Women's Voices For Change

Andrea Acker

Andrea Acker lives on Long Island and New York City with her husband David. She is a member of the Executive Board of Women’s Voices for Change. Andrea actively supports Young Women’s Leadership Network, Covenant House, Northside Child Development Center, Gimme Shelter Animal Rescue and AWSM—Advancing Women in Science and Medicine/Northwell Health. Her passions include the arts, physical fitness, and spending time with her grandchildren. Andrea graduated with a BFA from Syracuse University. 

 

Patricia Yarberry Allen, M.D.

Patricia Yarberry Allen, M.D., is a gynecologist, director of the New York Menopause Center, a Clinical Assistant Professor of  Obstetrics and Gynecology at  Weill Cornell Medical College, and an Assistant Attending Obstetrician and Gynecologist at New York-Presbyterian Hospital (1985-present). She is a board certified fellow of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Dr. Allen is also a member of the Faculty Advisory Board and the Women’s Health Director of The Weill Cornell Community Clinic (WCCC), a student-led initiative aimed at providing high-quality and equitable health care to uninsured individuals in New York City. She is a member of the North American Menopause Society. Dr. Allen was the recipient of the 2014 American Medical Women’s Association Presidential Award.

The president and a founding member of the board of Women’s Voices for Change, Dr. Allen is a spokeswoman on women’s health. She was the inaugural speaker for the Iris Cantor Lecture Series on Women’s Health at the American Hospital in Paris, and has been interviewed by The New York Times, USA Today, regional newspapers and major television news programs on women’s health issues. Dr. Allen joined the board of the University of Louisville Kentucky Author Forum, a non-profit, literary event dedicated to showcasing renowned authors and interviewers in Louisville community, conversations then nationally distributed on PBS under the title “Great Conversations.”

 

Faith Childs, Emerita

Faith Childs is a literary agent who represents writers of literary fiction and serious nonfiction, many of whom have won major literary and journalism awards. For more than two decades, she has headed her own agency in New York. Her representation includes these latest books: “Them,” by Nathan McCall; “Of Blood and Sorrow,” by Valerie Wilson Wesley; and “That Mean Old Yesterday,” by Stacey Patton. A lifelong reader and lover of literature in all its forms, she became an agent in order to make literature and the written word central to both her personal and professional lives. In the decade before becoming an agent, Ms. Childs was an attorney.

Ms. Childs is active in publishing education programs, particularly those designed to increase the representation of people of color in the publishing industry. She lectures frequently at university publishing programs, writers conferences, and graduate creative writing programs on the centrality of literature to our culture, the publishing industry, and the relationship between the writer and literary agent.

A founding member of Women’s Voices for Change, she has served on the boards of The New Press, the only non-profit press in the public interest, the Advisory Board of the New School University’s Creative Writing Program, and the PEN Open Book Committee.

 

Jacqueline Corbelli

Jacqueline is CEO, Co-Founder, and Chairman of BrightLine Partners LLC, the leading provider of rich media advertising on TV, enabling the world’s top brands and advertisers to connect with over 230 million viewers on the screen they watch most: television. BrightLine has received an Emmy and multiple Marketing and Media Excellence awards for their groundbreaking work in the advertising technology space, and Jacqueline is the author of the recently published “REVEALED: Thoughts on the Connected Television Ad Revolution.” Prior to co-founding BrightLine in 2003, Jacqueline was president of Aston Associates, where she directed the company–wide business redesign of ten major corporations worldwide.

Jacqueline sits on numerous boards, including the Atlantic Theater Company, the International Radio and Television Society, and the NBCU Women’s Advisory Board. She is also a highly committed supporter of the integrated economic development work that is the signature of Jeffrey Sachs’ effort as special advisor to the UN to end extreme poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals, through the Millennium Promise Alliance. Jacqueline is the organization’s Chairman.

 

Sherry Donovan

Sherry Donovan, a member of the Executive Board of Women’s Voices for Change, is co-owner of At Peace Media LLC, a leading provider of internet music services to the spa and massage industries.  She manages and directs music A&R including new artist development. Previously, Sherry worked in the financial services industry, where she was involved in municipal bond trading and sales.  A mother of adult children, she resides in New York City with her husband.  She received a BA from Wellesley College.

 

 

Melisa Goldie

Melisa Goldie is the Chief Marketing Officer of Calvin Klein, Inc., overseeing all global consumer-facing marketing initiatives for the iconic $8B lifestyle brand.

Ms. Goldie is responsible for consumer engagement, media planning and buying, public relations and social media across Calvin Klein, Inc.’s owned and licensed businesses. She also leads the company’s in-house ad agency and creative studio. 

Hired by the company’s founder in 2001, Ms. Goldie has risen through the organization, first as a key member of Mr. Klein’s team, before ultimately assuming his role as the brand’s creative marketing leader. She began as Vice President of Broadcast & Print Production for CRK Advertising, and in 2009, was named as the company’s Executive Vice President & Chief Creative Officer. Ms. Goldie was appointed to the role of Chief Marketing Officer, a newly created position at the organization, in October 2014. 

Under Ms. Goldie’s guidance, the brand has moved dramatically and memorably into the digital age with the creation of #mycalvins, the critically acclaimed interactive social media campaign that establishes real-time connections with core consumers and has created thousands of brand evangelists. In 2015, she led the decision to feature Justin Bieber in the global multi-media advertising campaign for Calvin Klein Jeans and Calvin Klein Underwear, which has already lifted consumer engagement with the brand to historic levels.   

Ms. Goldie graduated with honors from Pratt Institute with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Photography. She resides in Brooklyn, New York with her family.

 

Sharmila Makhija, M.D., FACOG, MBA, an international expert on gynecologic cancer, currently serves as Department Chair of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Women’s Health, Professor of Gynecologic Oncology, and the The Chella and Moise Safra Endowed Chair at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center.

Dr. Makhija is presently on the editorial board for the Journal of Oncology Practice and has served on the editorial boards for the Women’s Oncology Review Journal and International Journal of Gynecological Cancer. She is a reviewer for the journals Gynecologic Oncology, International Journal of Gynecological Cancer, and Clinical Cancer Research.

Dr. Makhija is a graduate of Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM), serves on their advisory board and was an elected representative for AAMC CFAS (American Association of Medical Colleges, Council of Faculty and Academic Societies) while at the University of Louisville. She has served as a board of director member of numerous local, state and national organizations including the University of Louisville Medical Center, KMRRRG malpractice, KY Medicaid (Passport). She currently serves on the Foundation for Women’s Cancers and the Indo-American Cancer Association. Dr. Makhija has been listed as a “Top Doctor in America” since 2008.

 

Lisa McCarthy

Lisa McCarthy is currently President of Bernard Maisner Studio, a fine stationery and gift line, which operates in Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus, and GUMPS. Ms. McCarthy is responsible for strategic brand development, brand recognition, and sales.

Lisa is also a passionate animal welfare advocate. She works tirelessly on behalf of Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons, currently serving as their president.  A private pilot, Lisa promotes, plans, and performs the transportation of animals from overcrowded homes to new, qualified families. She and her husband Brian McCarthy, also a private pilot, reside in Manhattan and in Bridgehampton.

Her passion for animal welfare is boundless. There really isn’t anything she wouldn’t do to help one of her four legged friends, including flying back and forth from a high kill shelter in South Carolina to East Hampton to find safe homes in the same day.

 

Anetta Reszko, M.D., Ph.D

Dr. Reszko is a dermatologist and dermatologic surgeon; director of New York Skin Institute and a Clinical Assistant Professor of Dermatology at Weill Cornell Medical College; and an Assistant Attending Dermatology at New York Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Reszko is a board certified dermatologist and a fellow of American Academy of Dermatology, American College of Mohs Surgery, and American Society for Dermatologic Surgery. She has published over 20 scientific research articles, reviews and book chapters. Her clinical practice in Manhattan is focused on early skin cancer detection and treatment, laser surgery.

 

Deborah A. Robinson

Deborah Robinson was national fashion coordinator for Sarah Coventry, the largest jewelry company in the world in the 1980s, and continued her work in the fashion industry as a spokesperson for many upscale companies such as Corning Glass and Omega Watch Corporation.  In the early 1990s she became the spokesperson for Petite Sophisticate’s, a chain of 350 stores nationwide.  Robinson was responsible for all new store openings, television appearances and fashion events.  Robinson continued her career becoming a nationally recognized lifestyle/consumer trend expert, appearing regularly on top television markets in the country including Lifetime, CNBC, and other syndicated talk shows.  She has also been published in poetry and prose nationally and written for numerous fashion publications.

Robinson is deeply passionate for the welfare of all animals working tirelessly for their protection. She is currently on the Board of Tri-County Animal Rescue. She is also on the leadership Committee of the Humane Society of the United States Fund Drive in Palm Beach, Fl., and the ASPCA.  She works hands on with the larger dogs in the shelter for walks and companionship.  Robinson also is involved with many other charities including: CO-Founder of the Deborah and Edward Robinson Foundation, The Palm Beach Police Foundation, Children’s Home Society of Florida, Save the Tigers, Hospice Foundation of Palm Beach County, Daniel E. Ponton Fund for the Neurosciences at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Susan G. Komen Leadership Committee, and The Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

 

Kathleen Rogers

Kathleen Rogers worked at Bankers Trust in the late 1980s and early 1990s, first as a trader and market-maker in U.S. Treasury notes and bonds, and later as a proprietary trader of bonds, equities and currencies. In the 1990s, she shifted gears toward journalism, putting her financial background to work at CNBC and Time Warner Television.  While raising her two daughters, now 7 and 12, she finds some time to write about finance and parenting.

Kathleen grew up in Northern California and attended Stanford University, graduating with a B.S. and M.S. in Industrial Engineering and Management. She holds an M.S. from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.

 

Mary Kelly Selover, Executive Director

Mary Kelly Selover has been a writer and editor for national consumer publications for more than 20 years. While in her late twenties, she started a magazine aimed at the 50-plus demographic which grew within three years to more than 1 million subscribers. Mary Kelly has also served as a spokesperson throughout the U.S. for a Fortune 100 company and has consulted on numerous marketing and public relations efforts.

 

Catherine Wood

Catherine Wood works in New York City for AllianceBernstein where she is a senior vice president and portfolio manager as well as chief investment officer of Strategic Research, a division of AllianceBernstein. She lives in Wilton, Conn., with her three children.