public are encouraged to attend Forum events.

To learn more about events like this one, sign up for the JFK Jr. Forum newsletter HERE.


Katie Packer Beeson has managed campaigns at every level from state legislative to Presidential. In 2012, she served as Deputy Campaign Manager of the Romney for President Campaign. In 2013 she founded Burning Glass Consulting, a strategic consulting firm which focuses on communicating with women.  Katie is an Adjunct Professor at George Washington University and a Fellow at Georgetown University Institute of Politics. She is a political contributor for MSNBC and is a weekly columnist for U.S. News & World Report. Katie is a native of Michigan who spent 20 years in Washington, DC and now calls Colorado home..


Lina Esco is an actress, director and activist known for breaking barriers in gender equality movements.  Esco currently stars in CBS's Primetime show S.W.A.T. as Chris Alonso, and has been profiled in TIME Magazine, Variety, Los Angeles Times, Entertainment Weekly and more for her work on behalf of equality.  Esco directed Free The Nipple, a feature film about men and women coming together for gender equality, and led the campaign that became one of the biggest movements of the 21st century with more than 2.3 billion impressions and a 800 million true reach. The feature film Free the Nipple can be seen on Netflix.  Esco also stars in the new season of KINGDOM.  Esco is originally from Miami Florida but left home at 15 years old. Esco has also worked to raise the issue of teen homelessness, working with Miley Cyrus to give a voice to million plus teens living on the street.


Jane Mansbridge, Charles F. Adams Professor of Political Leadership and Democratic Values, is the author of Beyond Adversary Democracy, an empirical and normative study of face-to-face democracy, and the award-winning Why We Lost the ERA, a study of anti-deliberative dynamics in social movements based on organizing for an Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. She is also editor or coeditor of the volumes Beyond Self-Interest, Feminism, Oppositional Consciousness, Deliberative Systems, and Negotiating Agreement in Politics. She was President of the American Political Science Association in 2012-13.  Her current work includes studies of representation, democratic deliberation, everyday activism, and the public understanding of free-rider problems.


Johanna Maska is CEO of Global Situation Room, a public affairs firm with offices in DC and LA.  Maska served President Barack Obama for more than eight years, serving as Director of Press Advance in the White House and playing a critical role on two successful presidential campaigns. At the White House, Johanna served as guarantor of President Obama’s brand on a global stage, ensuring a consistency of message across every continent, whether that was a first-ever live address to the nation from Afghanistan or a multi-country town hall from South Africa. Maska has arranged presidential events in 40 countries and almost every state and is an expert in visual marketing, strategic communications and event production. Since leaving the White House in 2015, Maska has worked with media companies, technology firms and non-profit causes applying her unique touch to projects across sectors.


Victoria A. Budson is a founder and the Executive Director of the Women and Public Policy Program (WAPPP) at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. WAPPP is the preeminent institution for advancing interdisciplinary research on approaches to closing gender gaps, educating students and leaders on gender policy, and implementing policy changes at local, state, and national levels. WAPPP created and hosts one of the field’s most significant research seminars to foster faculty dialogue, promote the exchange of innovative ideas, and disseminate findings.
Budson’s policy advice is regularly drawn upon by leaders across the sectors including: the White House Council on Women and Girls, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the U.S. Senate Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee, the U.S. Department of State, and the U.S. Army and Air Force, as well as multinational corporations leading on diversity and inclusion. She served as the Chairperson of the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women from 2011-2016 and has served as a board member or advisor to numerous other organizations including the Eisenhower Fellowships, the Boston Mayoral Women’s Workforce Council, the Global Thinkers Forum, Womensphere, Women2Women, the Women and Public Service Project, and the National Council for Research on Women.
She speaks regularly on topics related to closing gender gaps such as gender and public policy, electoral politics and political action. Budson also addresses how diversity and gender equality improve the profitability of corporations and the prosperity of families and society. She focuses on evidence-based methods that are proven to improve diversity and gender equality in the workplace.
Budson is a frequent commentator for news publications, television, and radio programs including CNN, Fox News, The New York Times, C-Span, CNBC, The Boston Globe, New York Times Magazine, US News & World Report, USA Today, and National Public Radio.  
She has received numerous awards and honors. She was recognized by CNN as one of Ten Visionary Women from across the globe (2014) and by Boston Magazine, as a member of the “The new Power Class; the visionaries, idealists and thinkers whose insights are transforming the way we live, work, learn and play” (2014).      
Budson earned a B.A. from Wellesley College and a master’s degree in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University where she was a recipient of the Lucius N. Littauer Fellow award for academic distinction and leadership.