Lois Perelson-Gross

Lois Perelson-Gross

New York

Lois Perelson-Gross is pursuing a second career in Humanistic Medicine and holds a Doctor of Ministry (D. Min) from Hebrew Union College/Jewish Institute of Religion and a Master of Science in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University and has completed coursework at the Clinical Pastoral Education program of the HealthCare Chaplaincy of New York. She has served as a Chaplain Intern in the Palliative Care Unit at Mt. Sinai Hospital where she is also a member of the Advisory Board of the Hertzberg Palliative Care Institute. She has been an instructor in Narrative Medicine at HUC/JIR and a Fellow in Narrative Medicine at Columbia University. In her first career she was a vice president in the Municipal Finance Department of Goldman, Sachs & Co. Lois received an undergraduate degree Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude with highest honors in history from Smith College, and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School. She and her husband have three adult children and reside in New York City.

Philippa Portnoy

Philippa Portnoy

New York

Philippa has a BA from Barnard College and an MBA from Columbia Business School.  She is a founding member of Barnard’s Athena Center for Leadership Studies and a co-founder of Columbia’s Women’s Leadership Council for Athletics. Other leadership roles at the University have included:  Columbia Alumni Association (CAA) Board, Columbia University Club of NY Board and co-chair of CAA Arts Access. She has also been an active supporter of the Storefront Academy in Harlem.  Philippa ran the Latin American Aviation Finance Group at Citigroup before leaving in 2000 to raise her triplet sons.

Samia Salfiti

Samia Salfiti

Jordan

Samia Salfiti graduated from the American University of Beirut with a degree in Business Administration and a minor in History. She worked briefly with the Central Bank of Jordan, after which she got married and had her three boys. Upon coming back to Jordan after the civil war of Lebanon, Samia dedicated her time to volunteerism. She was long time Chair and one-time President of the Young Women’s Christian Association that worked diligently in the Palestinian refugee camp in Baqa. Samia also served for two terms on the Municipal Council of Amman. Additionally, she is a past member of the National Center for Human Rights and a former Board member of the Royal Film Commission. She is currently a member of the Board of Trustees at the Children’s Museum of Jordan and a member of the Board of the Ahliyya and Bishop School, where she chairs the New Building Committee. She is currently a member of the Jordanian chapter of the International Women’s Forum, a U.S. based women’s movement.

S. Mona Sinha

S. Mona Sinha is an advocate for gender equality in business and society. She has parlayed a career in finance (Morgan Stanley), marketing (Unilever), and restructuring (Elizabeth Arden/Unilever) to work at the intersection of social justice and women’s leadership. Mona uses business tools to build organizational capacities for sustainability that unlock the economic potential of women/girls across different sectors. She has been described as having a muscle for finance and a passion for justice.  

She is co-founder of Raising Change to address the funding gap in mission-driven organizations for social change. She also founded the Asian Women's Leadership University, to bring liberal arts pedagogy to train future women leaders.

She is currently the Board Chair of Women Moving Millions, a community of women who fund big and bold ($1 million+) to create a gender-equal world. She is also the Board Chair of the ERA Coalition Fund for Women’s Equality which seeks to codify the 28th constitutional amendment of equal rights on the basis of sex. She is an Executive Producer of Disclosure, a documentary film on the representation of trans peoples, which premiered at Sundance in January 2020 and was released on Netflix during Pride month June 2020.

Mona serves on several non-profit boards including Breakthrough USA, which uses media and popular culture to shift prevalent norms of violence against women, and the Center for High Impact Philanthropy at the University of Pennsylvania. She is on the Advisory boards of Apne Aap International to end sex trafficking, the Museum of Natural History which among many educational efforts, sponsors science education for inner-city girls, and Columbia Business School Tamer Center Social Enterprise Program that pioneered the concept of connecting business leaders to purpose beyond profits. She also works with Women Creating Change at Columbia University supporting the dissemination of diverse voices in teaching and pedagogy, and Columbia Global Mental Health program that aims to destigmatize mental health through research and global collaboration. She is a trustee emerita of Smith College, where she was Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees and co-led the $486 million Women for the World capital campaign, the largest to-date for women’s education.  

Mona is a financial investor in women-led businesses and mentors several hundred young people. She has a BA in Economics and Art History (magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) from Smith College and an MBA in Finance and Marketing (Beta Gamma Sigma) from Columbia University. She is a published contributor to “What I Told My Daughter - Lessons from Leaders on Raising the Next Generation of Empowered Women" edited by Nina Tassler & Cynthia Middleton. Her story is featured in She is Me, by Lori Sokol.  

Next April, Columbia Business School will recognize Mona with the Horton Award for Excellence in Social Enterprise. Women’s eNews is naming her one of 21 Leaders for the 21st Century. In 2019, Breakthrough honored Mona with a Lifetime Inspiration Award. She received the 2018 Exemplary Leadership in Development award from Smith College. In 2017, Mona was awarded The Last Girl Champion award by Gloria Steinem on behalf of Apne Aap. In 2015, she received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, which is presented annually to US citizens whose accomplishments in their field and service to the world are cause for celebration.

Diana Taylor

Diana Taylor

New York

Ms. Diana L. Taylor has been the Senior Adviser at Wolfensohn Fund Management, L.P. since 2007 and served as its Managing Director from March 2007 to 2014. Diana Taylor joined Solera Capital LLC as a vice chair in 2014. She previously served as managing director of Wolfensohn Fund Management L.P. Prior to Wolfensohn, she served as New York State superintendent of banks and chairwoman of the New York State Banking Board. Taylor serves on the boards of Citigroup, Brookfield Asset Management, and Sotheby’s. She also serves on several charitable boards and chairs the boards of ACCION International, Hot Bread Kitchen and the Hudson River Park Trust. Taylor earned an AB from Dartmouth College, MBA from the Columbia School of Business, and MPH from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia.

Davia Temin

Davia Temin

New York

Davia Temin is CEO of Temin and Company, a boutique management consultancy that helps corporations and other institutions create, enhance and save their reputations with a focus on crisis and risk management, corporate governance, and leadership coaching at the CEO and board levels. Temin and Company works with clients to create socially responsible, brand-distinguishing thought leadership and best practices in governance and corporate leadership, as well as to promote women’s leadership, provide ethically based marketing, media and social media strategy and execution, and create cultures supportive of gender equity. Davia serves as a spokesman for organizations during crises, strategist, and leadership and communications coach at the board, CEO and executive committee levels. Davia attended Columbia University for her Masters Degree and is an Honors graduate of Swarthmore College. Davia serves as Chair of the Board of global NGO Video Volunteers, an international media and human rights NGO founded in 2003 that promotes community media to enable citizen participation in marginalized and poor communities around the world. Previously, Davia served for 9 years as the First Vice Chair of the Board of Girl Scouts of the USA and Chair of their National Fund Development Committee, and for 10 years as board member, and head of the committee on Visibility and Leadership in Higher Education of Swarthmore College. In addition to Columbia’s Women Creating Change Leadership Council, Davia also serves on the boards or advisory boards of Girl Scouts of Greater New York, The Knight-Bagehot Fellowship Program of Columbia Journalism School, Harvard Women’s Leadership Board, and ProPublica, among others. Davia writes the “Reputation Matters” column for Forbes.com and recently penned “Chaos Leadership: When Does Global Crisis Turn Into Chaos and How Do We Survive It?.”   

Jacki Zehner

Jacki Zehner

Utah

Jacki Zehner dedicates her time and resources towards the advancement of women and girls. As the President of the Jacquelyn and Gregory Zehner Foundation, Jacki funds a wide variety of projects and organizations, with a particular focus on women's rights, women's foundations, movement building, and media. She is a CoFounder of Women Moving Millions (WMM), a community of over 300 members who have collectively given over $1 billion to organizations and programs that focus on females. Prior to her philanthropic focus, Jacki was a Partner and Managing Director at Goldman Sachs, where she was the youngest woman and first female trader to make partner. Seeing investing as an expression of her values, she is an active angel investor focusing solely on female founded companies. Jacki serves on a number of boards and advisory committees, and is an active writer, speaker, and consultant on topics relating to women and wealth, philanthropy, and leadership. She has been recognized for her leadership with many awards, including being named to the 2015 and 2016 Economist’s Global Diversity List as a top 50 diversity figure in public life, being profiled for MAKERS, and has been named as one of the top 50 most powerful women in US philanthropy.