The Rep Project and Mount Saint Mary’s University welcome you to tonight’s special event celebrating 50 years of Title IX, featuring a panel discussion with these exceptional thought leaders: Dr. Ange-Marie Hancock Alfaro, Nancy Hogshead-Makar, Holly J. Mitchell, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, and Kamilah Willingham.
6:00 p.m. Reception Starts
6:30 p.m. Opening Remarks
6:40 p.m. Panel Discussion
7:30 p.m. Cookies and Coffee!
Many warm thanks to our event sponsor Greenburg & Glusker for their generosity!
Dr. Linda McMurdockA graduate of Howard University in Washington, D.C., with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and master and doctoral degrees in clinical psychology, Dr. Linda McMurdock comes to Mount Saint Mary’s University from Marymount University in Virginia, where she served as vice president of student affairs for five years.
Earlier in her career, as dean of students and vice president for student affairs at Loyola Marymount University (LMU) in Los Angeles, McMurdock launched initiatives for LGBT students, first-generation Latino scholars and co-led the creation of a student memorial on campus.
Dr. Emerald ArcherEmerald Archer is the director of the Center for the Advancement of Women at Mount Saint Mary’s University in Los Angeles. She has dedicated her career to studying questions related to gender equity and women’s representation in non-traditional domains such as the United States military. Through the Center, Dr. Archer’s primary goal is to promote and increase gender equity in our state and region.
Before joining Mount Saint Mary’s University in 2017, Dr. Archer served as a faculty member in the Politics & History department and as the associate dean of the College of Liberals Arts at Woodbury University. She has published articles in The European Legacy and Armed Forces & Society, and recently wrote a book, titled Women, Warfare and Representation: American Servicewomen in the Twentieth Century, that was published by Bloomsbury in August 2017. Dr. Archer holds a PhD in political science from the University of California, Santa Barbara (2009).
Brenda RobinsonBrenda Robinson is an entertainment attorney and producer with extensive experience in the film, television and music industries. Brenda is a partner in Gamechanger Films, a film finance and development company dedicated to supporting groundbreaking narratives that advance the cultural conversation. Brenda is also a member of Impact Partners, a film financing collective dedicated to funding independent documentary storytelling that engages with pressing social issues and propels the art of cinema forward. Brenda is a graduate of the University of Michigan and obtained her law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and a certificate in business and public policy from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School.
As a dedicated philanthropist in the arts and entertainment community and advocate on behalf of creative artists, Brenda currently serves on the boards of Film Independent and The Representation Project founded by California First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom. Brenda serves as an advisor to The Redford Center co-founded by Robert Redford and his son James Redford. She is a proud board member of Cinema/Chicago and the Chicago International Film Festival and currently acts as legal counsel to the festival. Brenda is also currently the Chair of the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative.
Brenda was most recently a financier on the Academy Award-winning documentary Icarus as well as Won’t You Be My Neighbor and Step. She is an executive producer on numerous projects including Passing, directed by Rebecca Hall and produced by Nina Yang Bongiovi and Forest Whitaker; United Skates, alongside executive producer John Legend; The Great American Lie by director Jennifer Siebel Newsom; Jump Shot: The Kenny Sailors Story, alongside executive producer Steph Curry; The Empire of Ebony directed by Lisa Cortes and produced by Roger Ross Williams and Marian Anderson: The Whole World In Her Hands directed by Rita Coburn for PBS’ American Masters series.
Brenda is a member of The Recording Academy and the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).
Dr. Ange-Marie Hancock AlfaroAnge-Marie Hancock Alfaro is Dean’s Professor of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Southern California and a globally recognized scholar of intersectionality theory, the world’s leading analytical framework for analyzing and resolving inequality. She has written numerous articles and three books on the intersections of categories of difference like race, gender, class, sexuality and citizenship and their impact on policy: the award-winning The Politics of Disgust and the Public Identity of the “Welfare Queen,” (2004), Solidarity Politics for Millennials: A Guide to Ending the Oppression Olympics (2011) and Intersectionality: An Intellectual History (2016). She is hard at work on her fourth book, African American Political Thought: Contestation and Change, a “scope and vision” book that covers more than 250 years of African American political thought.
In 1993, under the mentorship of NBA Hall of Famer Tom “Satch” Sanders, Hancock Alfaro conducted the original survey research and designed the business model for the Women’s National Basketball Association. The only women’s professional basketball league to succeed in the United States, the WNBA began its 21st season in May 2017. Her recent collaborative work includes service on the Board of the Liberty Hill Foundation and work with both Hispanas Organized for Political Empowerment (HOPE) and the Los Angeles African American Women’s Public Policy Institute (LAAAWPPI).
The applied forms of her research focus racial and gender equity at the local and regional levels; she currently directs the USC Dornsife Center for Leadership by Women of Color, and USC-IIST, the USC Institute for Intersectionality & Social Transformation. Her current work includes new research projects on asylum requests by survivors of domestic violence, empirical applications of intersectionality, and The Kamala Harris Project, a collective of scholars dedicated to tracking all aspects of the first woman of color vice president in U.S. history.
Nancy Hogshead-MakarNancy Hogshead-Makar is an Olympic champion, a civil rights lawyer, and the founder and CEO of Champion Women, a non-profit providing legal advocacy for girls and women in sports. Focus areas include equal play, such as traditional Title IX compliance in athletic departments, sexual harassment, abuse and assault, as well as employment, pregnancy and LGBTQ+ discrimination within sport.
As an internationally recognized legal expert on sports issues, Hogshead-Makar has testified in Congress numerous times on the topic of gender equity in athletics and written numerous scholarly and lay articles. Her book, co-authored with Andrew Zimbalist, Equal Pay, Title IX and Social Change, has received acclaim since its release by Temple University Press. She was the lead author of Pregnant and Parenting Student-Athletes: Resources and Model Policies, published by the NCAA. She serves as an expert witness in Title IX athletics, sexual abuse, violence and harassment cases and writes amicus briefs representing athletic organizations in precedent-setting litigation. Hogshead-Makar has a passion for teaching; she has been teaching Sports Law and Administration for 20 years, most recently at Rutgers’ Global Sports Business Graduate Program.
She is a frequent keynote speaker, and regularly contributes to shaping policy for girls and women. She has led a twelve-year effort to protect athletes from sexual abuse in club and Olympic sports, that is, sport not associated with schools. She is co-Chair of the Committee to Restore Integrity to the USOPC, or “Team Integrity” where she galvanized the sport, child protection, and civil rights communities in support of a new federal law, the Protecting Young Victims from Sexual Abuse and SafeSport Authorization Act, signed into law in February 2018, and the Empowering Olympians, Paralympians and Amateur Athletes Act of 2020. Hogshead-Makar has been appointed to a Congressional Commission on the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee by Senator Maria Cantwell. The Commission will examine the Olympic Movement and recommend changes to Congress.
She is a founding member of the Women’s Sports Policy Working Group; seeking to affirm the legal permissibility for separate-sex competitive sports. She has served on the NCAA Task Force on Gender Equity, and on the boards of Equality League, the Association of Title IX Administrators, the Aspen Institute’s Sport and Society, the One Love Foundation, and on the Executive Committee of the World Olympians Association. From 2003 – 2012 she was the Co-Chair of American Bar Association Committee on the Rights of Women. She was elected to the editorial board of the Journal ofIntercollegiate Sport. Sports Illustrated Magazine listed her as one of the most influential people in the history of Title IX, and on their list of “the most powerful, most influential and most outstanding women in sports right now—the game-changers who are speaking out, setting the bar and making a difference.”
Hogshead-Makar has received significant awards recognizing her commitment to girls and women in athletics, from the International Olympic Committee, the National Organization for Women, the Drake Group, Women Leaders in College Sports, WeCOACH, and SHAPE America. She has received the Play the Game Award, the Babe Didrikson Zaharias Award and the Kate Stoneman Award for her service to women in the legal profession. She has been inducted into the Academic All-America Hall of Fame, the International Scholar-Athlete, the National Consortium for Academics and Sports, and the National Association for Sports and Physical Education Halls of Fame, and she has received an honorary doctorate from Springfield College.
Hogshead-Makar capped eight years as a world class swimmer at the 1984 Olympics, where she won three gold medals and one silver medal. Through high school and college dual meets she was undefeated. Major awards include the Nathan Mallison Award, given to Florida’s outstanding athlete, and the prestigious Kiphuth Award, given to America’s best all-around swimmer nationally. Sports Illustrated ranked her as Florida’s 13th greatest athlete of the 20th Century, Florida’s 3rd greatest woman athlete. Hogshead-Makar has been inducted into eleven sports halls of fame, including the International Swimming Hall of Fame and the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame.
Holly J. MitchellSupervisor Holly J. Mitchell currently serves as Chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. As the daughter of parents who were public servants and a third-generation Angeleno, Mitchell leads with a deep understanding of the vital safety net LA County provides to millions of families and is committed to ensuring that all residents can thrive.
Supervisor Mitchell is honored to represent the two million residents of Los Angeles County’s Second District – including the neighborhood she grew up in – Leimert Park, along with the cities of Carson, Compton, Culver City, El Segundo, Gardena, Hawthorne, Hermosa Beach, Inglewood, Lawndale, Los Angeles (portions), Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, and a dozen unincorporated communities.
Since being elected to the Board of Supervisors on November 3rd, 2020, Supervisor Mitchell has made poverty alleviation a countywide priority and has anchored an equitable recovery plan from the health and economic pandemic caused by COVID-19.
Within her first year as Supervisor, with support of the Board of Supervisors, Mitchell passed a landmark countywide guaranteed universal income program, made LA County the first in the nation to phase out urban oil drilling and has strengthened the County’s ability to quickly respond to mental health crises among our unhoused residents.
Before serving on the first all women-led Board of Supervisors in the history of LA County, Mitchell served for a decade in the California Legislature as a representative for the 54th Assembly District and 30th Senate District, both in Los Angeles County. During her tenure she passed over 90 bills – including the landmark anti-hair discrimination law The CROWN Act, making California the first in the nation to pass this law ending hair discrimination.
Supervisor Mitchell became the first African American to serve as Chair of the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee. Under her guidance, she helped the State of California successfully build its financial reserves with the passage of three consecutive state budgets–each totaling over $200 billion.
Early in her career, Supervisor Mitchell had transformative leadership opportunities serving as a CORO Foundation Fellow, a legislative advocate for Californians experiencing poverty at the Western Center on Law and Poverty, and working for pioneering legislative leaders like the Honorable Diane Watson.
Before running for public office, Supervisor Mitchell led Crystal Stairs for seven years, California’s largest nonprofit dedicated to child and family development. As CEO, she fought for low-income families across Los Angeles County to gain access to childcare and poverty prevention resources.
As a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, Mitchell also serves on the boards of Los Angeles County Children and Families First (First 5 LA), Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission, L.A. Care Health Plan, and Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts.
Supervisor Mitchell was awarded an honorary Doctorate Degree of Humane Letters from Charles Drew University and is a proud UC Riverside Highlander.
When she isn’t working alongside the over 100,000 people–committed to serving the residents of Los Angeles County, she loves a good cup of tea, watching ocean waves and being mom to Ryan.
Jennifer Siebel NewsomJennifer Siebel Newsom is the First Partner of California, an award-winning filmmaker, and an influential advocate and thought leader on gender equality. As First Partner, Jennifer is a voice and partner to working moms and families throughout the state — committed to creating a California for ALL Women and California for ALL Kids.
In 2019, Jennifer launched #EqualPayCA, a statewide initiative to turn the strongest equal pay laws in the nation into the smallest pay gap in the nation. Committed to supporting whole child development, she joined the California Department of Education and State Board of Education in 2020 to launch “Advance SEL California,” a campaign to support children’s social emotional learning. In partnership with the California Department of Food and Agriculture, Jennifer successfully led efforts to expand access to local farm fresh meals in schools by launching California’s first-ever farm to school grant program. Jennifer shepherded the creation of two historic programs, the California State Park Adventure Pass and the California State Library Parks Pass, to increase equitable access to California’s vast state parks system for young people and their families.
Jennifer serves as honorary chair of the California Volunteers Commission, co-chair of the Governor’s Advisory Council on Physical Fitness and Mental Well-Being, and co-chair of the California Farm to School Working Group. Jennifer was also a member of the bi-partisan national Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commission. Building on her work as First Partner, Jennifer co-founded the California Partner’s Project (CPP), a nonprofit dedicated to promoting gender equality and child wellbeing. CPP has produced several influential reports analyzing the impact of California’s landmark legislation requiring women’s representation on public company boards. Their 2020 report, Are the Kids Alright, detailed California teens’ mental health experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, Jennifer and CPP engaged in a listening tour with parents across California to better-understand how they and their adolescents are navigating social media and gaming. These conversations were the foundation for a collection of toolkits and best practices to help support parents with responsive recommendations.
A California native, Jennifer graduated with honors from Stanford University, where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in Latin American Studies and a Minor in Human Biology. Soon after graduating, she traveled the world with Conservation International (CI) helping women in Africa and Latin America start their own environmentally sustainable enterprises. It was through her work with CI board member and spokesperson Harrison Ford that she realized the power of media to effect change. After returning to Stanford for her Masters in Business Administration, Jennifer moved to Hollywood to pursue a career in the entertainment industry. Recognizing that mainstream media and culture contribute to the under-representation of women in positions of power and influence, she started her own production company to center women’s stories.
Jennifer then wrote, directed, and produced the critically-acclaimed documentaries Miss Representation, The Mask You Live In, and The Great American Lie. Jennifer also executive produced the Emmy Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated documentary The Invisible War, the Emmy Award-winning documentary The Hunting Ground, and the acclaimed documentary On the Record. Following the success of her first film, Miss Representation, Jennifer founded The Representation Project, a nonprofit that challenges limiting gender stereotypes and norms by shedding light on the role they play in all forms of oppression. The Rep Project is known for its social activism campaigns #NotBuyingIt, #AskHerMore, and #RepresentHer which have reached over 800 million people. Her latest film, Fair Play, takes a deep look at domestic inequity, making visible the invisible care work historically held by women. Her films and social activism campaigns always aim to inspire a more balanced and equitable future.
Jennifer is married to California Governor Gavin Newsom and the mother of their four young children.
Kamilah WillinghamKamilah Willingham is a feminist writer, speaker, activist, and consultant dedicated to gender equality and civil rights. She was featured in the 2015 campus sexual assault documentary “The Hunting Ground” in which she told her story of surviving sexual assault while studying at Harvard Law School. Kamilah now speaks regularly at campuses, organizations, and conferences throughout the United States.
Kamilah’s writing has been featured in The Huffington Post, The Harvard Law Record, and the book We Believe You: Survivors of Campus Sexual Assault Speak Out. She most recently worked as a Program and Outreach Director at the California Women’s Law Center and previously worked for Just Detention International (JDI), a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending sexual abuse in prisons and jails. Kamilah is a graduate of Harvard Law School and received her B.A. in English Literature from Pomona College.