A Conversation on Ending Violence Against Women Speaker Bios

The International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) on June 13 will host "When She is Safe ... A Conversation on Ending Violence Against Women," the second of its four-part Passports to Progress discussion series. A panel of experts will address the challenges to and opportunities for ending violence against women in the coming years as well as how this pressing issue influences global development efforts.

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The following speakers will participate:  

Abigail Disney

Abigail Disney   is a filmmaker, philanthropist and scholar. Her longtime passion for women’s issues and peace-building culminated in her first film, the feature documentary “Pray the Devil Back to Hell,” about the women of Liberia who brought peace to their broken nation after decades of destructive civil war. The film garnered Best Documentary at its premiere at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival, and has won nearly 20 awards and honors, screened in all seven continents, and holds the distinction as the first film to be shown at The World Economic Forum at Davos.  

In 2008, following the groundswell of interest in “Pray the Devil Back to Hell,” Disney launched Peace is Loud, an organization that supports female voices and international peace-building through nonviolent means. 

Her current project, the groundbreaking mini-series “Women, War & Peace,” documents the unreported role of women in the peace process in Colombia, Bosnia, Afghanistan and Liberia. The five-part television series was co-produced by WNET and Fork Films and will premiere on PBS at 10 p.m. (EST) Oct. 11, 2011, and air for five consecutive Tuesdays.

Along with her husband, Pierre Hauser, Disney co-founded the Daphne Foundation in 1991, which funds programs within the five boroughs of New York City that confront the causes and consequences of poverty. She founded her NY-based production company Fork Films in 2007 to produce “Pray the Devil Back to Hell.”  

Disney is the granddaughter of Roy Disney and grandniece of Walt Disney, co-founders of the Walt Disney Company. She holds a bachelor's degree from Yale University, a master's from Stanford University and a doctorate from Columbia University. She has been honored numerous times for her contributions towards social issues, including the Epic Award from the White House Project and the Changing the Landscape for Women Award from the Center for the Advancement of Women.

Mary Ellsberg

Mary Ellsberg is the vice president of research and programs at the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW). As vice president, she oversees ICRW’s work in economic development, gender, violence and rights, HIV and HIV-related stigma and discrimination.

Ellsberg has more than 25 years of experience in international research and program work on gender inequity, domestic violence and sexual and reproductive health. Prior to joining ICRW in 2008, she served as a senior advisor at PATH for gender, violence and human rights, and as the director of PATH's Nicaragua office. While there, she coordinated InterCambios, an inter-American network of organizations that addresses gender-based violence from a public health perspective. Ellsberg also is a member of the core research team of the World Health Organization's (WHO) Multi-country Study on Domestic Violence and Women's Health. She has authored more than 20 books and articles in peer-reviewed journals on the prevalence and impact of gender-based violence on the health of women and children as well as ethical and methodological aspects of violence research.

Ellsberg holds a doctorate in epidemiology and public health from Umeå University in Sweden and a bachelor's degree in Latin American studies from Yale University.

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon is a New York Times best-selling author and the deputy director of the Council on Foreign Relations’ Women and Foreign Policy program. Prior to joining the Council, Lemmon covered public policy and emerging markets for the global investment firm PIMCO, after working for nearly a decade as a journalist with the ABC News Political Unit and “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.”

Lemmon has reported on entrepreneurs in conflict and post-conflict regions for the Financial Times, New York Times, International Herald Tribune, the Daily Beast and Christian Science Monitor, along with Ms. Magazine, Bloomberg, Politico and the HuffingtonPost. She has appeared on NBC News, National Public Radio and on cable outlets including MSNBC, and has published papers on women and business for the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation, Harvard Business School and the Center for International Private Enterprise.

Lemmon earned a bachelor's degree in journalism summa cum laude from the University of Missouri School of Journalism and an master's in business administration from Harvard Business School, where she received the 2006 Dean’s Award for her work on women’s entrepreneurship. Lemmon speaks Spanish, German and French and is conversant in Dari. A former Fulbright scholar and Robert Bosch Foundation fellow, she serves on the board of the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW).

Donald Steinberg

Donald Steinberg is the deputy administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). He previously served as deputy president for policy at the International Crisis Group (lCG).

During three decades with the U.S. diplomatic service, Steinberg served as ambassador to Angola, director of the State Department's Joint Policy Council, special representative of the president for humanitarian demining, special Haiti coordinator, deputy White House press secretary and the National Security Council's senior director for Africa.

Other diplomatic postings include South Africa, Mauritius, Malaysia, Brazil and Central African Republic. Steinberg's awards include the Presidential Meritorious Honor Award and the Frasure Award for International Peace.

Steinberg holds master's degrees in journalism from Columbia University and political economy from the University of Toronto, and a bachelor's degree from Reed College.