Lindy West
Keynote Speaker
Friday, November 3 | 10:00AM
Lindy West is a columnist at The Guardian, a contributor to This American Life, and a freelance writer whose work focuses on feminism, social justice, humor, and body image. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Cosmopolitan, GQ, Vulture, Jezebel, The Stranger, and others. She is the founder of I Believe You, It’s Not Your Fault, an advice blog for teens, as well as the reproductive rights destigmatization campaign #ShoutYourAbortion. Her first book, a memoir called Shrill, is out now from Hachette Books.
John Chiang
Membership Meeting Closing Speaker
Saturday, November 4 | 4:00PM
John Chiang was elected on Nov. 4, 2014, as California’s 33rd State Treasurer. As the state’s banker, he oversees trillions of dollars in annual transactions, manages a $75 billion investment portfolio, and is the nation’s largest issuer of municipal bonds.
In addition, he chairs financing authorities that help provide good-paying jobs, better schools, improved transportation, quality health care, more affordable housing and a cleaner environment. He handles those duties while sitting on the governing boards of the nation’s two largest public pension funds with combined assets exceeding $496 billion. (more…)
Paula Poundstone
Awards Gala Speaker
Friday, November 3 | 7:00PM
Heralded as one of our country’s foremost comics, Paula Poundstone’s quick-thinking, unscripted approach to
comedy makes for a perfect fit as a regular panelist on NPR’s #1 show, the screwball weekly news quiz show
WAIT WAIT…DON’T TELL ME! where she holds the record for game losses. “The others cheat,” she says
magnanimously, “you wouldn’t think NPR would put up with that.” (more…)
Sofia Pereira
Saturday, November 4 | 9:00AM
As the Community Manager, Sofia Pereira brings her years of political organizing experience to the She Should Run Incubator community, which supports thousands of women considering a run for elected office. Prior to joining She Should Run, Sofia served several years as legislative staff at the county and state level and worked on campaigns from the local to congressional level in her home state of California. Sofia is a 2014 graduate of the Women’s Campaign School at Yale, after which she ran successfully for the Arcata City Council, where she currently serves as Vice Mayor. Sofia holds a bachelor’s degree in Communication, and she is currently studying women in politics as a graduate student at Humboldt State University.