• Marleine Bastien
• Donna Brazile
• Laura Liswood
• Lily Mariye
• Minna Schrag

Marleine Bastien

Marleine Bastien is the founder and president of Fanm Ayisyen Nan Miyami (FANM), a non-profit organization concerned with the adjustment and socio-economic status of Haitian women in South Florida. FANM organizes on issues of immigration, unemployment, health education, social and political empowerment, and cultural diversity.  Bastien has testified on behalf of workers' rights to organize for better working conditions, salaries, health insurance and retirement benefits. In 1998 FANM implemented the "Haitian Women's Breast Cancer Education Program."  Bastien played a key role in publicizing the plight of hundreds of unaccompanied Haitian children being held at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo, and aided in resettlement efforts.   Bastien currently works as a clinical social worker counseling families and children with sickle cell anemia at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami. She has also counseled families on domestic violence and AIDS. As a member of Sosyete Koukouy, a well known cultural and literary group in Miami, she plans presentations on Haitian culture for the community.  Bastien has received numerous awards and recognition for her dedication and service to the betterment of the Haitian community.

Donna Brazile

Donna Brazile joined Al Gore's presidential campaign in October 1999. She has a reputation as a tenacious political organizer and is the first African American woman to head a major contender's presidential campaign. Brazile is a veteran of a number of Democratic presidential campaigns and former chief of staff and press secretary  to D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton. She is known as a talented field operative and grassroots organizer. Brazile is a native of New Orleans, Louisiana. Her father was a janitor and her mother a domestic worker, and according to Brazile she  grew up literally on the wrong side of the tracks. After graduating from Louisiana State University, Brazile took an offer from Coretta Scott King to help organize the 20th anniversary of the historic March on Washington. A year later, she joined Jesse Jackson's 1984 presidential campaign. She is an adjunct professor of political science at the University of Maryland-College Park. Brazile designed the Voter/Campaign Assessment Program for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee—a program that was considered crucial in boosting African American turnout in key congressional districts. She is a founder and the first executive director of the National Political Congress of Black Women.

Laura Liswood

Laura Liswood established and serves as director of the Council of Women World Leaders at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.  The Council is composed of women presidents, prime ministers, chiefs of state, and heads of government, establishing a network of resources for high-level women leaders and providing a forum for the group to shape important international issues.  Liswood, a nationally recognized speaker, author, and advisor, has contributed to leadership in the women's community for more than 20 years as a member of the International Women's Forum, Leadership America, and the Washington Women's Political Caucus. She was the owner/publisher of Seattle Woman and is the founder of Mary's List, a bipartisan political donor network emphasizing women's leadership in the political arena. As director of the Women's Leadership Project, Liswood interviewed 15 current and former women presidents and prime ministers.  These are chronicled in her most recent book, Women World Leaders. Her experience includes executive-level consulting to Fortune 500 and international companies with the Liswood Marketing Group. She received the Westinghouse Award of Excellence for her contribution to all women and men of color in the work place.

Lily Mariye

Minna Schrag

Minna Schrag is the Chair of the Board of the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund. She became general counsel for the Fund's Board in 1993, president in 1997, and chair of the Board this year. Before becoming a partner at the Proskauer Rose law firm, Schrag spent six years as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, where she focused on white-collar crime.  In 1994 and 1995, Schrag served at the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia where she was the senior U.S. staff person for the chief prosecutor. Her articles on the Tribunal and on international law enforcement have been widely published and she often speaks on these topics both here and abroad. Since 1998 Schrag had been a member of the United States delegation negotiating for the establishment of an international criminal court that will prosecute the most serious crimes against humanity and other similar crimes. Her responsibilities on the delegation include vigorous efforts to ensure that crimes of violence against women in situations of armed conflict will be effectively prosecuted within the court's mandate. Minna Schrag is the proud mother of three accomplished children and the even prouder grandmother of two (already feminist) baby boys.

• National Conference 2000 Information