Celebrating Women’s History Month

As Women’s History Month comes to a close, the French-American Foundation would like to take a moment to shine the spotlight on some of our Young Leader alumnae and their accomplishments.

Carol Bellamy, Young Leader 1981

• 3-term member of the New York State Senate
• Former Executive Director of UNICEF and the Peace Corps
• First woman elected to any city-wide office in New York City

Hillary Clinton, Young Leader 1983

• 67th United States Secretary of State
• Former U.S. Senator from New York
• First woman in American history to receive the presidential nomination of a major political party

Gwen Ifill (in memoriam, 1955-2016), Young Leader 1996

• First Black woman to host a televised national political talk show
• Pioneering journalist in American media
• Co-moderated the 2016 Presidential Debate between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders

Kori Schake, Young Leader 2001

• Former U.S. State Department Deputy Director for Policy Planning
• Director of Foreign and Defense Policy at the American Enterprise Institute
• Senior Policy Adviser to McCain-Palin 2008 Presidential Campaign

Gina Bianchini, Young Leader 2006

• Co-Founder of Ning, a top 100 global website
• CEO and Founder of Mighty Networks
• Named in Fortune Magazine’s 40 Under 40 and Huffington Post’s 10 Technology Ultimate Game Changers

Kalyanee Mam, Young Leader 2011

• 2013 Winner of Sundance Film Festival’s Grand Jury Award for World Cinema Documentary
• Independent Documentary Filmmaker
• Cinematographer and associate producer for Oscar-winning documentary Inside Job

Joanne N. Smith, Young Leader 2012

• Founder, President, and CEO of Girls for Gender Equity, a nonprofit that uplifts women and girls through an intersectional approach to gender discrimination
• Co-founded the Black Girl Freedom Fund alongside several others, including #MeToo movement founder Tarana Burke

Marcia Chatelain, Young Leader 2015

• 2021 winner of the Pulitzer Prize in History and first Black woman to win the James Beard Award for Writing
• Professor of Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania
• Creator of the Ferguson syllabus social media campaign

Joy Bonaguro, Young Leader 2018

• Independent consultant and Board Member, National Conference on Citizenship and Water Solutions Network
• Former Chief Data Officer of California
• First Chief Data Officer of San Francisco