After last year’s sold-out success, we’re back for our second annual celebration of Women’s History Month—reflecting on how far we’ve come and the challenges still ahead.
Program:
6:30: Welcome
6:40: Performance
6:50 : Panel
7:45: Network Session
In Her Hands: Women Driving Change
Join us for an evening of inspiration, artistry, and advocacy featuring:
Panel Discussion: The panel will explore how leaders across government, academia, and philanthropy are advancing equity and driving institutional change through policy, research, and strategic investment.
Dance Performance: Remind Us
Networking Reception: Connect and mingle
Location: 145 Palisade St, L8, Dobbs Ferry, NY
Panelist
Mahri Stáinnak (they/them) dedicated over 16 years of federal service to advancing human health, environmental justice, and workforce equity. They started their federal career as a Presidential Management Fellow at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and most recently served at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management as Director of the Talent Innovation Group and Deputy Director of the government-wide Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility. Mahri led critical updates to the government-wide Gender Identity Inclusion Guidance, creating a baseline of inclusive workplace practices and supporting compliance with employment nondiscrimination law for 2 million federal employees. Their work advanced health equity, financial security, and talent recruitment and retention efforts by successfully enhancing gender-affirming care and fertility benefits for 8 million individuals covered by the Federal Employee Health Benefits program. At the EPA, Mahri established the first policy to address climate change in Clean Water Act enforcement and launched an Employee Well-Being Initiative, which provided neuroscience-based training focused on stress reduction for over 100 leaders and staff at the start of the pandemic. They also designed and implemented a novel workforce demographic data collection to enable proactive assessments of equal employment opportunity at an agency of 14,000 employees.
Panelist
Jennifer Klein is the Bradford Durfee Professor of History at Yale University. Her work focuses on U.S. labor politics, social policy, and political economy in 20th century United States. Her prize-winning books include For All These Rights: Business, Labor, and the Shaping of America’s Public-Private Welfare State (Princeton University Press) and Caring for America: Home Health Workers in the Shadow of the Welfare State (Oxford University Press), co-authored with Eileen Boris. In Klein’s current project on sugar plantations, petrochemicals, prisons, and the geography of waste in Louisiana, she has extended her view of the work site to prisons, riverbanks, and swamps, incorporating the labors of free and unfree work forces, from the 18th to the late 20th century. In addition to academic journals and collections, her articles have appeared in Dissent, the New York Times, American Prospect.org, Washington Post.com, The Nation.com, and New Labor Forum. She’s been a recipient of fellowships from the NEH, Russell Sage Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Brookings Institution, and Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Research Center.
Moderator
Morgan McEwen (she/her) is the founder and artistic director of MorDance, a pioneering ballet company that redefines the art form as a catalyst for social impact, civic engagement, and community building. A former professional ballerina with nearly two decades of experience, Morgan has performed on some of the nation’s most prestigious stages, including The Metropolitan Opera, BalletMet, and Richmond Ballet. As a choreographer, she is celebrated for her powerful storytelling and activism-driven work, with commissions from BalletX, Eglevsky Ballet, and Columbia Collaborative, among others. Since its founding in 2014, MorDance has been at the forefront of innovation in ballet, earning recognition from The New York Times and national arts institutions.
Beyond her work in choreography, Morgan is a public speaker, advocate, and thought leader in the arts, addressing audiences at ArtsWestchester, the Stericycle Women's Leadership Summit, and the Hudson River Museum. She champions the role of the arts in economic revitalization, education, and community well-being.
Recognized as one of Westchester County’s 40 Under 40 Rising Stars in Business, Morgan has been featured in Crain’s New York, American Theatre Magazine, Dance Enthusiast, and Dance Data Project. Her work has been showcased at renowned festivals, including Battery Dance Festival, Hudson Valley Dance Festival, and New Rochelle Dance Festival, with residencies at CUNY Dance Initiative, Kaatsbaan UpStream, and Vineyard Arts Project.