The Women's Conference

I was privileged to be able to attend Night at The Village at The Women's Conference in Long Beach in October.  I attended many great events and met wonderful people including

• First Lady Maria Shriver  spoke about her project called "A Woman’s Nation" which will take a new, empirical look at the status of American women, who, for the first time, will make up half of the nation's workforce. 
• Jane Fonda, Actor, Author, Fitness Advocate, Activist
• Giada De Laurentiis, Celebrity Chef, #1 New York Times Best-Selling Cookbook Author who spoke about how she broke from family tradition to follow her passion.
• Jessica Simpson, Singer, Actress, Entrepreneur spoke about her VH-1 docu-series,“Jessica Simpson’s: The Price of Beauty.”  Jessica traveled to Japan, Thailand, France, Brazil, Uganda, Morocco, and India then back home to Los Angeles to meet every day women and pop culture icons and reveal what is beautiful in the differing cultures.

I also learned about many new organizations including

• CARE is a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty, improve basic education, prevent the spread of HIV, increase access to clean water and sanitation, expand economic opportunity, protect natural resources and deliver emergency aid.  CARE places special focus on women because, equipped with the proper resources, women have the power to help whole families and entire communities escape poverty.
• Six Billion Paths to Peace represents the idea that it is possible to inspire new reverberations of peace if we each step up and investigate our daily actions and make a commitment to offer our unique contributions to the world.
• First 5 LA strengthening families and communities in L.A. count through public policy change.
• Ndebele Art Project celebrates the magnificent artisans of Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe and addresses the urgent need to fight AIDs and malaria.
• We Include employs Californians with developmental disabilities.