Contributor

Gloria Feldt

Cofounder and President, Take The Lead

Co-founder and President, Take The Lead | Keynote Speaker | Author | Leader | Teacher GLORIA FELDT specializes in achieving bold and audacious goals that advance women in society and at work. As cofounder and president of Take The Lead, she has created the most comprehensive initiative to prepare, develop, inspire, and propel women to take their fair and equal share of leadership positions across all sectors by 2025. As the bestselling author of No Excuses: 9 Ways Women Can Change How We Think About Power, Gloria is an acclaimed expert on women, power, and authentic leadership and an inspiring keynote speaker and trainer who has created the “ 9 Leadership Power Tools to Accelerate Your Career” to give women immediately actionable skills and a strategic plan to lead unlimited lives. People magazine calls her the “voice of experience.” Gloria’s expertise in women, power and leadership comes from a deep well of personal knowledge gained on the frontlines. Her journey from teen mom and high school dropout from rural Texas to president and CEO of the world’s largest reproductive health and advocacy organization, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, to visionary leader for women’s equality inspires both men and women. Among other honors, she was named by Vanity Fair one of “America’s Top 200 Women Leaders, Legends, and Trailblazers,” Glamour’s “Woman of the Year,” a She Knows Media Inspiring Woman, a Women’s eNews 21 Leaders for the 21st century, and received the Women’s Economic Forum Circle of Light award. Author of four books, including New York Times bestseller Send Yourself Roses written with Kathleen Turner, she teaches “Women, Power, and Leadership” at Arizona State University. She has written chapters for numerous books, including Leading Women: 20 Influential Women Share Their Secrets to leadership Business, and Life. Both a newsmaker and a commentator, Gloria has been widely quoted and published, including the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Politico, Salon, The Daily Beast, Forbes.com, Fast Company, Time.com, Huffington Post, Glamour, Elle and Ms. She has appeared extensively on CNN, MSNBC, the Today Show, Good Morning America and The Daily Show. With a history of volunteer board commitments, she recently served on the board of the Women’s Media Center, the Jewish Women’s Archive, and Emerge America and remains on their honorary boards. She currently serves on the board of Women Connect 4 Good. She is a member of the New York Women’s Forum, the International Women’s Forum, and the World Academy of Art and Science and is an advisor to the ERA Coalition, The Turning Point Suffragist Memorial, BuyUP Index, Our Bodies Ourselves, and P.A.K.E.M.A, a youth mentoring program based in Kenya and started by one of the first women to take her 9 Power Tools course. She and her husband Alex Barbanell live in New York and Arizona; they share a combined family of six children and 15 grandchildren. For speaking engagements, media inquiries, or to book Gloria or Take The Lead for leadership training for your company, contact gloriafeldt@taketheleadwomen.com